ESEX League of Legends Awards 2014

Winner: Imagine Dragons

Runner Up: Cloud 9, as the only other NA team at Worlds.

The “Cult of Passion” Award for Greatest Contribution to Developing Esports Infrastructure

Winner: CLG

Counter Logic Gaming has always been a team that was dedicated to esports, setting such trends as players running away from their families and fans with crushed expectations. In 2014, CLG continued to advance esports infrastructure, becoming the first NA team to import Korean players and to boot camp against top Korean teams, as well as the first NA team to discover that neither action could solve glaring communication problems. CLG ended its year by investing $10,000 into hiring dedicated coach William “scarra” Li.

Runner Up: Reddit

Reddit came in second for its discussion of certain flaws of League of Legends in a way that is effective, respectful, and never gets old.

The “Galdhøpiggen” Awård for Greatest Scandinavian Achievement

Winner: Deficio, for Improving His English to Reddit’s Liking

For his courageous training in enunciating English to an audience of anonymous strangers, Martin “Deficio” Lynge has once again shown the superiority of Denmark over its former colonies. He joins other famous Galdhøpiggen Awård winners like Lars von Trier, Jens Jacob Asmussen Worsaae, Ejler Bille, Gustav Frederik Holm, Tycho Brahe, Daniel West Indies Company, Anakin Skywalker, Lego Legosson, Jaime Lannister, Hamlet, Scarlett Johansson, that guy who made the first breakfast pastry, and Elsa of Arendelle.

The “LoLcommunityinaction” Award for Best Social Activism by the LoL Community

Winner: Boycotting Twitch

The long and arduous r/leagueoflegends boycott of Twitch over its corporate greed and unacceptable practices was hugely successful, causing viewership numbers to tank by up to 30 people. The ongoing boycott has caused irreparable damage to Twitch’s financial stability by showing the competitiveness of other streaming sites such as Hitbox.tv, which features streamers such as XJ9 and maybe someone else. Boycott leaders suggest that the massive pressure caused by the community will force Twitch to revert their deal with Amazon soon. Any day now.

The “StarCraft” Award for Best Region’s Koreans

Winner: Korean Koreans

Once again, native Koreans beat out their expat countrymen in terms of proficiency at League of Legends. Although worthy challenger Chinese Koreans put up a good show against even the best Koreans that Korea had to offer, placing second at the Season 4 World Championship, they still remain slightly outmatched by their fellow countrymen at home. North American Koreans hold a solid third place with their surprisingly decent performance at Worlds, while European Koreans and Brazilian Koreans are currently tied for last.

The “Mufasa” Award for Fastest Fall from Glory

Winner: Samsung White

As soon as this world-class Korean team walked out of the Seoul World Cup Stadium with their World Championship trophy, all five members were kidnapped by Chinese businessmen in an unmarked van and sold to various LPL organizations.

Runner Up: Hey, what happened to Vulcun?

The “Replays” Award for Feature We Are Most Excited for in 2015

Winner: Replays

This award is meant to get everyone hyped up about a League of Legends feature that will definitely be coming out in the upcoming year 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015! Riot knows what the fans want in their competitive eSport, so they wasted no time in announcing that Replays – a hotly anticipated feature that has long been a staple of their competitors’ games and other eSports in general – will be definitely ready for us to enjoy very soon. Hell, the only thing we might be looking forward to more from this coming year is catching Osama the London Olympics the long reign of Pope Benedict the World Cup the next Star Wars movie!

Runner Up: Tie between Compendium, East Coast servers, pauses, the ability to leave the game if one of your teammates is AFK, and more international games.

____________

Want to support Esports Express League of Legends? In a few weeks, we will be launching a Kickstarter to help fund ESEX LoL. We are looking to raise money to help pay our writers so that they can produce more frequent, high quality LoL content in 2015.