Esports Awards 2022: Streamer of the Year nominees unveiled

The Esports Awards 2022 has recently announced a list of finalists for Streamer of the Year, five months ahead of the main event at the Resorts World Theater in Las Vegas on December 13.

Streamer of the Year is arguably the most prestigious award for both YouTube and Twitch streamers, and this year, game enthusiasts may have already been familiar with all the names on the list, which includes Herschel “Dr Disrespect” Beahm IV and Spanish internet celebrity Ibai “Ibai” Llanos Garatea.

The twelve finalists

Both Dr Disrespect and Ibai had won the award twice. The former was named Streamer of the Year in 2017 and 2019, while the latter snatched the award back-to-back in 2020-2021.

Joining Doc and Ibai on the list are League of Legends streamer Tyler “loltyler1” Steinkamp and Timothy “TimTheTatman” Betar. Loltyler1 is averaging 27,827 viewers, in addition to reaching this year’s peak of 74,015. TimTheTatman, on the other hand, had a whopping 60 percent viewership decline due to decreased streaming frequency.

Below are the 12 streamers competing for this year’s Streamer of the Year award:

DrDisrespect

Ibai

TimTheTatman

loltyler1

Alexandre “Gaules” Borb

Zack “Asmongold”

David “TheGrefg” Martínez

Kammeto

Nicholas “NICKMERCS” Kolcheff

Blaire “QTCinderella”

Rachell “Valkyrae” Hofstetter

Tarik “tarik” Celik

‌Despite big-name streamers such as Dr Disrespect, Ibai, TimTheTatman, and loltyler1 being included on the list, some of this year’s outstanding streamers, namely Felix “xQc” Lengyel, Ludwig “Ludwig” Anders Ahgren, and Matthew “Mizkif” Rinaudo were surprisingly not included. According to Dot Esports’ Alex Tsiaoussidis, the trio was omitted from this year’s list.

The reason behind such a decision remains unknown. However, Tsiaoussidis noted that the trio’s early boom could explain why they were cut off from this year’s award.

Tsiaoussidis explained that xQc’s dominance on Twitch is something of a tradition, although by no means demeaning the Canadian streamer’s achievement. Averaging 18 hours plus of streaming time, xQc’s average viewership count this month has declined to 74,435 from its peak in April 190,443, as per TwitchTracker.

Joining xQc is Ludwig, who reached the limelight on YouTube entering 2022. Both xQc and Ludwig were nominees for last year’s Streamer of the Year — indicating that their feats were likely to have been acknowledged in 2021. Aside from the two is Mizkif, who already rose to fame in mid-2021.

Award categories in Esports Awards 2022

The voting period for the Streamer of the Year award is open until November. Aside from the Streamer of the Year, Esports Awards 2022 features a total of seven categories that acknowledges esports content creators, with nominations announced on June 30.

This year’s categories are Content Group of the Year, Esports Content Creator of the Year, Esports Content Series of the Year, Esports Game of the Year, Esports Mobile Game of the Year, Esports, Personality of the Year, and Streamer of the Year.

Aside from content creators, the award also acknowledges game developers with two specific categories: Esports Game of the Year and Esports Mobile Game of the Year. Games included in both categories are, LoL, VALORANT, CS:GO, Rocket League, Dota 2, Free Fire, Apex Legends, Rainbow Six Siege and Fortnite.