Monday, the Canadian Game Awards announced nominees for several different categories. In addition to Best Esports Event and Organization, there are several contenders for Best Esports Host, Player, and Coach. Let’s take a look at the Canadian Game Awards’ nominees for these three esports accolades, the winners of which will be announced on April 9th.
Best Esports Host
Alexander “The Shyway” Hope is a competitive Halo content creator and commentator for Halo tournaments. He recently teamed with Wes Price, former Halo 3 champ and 343 Pro Team Lead, to call the Halo 5 Microsoft Sundays. His most popular videos on YouTube include “Micro-analyzing how to AIM in Halo 5,” “My Trick to MASTER the Spring Jump,” and “3 SECRET Advanced Techniques in Halo 5.” His most recent and most relevant video to this nomination is titled “$1,000 for a single match of Halo ..and I got to cast it.”
Nominees for Best Esports Host
Alex “Vansilli” Nguyen was part of Valorant‘s First Strike Finals broadcast and the ongoing Champions Tour, also a popular Counter Strike player. Vansilli co-hosts the VALORANTING podcast, which recently covered VCT upsets in the EU. In a surprising situation, Pulse Esports Arena failed to pay its Valorant casters, including Nguyen, while Nerd Street Gamers stepped in to, in Vansilli’s words, ensure he didn’t “eat ramen noodles” through the rest of his coverage!
Brody “Liefx” Moore is a Rocket League caster and host of Rocket League Central streams and videos. On GINX Esports TV, Moore informed viewers as to how he was living during quarantine and pandemic; he also did an interview with Lawler titled, “What’s It Like To Be a RLCS Commentator?”
Camille “Camco” Salazar-Hadaway is a freelancer and content creator in the industry. She played in Xbox Canada’s Among Us stream in honor of International Women’s Week. She also co-hosted Nintendo’s A Very Mario Trivia Experience in February and is part of SQUADCast, the video medium of the SQUAD gaming news outlet.
Jennifer “LemonKiwi” Pichette is an Overwatch commentator and writer for Hotspawn. She casted Overwatch‘s SteelSeries Invitational and starting March 24th, she’ll be the caster for Europe’s Rocket League Goals For Change tournament. She’s worked with Boston Uprising, the Scholastic Esports Federation, and casted ProjeKt Gap’s Overwatch Charity Stream.
Best Esports Player
Artour “Arteezy” Babaev plays Dota for Evil Geniuses. According to esportsearnings.com, Arteezy is the #1 player in Canada, having competed in 102 tournaments for a total of over $2 million. His confidence is on display on YouTube, where his channel boasts videos like “Arteezy only needs ONE hero to defeat NA teams TWICE” and “This is why you don’t call offensive GG on Arteezy…”
Nominees for Best Esports Player
Indervir “iLLeY” Dhaliwal plays COD for Dallas Empire. In a story by The Dallas Morning News, iLLey’s rise was described as having begun with all-night COD gameplay with school the next morning. When “NickMercs” invited iLLey to his stream, the school-going player was only 14. Years later and throughout 2020, iLLey and Dallas Empire earned first place in several Tier 1 tournaments.
Josh “Steel” Nissan plays Valorant for 100 Thieves. The opinionated star has an active YouTube and Twitter, on the latter even saying of FaZe: “Unpopular Opinion: dapr and babybay are…Actually Kinda Toxic Sometimes.” The former Counter Strike player will face off with 100T against Gen.G in the VCT Lower Bracket on March 19th.
Michael “Miviens” Viens plays NHL for Mirage. Competing for Team Bones in the Leafs Gaming League, Miviens and company earned $4,500 as Stage One champs and narrowly lost to Team Oohwayy in the Grand Finals. Prior, Viens had won the Snider Cup in 2018 and the Montreal Canadians’ tournament in 2019.
Sasha “Scarlett” Hostyn plays StarCraft II for Shopify Rebellion. The 2018 PyeongChang champion. While competing for Brave Star Gaming in 2021, she helped her team to top-five placements, the Summer, Fall, and Winters Masters. In 2016, she was esports highest-earning female competitor.
Best Esports Coach
Aaron “Clairvoyance” Kim coaches Dota for BOOM. The former player moved to casting with BeyondTheSummit and then to coaching with Cloud9. In February, BOOM placed fifth in Southeast Asia’s Dota Pro Circuit, thereby winning $25,000.
Nominees for Best Esports Coach
Dylan “Coach Didz” Didiano coaches PUBG for FaZe. With what he did as a coach, FaZe has earned top-five placement in three S-tier events, including a first-place win worth $50,000. On YouTube, Didz has “Esports Mentality” videos, which include “How to Improve Communication for Esports Players” and “The Importance of Team Chemistry for Esports Teams.”
Dylan Falco coaches League for Schalke 04, which is in the LEC playoffs’ Upper Bracket. Schalke has been steadily improving: In 2020’s Spring LEC, they went 6-12, in Summer 8-10, and in Spring of ’21 9-9. On the topic of an unfortunate seven-game losing streak, Falco said in a Hotspawn interview, “We’re always believing that we can win. We believe in our players, and our players believe in each other and in their skill.”
Joshua “Jatt” Leesman coaches League for Team Liquid. The former caster coached his team to first place in the 2020 Summer LCS and the 2021 Lock In against Cloud9. On March 20th, TL will face Team SoloMid in the LCS playoffs. Before that, on March 18th, Team Liquid will participate in the Arena of Legends academy tournament.
Raymond “Rambo” Lussier coaches COD for Dallas Empire. As a coach, Rambo has consistently brought DAL to top-five tournament placements. On March 7th, his team took home $120,000 after placing second in the COD League Stage 1 Major, while Atlanta FaZe took first prize. In an article by The Dallas Morning News, Rambo’s coaching impact is described by Empire player Shottzy: “In scrims we kind of get frustrated and we go back and forth, but he’s helped us calm down and talk about a play with a calm tone.”
These are the individual esports awards nominees for the Canadian Game Awards. Who do you think will win? What do you think about on who got a nomination? Let us know all of your thoughts on this story in the comments.
