Imagine a year where Expedition 33 or Kingdom Come 2 fails to get a Game of the Year nomination at The Game Awards. That is more or less the level of absurdity we are dealing with in one of this year’s categories: Geoff Keighley’s show has ended up with an esports shortlist that overlooks the most dominant League of Legends roster in history and three consecutive world titles, while the club behind them is missing from the Best Organization vote as well.

It might sound exaggerated at first, but this is exactly what has happened with one of the categories at the upcoming edition of The Game Awards. During the presentation where all of this year’s nominees were made public, many viewers were left stunned as soon as it was time to talk about esports. The issue lies in the “Athlete of the Year” award, which somehow does not include a single player from what many consider the greatest League of Legends lineup ever, a team that has just won three World Championships in a row, including the one that wrapped up barely a week ago. To make things worse, their club did not appear among the nominees for Best Organization either.

An Esports Award The Game Awards Always Mess Up

Trying to justify the absence of Faker, Keria and the rest of T1 from this list is not easy. Even if we accepted that Worlds 2025 finished too late to be counted for this year’s show, they were still the champions the year before. On top of that, it makes little sense to hand out an esports award while ignoring the most important tournament of one of the two most watched competitive games on the planet. It would be like presenting the Ballon d’Or a couple of weeks after the Champions League final without taking those results into account, a set-up that simply does not add up.

The truth is that this is not the first time The Game Awards has completely missed the mark with its esports trophies. Back in 2023, Rémy Quoniam, widely regarded as one of the best Counter-Strike coaches of all time, was nominated for Coach of the Year at a point when he had spent roughly eight months without a team and was going through the worst spell of his career. He even asked to be removed from the list himself. “Let’s be serious for two minutes: I have not even been a coach this year,” he said. Another omission that can be read as a serious mistake was the total lack of nominations for any DRX players in 2022, despite the fact that they are often cited as the most surprising League of Legends world champions in the game’s history.

One thing I am absolutely convinced of is that this category does not really excite anyone. Fans who live and breathe esports already have their own, highly specialized awards that take a much deeper look at professional players and organizations, which automatically reduces the value of The Game Awards in this area. And people who are not interested in competitive scenes will not suddenly start caring because of a single trophy. On top of that, there is a basic flaw built into the idea itself. It is a little bit like trying to crown one single “athlete of the year” instead of separate winners for football, basketball or long-distance running, and pretending those careers are truly comparable.

Several categories have already disappeared from the show over the past few years, and I think that is a healthy development. The Game Awards should focus on being a celebration of video games, both through world-premiere announcements and through awards that actually matter to players. When the show tries to cover everything, then rushes through some trophies in under ten seconds, it does not enhance the event’s prestige, it just makes it feel hollow. A shorter, tighter, more focused ceremony would do far more for the reputation of The Game Awards than hanging on to an esports prize that neither fans nor casual viewers seem to care about.

Source: 3djuegos