League of Legends players around the world have criticized this year’s Dade Award after a controversial winner was announced.
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The Dade Award is an annual community created label that is given to a player who failed to live up to hype and expectations at the World Championships.
It began in 2013 with Korean player Bae ‘dade’ Eo-jin, who was widely regarded as one of the best in the world but completely failed to perform on the biggest stage as his team unexpectedly fell in the group stage.
Since then many players have been unfortunate winners of the Dade Award with the community largely agreeing with the results. However, this time fans feel that the choice could not be more wrong.
Damwon Gaming top laner Jang ‘Nuguri’ Ha-gwon was crowned this year’s Dade, which immediately sparked discussion in the community, with LoL experts Mark Zimmerman and Kelsey Moser some of the first to disagree with the decision.
Kind of strange from my perspective to give Nuguri the dade award since I thought of him as someone super young, prone to over-extending and mismanagement of his wave, but promising.
Also rated both TheShy and Wunder over him (as complete packages), and he had to play them.
— Kelsey Moser (莫凯西) (@karonmoser) October 28, 2019
Alright it’s time to retire the Dade award.
After Ruler last year and Nuguri this year, it’s lost it’s purpose.
I’m not even saying there were really better candidates, but no one absolutely shit the bed compared to expectations.
It shows expectations were relatively accurate.
— Mark Zimmerman (@TheeMarkZ) October 28, 2019
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“Kind of strange from my perspective to give Nuguri the Dade Award since I thought of him as someone super young, prone to over-extending and mismanagement of his wave, but promising,” said Kelsey.
Meanwhile, Mark went one step further and even suggested that the award should be scrapped altogether and that it has “lost its purpose” as no player played bad enough compared to expectations to deserve it.
Getting first in his group, and only really struggling vs the best top laner ever and getting knocked about by pre tournament favorites who had one bad day in bo1s does not compared to people who got dunked on and knocked out of groups.
— Mark Zimmerman (@TheeMarkZ) October 28, 2019
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He then went on to explain that Nuguri definitely didn’t deserve it, as not only did the Korean’s team come top of their group, but they only ended up losing to one of the tournament favorites, which “does not compare to people who got dunked on and knocked out of groups.”
These sentiments were echoed by many fans on Reddit, with some even stating that they were “f****** sad for Nuguri” and that “he doesn’t deserve this award.”
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Some fans went on to suggest that the award doesn’t need to be scrapped, but it does need some adjustments, such as not making it an annual requirement but only handing it out when it is well and truly deserved.
Nothing has been confirmed about the Dade so far, but with so much backlash, it may be in for an overhaul.
