The Game Awards 2023 took place on December 7 at the Peacock Theater. This is the biggest event for the recognition of the best games and gamers in different categories. This year, the best games and the athletes won the award in over 30 categories. For the second consecutive time, Valorant has won in the Best Esports Game category.
Valorant was first released in June 2020. The game gained huge popularity among gamers for its amazing gaming experience. the First Person PVP game soon became famous and one of the highest played games of the year. As the popularity of the game increased, many popular esports players switched to the game. Riot found the importance of hosting official tournaments for the huge success of the game.
After the first couple of months, Riot announced to start official esports tournament named the Ignition Series. In November 2020, Valorant announced their first Champions tour. the tour attracted thousands of players. The first tour was won by Team Acend. In 2020, the game was nominated in three categories, but couldn’t win any.
In the first two years, the Champions Tour took place in an open qualifying system. But from 2023, the format of the event changed, as the qualifying system changed into a partnership format. In 2022, the prize pool of the event was $1 Million. The huge prize pool and popularity of the game interested hundreds of big esports companies. They focused on building their team. In 2023, valorant has a partnership with 30 Esports teams for the champions tour.
There are many official valorant tournaments, that take place throughout the year. Events like the Champions Tour, International League, China League, and Masters are tier 1 leagues, while Riot is hosting tournaments like Challengers and Ascension, and Valornat Game Changers as Tier 2 leagues. Apart from these, many unofficial tournaments are taking place all around the year.
Valorant has beaten games like Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, League of Legends, and Pubg Mobile to win the award. Riot has been successful in establishing a good Esports ecosystem through this game. Christine “potter” Chi won the best esports coach in 2023, who currently coaches the valorant team Evil Geniuses.
Another successful game of Riot, the League of Legends has been able to beat valorant in one category, the Best Esports event. The 2023 League of Legends World Championship has won the award defeating events like the VCT 2023, EVO 2023, and many more. Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok won the award in the best Esports athlete category. he is a professional League of Legends player.
Apart from Esports, Baldur’s Gate 3 won the Best Game of 2023 award. The game has beaten games like Spider-Man 2, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, Alan Wake 2, etc. The Gate 3 has won awards in 5 different categories. Insomniac Games had a very high hope for the Spider-Man 2 this year. The game had many nominations but didn’t win any awards. The game Alan Wake 2 won in 3 categories.
This year’s Game Awards had many unexpected twists. Baldur’s huge success has shown the industry that a rich story-based multiplayer game can win many awards, without any high touch of VFX, while a high-budget ultra-realistic game like the Spider-Man 2 can be rejected in many categories. But, if we speak about the esports scenario, Riot has taken Valorant to a different level and will go a long way with it.
