Welcome to the First Slammy Awards! You nominated, we voted. First, a big thank you to the judges:


Odin
Pulsey
Gnuffone
myhand
master of desaster
Nich
Pushover
Lolowut
Timinator

Along with their votes, most gave great quotes as well, which I’ll share below. A few are really good and thoughtful and maybe I’ll share as posts of their own one day.

The thing is with the first Slammys, this has no starting date, I guess. We have to do this though, acknowledge the past. Get rid of the old, to make room for the new. There will be new top players, best games, great posts. But this is how is went down. So without further ado….

Best Overall Player:
Szewenigen


On the whole, the voters seemed torn on this, as they should have been. There are so many great players on WL. It’s also very telling that all but two voted for Sze.

Most indicative answer:

Its difficult for me to vote since I cant point out anyone in particular. I believe that one is to be shared among a couple of players, sze, gnuff, me, possibly gui and timi and a number of others among them.
So if you want my vote , I vote sze because he would be the closest to best player.

Some others:

Szeweningen exhibits a cool, calculated competence on any template. From the start he seems to know exactly what is required to secure the game and is rarely taken by surprise.

Not only does he rarely make a mistake himself, but he has an extremely creative playing style that goads YOU into making mistakes. Listening to him analyze games is a real treat as well: he's both perceptive and communicative.

Congrats Sze!

Best Strategic 1v1 Player:
Dead Piggy


When it comes to strategic 1v1, Piggy is like an artist. Competitive, creative, analytic, and tortured.

The one and only. nobody else can do as good as he did over that many games

...easily the most dominant player on the 1v1 ladder. And even so, he always seeks to improve

No one truly understands Strat 1v1 as much as piggy does, even though he personally feels there's still much for him to learn. He always seems to pick the best possible variation when he plays Strat 1v1 and he's an excellent player. He's gotten to Rank 1 multiples times holding that top spot for quite a long time, so it's hard to argue anyone else is better than dead piggy.

Piggy has spent hours playing strat 1v1 games and analysing them. He has proven competence through performance on the ladder and in tournaments. In addition to this he seems dedicated to improving the overall level of play and understanding of the template. He has made numerous posts and threads to this effect.

Congrats Piggy!

Best 2v2 Team:
Zibik + Heyheuhei


Two feared players teamed up as a solid unit.

zibik and HHH make an excellent team for almost any template due to great synergy. zibik is a very careful player who makes sure to collect info and wait until he cannot possibly lose. HHH is very similar to zibik but the little differences are what makes them such a great pair. HHH is safe but offensively tries to create as many openings as possible. The rest of the nominated teams lack the pure synergy that these 2 have.

HHH usually plays a bit more agressive and distracts the opposing team, zibik often enough realises earlier when he can (or must) go aggressive

Congrats Zibik and Heyheuhei!

Best EU player:
Gnuffone

Honorable mentions: Myhand, Odin


The scariest opponents you can face on the EU map is Gnuff and his alts (See today’s WGL http://warlight.net/MultiPlayer?TournamentID=12107)

He is so good at assessing everything about a game, including his own teammates, and finding a way to win.

Understands the map so well

if i cant vote myself, I vote Gnuff.

Congrats Gnuff!



Edited 10/13/2014 00:05:43

Best Teammate:
Psy

Honorable mention: Math Wolf


I myself always enjoy EU games with Psy. He’s competitive, friendly, and informative.

he's willing to discuss and respects own thoughts and reacts to them if the make sense to him.

If you've never played with Psy in a 3v3, please do yourself a favor and do so. Psy is an excellent teammate who immediately is able to click into the team and create strategies that fit for everyone. He may not make the best possible moves on the board, but he makes the best possible moves given the situation and his teammates. That quality is what shines above everyone else in this list.

Congrats Psy!

Best Clan:
apex

Honorable mentions: VIW, Lynx


Apex is the first clan I noticed. They had the cool • apex in their names, and were scary as hell to play. The only person who both voted for apex and also commented was from apex. I disqualified his vote, but they still won, so I may as well use his quote:

I am truthfully a bit biased here but let me explain. Apex is a clan unlike the rest. The recruitment requirement is unanimous consent so the people who get in are accepted and liked by every clan member. This makes for a healthy atmosphere competitively and helps breed friendships between every clanmate. Everyone leads Apex and is trusted by everyone else, so it's a unique clan that is exceptional skillwise and organizationwise.

Congrats apex!

Most Impressive Strategic 1v1 Game Win:
The Lollipop Guild, http://warlight.net/MultiPlayer?GameID=2097492

Honorable mention: Mike (Jupiter), http://warlight.net/MultiPlayer?GameID=5175823


I don’t know The Lollipop Guild, but in reviewing the entries, this was a pleasure to watch. It’s difficult to rate start 1v1 games. So many of them have great moves, revelations, etc. Couldn’t an impressive win be a turn 2 win, where an opponent realize he is bested from the outset? Of those nominated, I think that this one is indicative of a good game though, and Lollipop pulled out an impressive win vs. the best. I encourage opening up this game, grabbing a bag of popcorn, and pressing Play.

Turn 21 was a thing of beauty for The Lollipop Guild, where he manages to break 13 income's worth of bonuses in a single turn, turning a 19-26 income deficit into a 16-13 advantage and the win.

Looks like Lollipop gets less efficient picks+expansion and ends up in combat with lower income. However he manages to bring Szew down to his knees with fantastic predictions

Congrats The Lollipop Guild!



Edited 10/13/2014 00:07:40

Most Thrown-Away Win:
Bowdown_z!, http://warlight.net/MultiPlayer?GameID=3458024


The most unfortunate Slammy award.

This is more situational than anything. Of course the game is so thrown-away it's not worth explaining why. The situation for this game was interesting and worth noting though. Had Szeweningen lost this game, it's quite possible he wouldn't have made rank 1 on the ladder. Others will argue he just would've won all his other games and made it, but he would've had to play different players. Szew seems to struggle at playing against bad-average players and this game highlights this trend.

The winner... or should we say loser?... is a warlight CLASSIC. Bowdown_z, a middling ladder player whose peak rating is under 1550, makes a triple pick against the mighty Szeweningen and ends up kicking ass. On the final turn, he goes from a slim 24-21 income advantage to 24-14 after breaking two territories and fending off a counter-attack. And then he surrenders. Which makes absolutely no sense... he literally had the game won that very turn! The most plausible explanation that anyone's been able to come up with is that Bowdown_z was flustered with szeweningen's counter-attack and figured he had lost, without bothering to count stacks and income. But we can only guess at his motivation for surrendering, as he said nothing in chat and is currently inactive. "why would you surrender?" - szeweningen

first i had to watch the game twice to realise bowdown surrendered instead of sze.

Congrats(?) Bowdown_z!

Most Self-Confident Player:
Sze, Gnuffone (tied)


Two interpretations, two winners. It’s perfect that such an (accidentally) vague category had a tie, for completely different reasons.

Gnuffone… I really don't need to explain this. Just listen to the guy.

Sze seems to approach all games with an effortless cool

What is the thing here? Sze is very selfconfident. Gnuff is overconfident

Congrats!

Best Forum Poster:
X

Honorable Mention: Gui


X loves and respects the forum (most of the time). He quips. He picks. He pushes. He entertains.

When X posts you immediately want to pluck out your eyeballs and put them through a grinder. His posts are poisonous. This isn't meant figuratively, you will find yourself sick reading them and are advised to see a doctor immediately if you mistakenly read one of his posts. If you have a doctor and are blind then you'll find that his posts are a little funny.

God damn is he funny.

Congrats X!

Best Individual Forum Post:
Gui, http://warlight.net/Forum/Thread?ThreadID=4771


Just read the thread.

Was super hilarious, none of the others could compete with it

I still find this thread funny today. Gui totally outdid himself.

Congrats Gui!

Most Entertaining Alt Account:
Lion

Honorable Mention: Namib


I think it makes sense that the most entertaining alt did the best forum post. The alt is a social creature. The forum is a social medium. Lion was the original alt for entertainment’s sake.

Very far ahead

By far.

Are you kidding me? It has to be Lion. No one else even comes close.

Congrats Lion!

Best Troll:
Pulsey

Honorable Mention: Aranka


I’ve always loved reading Pulsey’s trolls of people. He methodically picks them apart, and is only rarely crass about it. He doesn’t just say wild stuff for the attention. He is articulate and infuriating.

Pulsey seems to be by far the most effective when it comes to aggravating his target (who usually deserves it), and he does so in a way that is usually not completely moronic. Since he also contributes some useful things to the forum he is my standout favourite from this list of candidates.

Is there really such thing as a best troll? All trolls suck.

I abstains, Trolls shouldn't get any honarary mention

Congrats Pulsey!

Congrats all, thanks again to the judges, and start thinking of new categories/nominations for the next Slammy's!

Your trophies are making me hungry

Couple suggestions for the Slammy awards:
1. Host the Slammy's on a regular time basis. Either once a year in a certain month, once per Seasonal Ladder Period, or once every X Seasonal Ladder Periods.

2. Players that win awards need to have achieved them during the present awarding period. For example: Dead piggy would not win te Best Strategic 1v1 ME player unless he becomes active again. Example2: Most impressive win and most thrown away wins most have been finished between two Slammy's...... Does this sound right or fair?

3. Keep the same panel or try and keep it mostly the same judges from Slammy to Slammy.

4. Catagory suggestion: Most respected player (I am not counting Fizzer a player). The Most Respected player could be anyone from a great Forum poster, great Map maker, hardcore Clan Leader, succesful player on ladders. This is just a person that is well respected in the ""community"".

5. (Possible change for #1 Clan Slammy) If it were a Slammy every Seasonal Ladder you could have base #1 Clan off Seasonal ladder Success, Real Time Ladder, 1v1 Ladder, 2v2 Ladder, and Clan League.

I nominate WG for #1 Clan award for the next Slammy. They have taken 1st and 2nd on this Seasonal Ladder and had two other finishers in the top 12. They are also in a close race against Apex, and WM for winning the Clan League.


Just my suggestions and opinions.

Special thanks to Slammy for starting this awards.

turtle-

your suggestions all make sense, except we may want to change up the judges to reflect the changing of the guard.

Special thanks to turtle for writing "slammy" so many times in one post.

edit: it's a bit of work, so if someone else wants to host the slammys in the future, let me know. i'll help with the trophies.

Edited 10/13/2014 02:03:53

no need for a second slammy awards because the forum is dead now

Quite. Goodnight sweet prince.