Esports Awards held in Riyadh as Esports World Cup concludes

of eSports Awards Last night in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, eSports World Cup.

Samantha “Rivers” Rivera Trevino won Streamer of the Year, Personality of the Year went to Seth “Scamp” Abner, who also served as the night’s host, and the first Lifetime Achievement Award went to Jens Hilgers, founder of Bitkraft Ventures, Bayes, G2 Esports, and ESL.

I attended the Esports Awards at the end of the first day of the New Global Sports Conference (NGSC), a gathering of leaders from esports, gaming, business, sports and entertainment to explore the future of fandom. According to NGSC, the Riyadh event drew more than 1,400 people as the eight-week long Esports World Cup drew to a close.

The Esports Awards was lightly attended, but it was unclear exactly how big the crowd was. It started at 10pm and proceeded as planned, but there were some hiccups with the program not starting on time. As the clock ticked down towards midnight on Saturday, the crowd thinned out.

The esports awards were held in Riyadh amid concerns that they were part of an attempt at “sportswashing”, linking sporting events to the country’s human rights record and lack of acceptance for LGBTQ+ people.

This was balanced against the need for the games industry to find new sources of funding amid rampant layoffs across the industry. With violence escalating between Israel and Lebanon in the region, those who attended or sponsored the event made a reputational calculation that the benefits of attending outweighed the risks.

In an interview, I asked Mike Milanov, chairman of Qiddiya Gaming and former COO of Team Liquid, about the sportswashing issue.

“We will point out the positives. How much progress has been made in the last seven years since the Kingdom’s ruler changed and the Crown Prince became Prime Minister. [leader] Equivalent to 50 years [of change] “It’s the same in other parts of the world. That to me is a very positive thing. It’s very similar to the story in other parts of the world where governments can’t make quick decisions to build or fund something. The same thing happens with this kind of modernization effort.”

He added: “The best thing we can do to open things up is to bring people here. We’re at the New Global Sports Conference and we have 1,400 people there, executives, CEOs, CMOs, and even media like you. So the Kingdom really helps people form their own opinion. The Saudis do a good job of not mounting this expensive campaign about what you should think about the Kingdom. I think opinions form naturally. The best thing is not to lump all Arab countries together when it comes to opinions, but to come and see for yourself. That’s what I did, and shortly after that I started working in Qiddiya.”

Regarding the growth of esports, he said, “It’s still growing steadily. Two things are happening: the overall gaming population is growing, and the percentage of that population that watches competitive gaming is also growing. You’ll see periods of rapid growth for about three years, and then it will level off.”

The other winners are as follows:

• Malr1ne wins Esports Breakthrough Player of the Year award.
• Teamfight Tactics won Breakthrough Game of the Year.
• The Ones to Watch winners include Zip Creative, Alti Agency, Gaming Gladiators, Philippines, S8ul Esports, Full Squad Gaming and Nobru.
• S8UL Esports won Content Group of the Year.
• Valorant wins eSports Game of the Year.
• Gods Ft. Newjeans wins Esports Content of the Year at Worlds 2023 Anthem — League of Legends.
• Riot Games wins eSports Games Publisher of the Year award.
• Liquipedia won Esports Coverage and Content Platform of the Year.
• Team Liquid won Creative Team of the Year.
• Mobile Legends: Bang Bang won the Mobile Esports Game of the Year award.
• Red Bull wins Esports Commercial Partner of the Year award.

GamesBeat is a media partner of NGSC and covered our travel expenses to Riyadh.