The year of 2009 has come to an end, what happened this year? Who proved themselves worthy of some extra notification in 2009's GosuGamers awards?
Besides the recent abusers outburst, 2009 was overall a good year. Many good players and SC-lovers kept the community alive and let us keep going. It is time for our annual awards, and here are the nominees.
Best foreign player of the year 2009
Ret – Does he need an introduction? Old school gosu who came back last year. Winner of DreamHack Summer 2009, took second place in ESL Major Series losing in amazing series to IdrA, new ESTRO progamer-to-be, arguably best non-Korean Zerg. Add a few ZOTAC Cup victories to that as well.
IdrA - The "bad boy” of the StarCraft scene. Great year for the American living in Korea. He won the ESL Major Series, won the USA WCG National Qualifier, took 3rd place at International eSports Festival, won Ansadi StarLeague season II and gained respect of many players. He also ended first in the TSL2 ladder. But remember that he made Tossgirl cry!
Kolll - The youngest nominee. Ever. 15-year-old German Zerg rose to the sky this year. Won two ZOTACs, took 3rd place in ESL TV Invite Tourney Germany, won WCG Germany Qualification and took 4th place at WCG Grand Finals beating IdrA in the playoffs. He surely loves the game, otherwise he would not be able to mass games like he does.
BRAT_OK - Another known name of the Starcraft scene. BRAT_OK participated in many tournaments, also managing to win many of them. His 5th place at DreamHack Summer was followed by 3rd place in JustinTV Invitational, 1st place in the 17th ZOTAC, 1st place in WCG Russia and 1st place at Winter DreamHack.
White-Ra – Grandpa Toss. Even if he would've rested the whole year, he would still be awesome enough to gain a nomination. But he didn't rest, and achieved a lot this year instead – won the European Qualifier for ESWC, took 2nd place at the main event, top 4 at IEF while winning over Boxer, won WCG Ukraine, came second in NPCL, winner of Highlander and JustinTV Invitational, participated in PGL Creator and manager of Triolan Cyber League in Ukraine – multigaming league which finals shall be broadcast on TV. Also achieved a lot with his team ESC in many events. Also, don't forget he's known for his legendary good manners!
Best foreign team of the year 2009
RoX.KIS – together with ESC and ToT) part of the Great three Teams of the foreign StarCraft scene. They have an impressive roster majorly based on Russian and Ukrainian players. They took the second place in the Titans League, second place in WGTCL 22, losing to ToT in both of the finals, and another second place in ICCup Clan League season 8.
ESC – Giants. Won BWCL three times this year, won one ICCup Clan League, came second in the other season, both times battling fosc. Home to many known and loved players, such as nominated White-Ra Took 3rd place in 22nd season of WGTCL as well as the Titans League.
ToT – Templars of Twilight. Enough? If not, remember that they won the Titans League and the 22nd season of WGTCL, ending third on the ladder, defeating RoX in the finals of both of them.
fOsc – Prodigies. Won ICCup Clan League, in next season they came second. They are clearly aiming for making the Great three into the Great four.
NrT – The underdog. Always being around and surprising supposedly stronger teams like ESC, Pandemic, fosc and many more, now challenging ESC in BWCL at the very top, with 37 points each in writing moment.
Best community effort of the year 2009
Artosis – The handsome nerd in sight! This man is a machine, he runs „nerd-based” shop TheHandsomeNerd.com together with Tasteless, brings us a lot of stuff from Korea like interviews or videos, and allows us to get an insight on how Ret's doing in Korea. It seems that he has dedicated his life to StarCraft, and for that we are thankful. He also casted the Grand Finals of WCG along with Tasteless as the Casting Archon.
Tasteless - besides running theHandsomeNerd.com. Unforgetable caster of GOM TV, and bringing us an awesome twitter, Nick "Tasteless" Plott has entertained us for a long time now. Even though GOM TV is on ice for now, he is still alive and still kicking it. He's living in Korea and sharing information on Koreans with the rest of the world, appearing in Artosis' videos from time to time, and always gives us a good laugh with his incredible gosu way of expressing himself. He also casted the Grand Finals of WCG with Artosis.
Day9 – thanks to him, many of us understood the beauty of StarCraft and even managed to win some games. His great VOD tutorials made many of us love the game even more.
TeamLiquid – great source of news for the Korean Starcraft scene, great forums, they are also the organizers of TeamLiquid StarLeague, which runs it's second season.
Jon747 – This man tirelessly uploads Korean Starcraft VODs to YouTube so every little StarCraft lover can enjoy them. Thumbs up, keep them coming Jon!
Best game of the year 2009
We had some favourites on mind, but there were simply too many games. So, we trust in your memory and ability to judge – please submit the games you think that are worthy of the title Game of the Year and then we will shortlist them and let you choose. So start digging after your favorite game of 2009!
Rising star of the year 2009
Kolll - he has already been described in the first category, but let us remind you that he took 4th place at WCG. And he is seriously 15!
kOgeT - He is one of the most important iG. players, helping them in victories and making losses less painful. He also managed to advance from his hard ESL group with a 3-0 score, ahead of MorroW, Kolll and Xiaozi.
MaNa - Another youngster. iG.Aero's brother, young Polish pride. He took second place in JustinTV Invitational, and he's been beating a lot of StarCraft veterans, and he also won the second GosuCup.
Enivid - he's been a solid player throughout the year, beating many of the top players in the foreign Starcraft scene. He also managed to take down Naugrim on his way to the Dreamhack finals, where he ended second after a loss to BRAT_OK.
MorroW - MorroW ended second in the TSL ladder. He's also been beating many good foreigners and earned himself a spot among the nominees for the Rising star of the year 2009.
Cast your votes!
[Co-written by 'synergis' and 'LML']
