Esports Awards 2023 accused of faking viewers with bots
We’re finally entering awards season, which means it's time to shine a light on the best and brightest of the gaming and esports industry in 2023. Of course, The Game Awards serves as something of a headliner here - it has been for the last few years since Geoff Keigh;ey's projects dismantled the likes of E3.
Despite all eyes being on TGA in expectance of some pretty big reveals, let's not forget the others. The Esports Awards have already come and gone, marking the start of the season good and proper - but there seems to be something amiss.
2023's Esports Awards seemingly awash with bots
New claims from users watching during the 2023 Esports Awards have asserted that the presentation's stream was full of bots and embedded viewers. If this is true, it implies that the Esports Awards was faking views to make it look more popular than it actually was.
The claims have come from fans on Twitter, who have shared their thoughts on the Esports Awards' number of Twitch views. Someone shared a screenshot of the stream along with a plugin that seems to flag the number of bots in the view count.
If legitimate, it indicates that 6.9% of the 41.6k viewers at the time were bots. GGRecon has reached out to the Esports Awards for comment but hasn't recieved a response at the time of publication.
Players have wasted no time in roasting the event for its potential botting, with many seemingly unsurprised that the event may have resorted to seeking out bots for bolstering viewers.
Who won big at the Esports Awards 2023?
Botting claims aside, there were some big wins at the Esports Awards 2023 - Team Vitality came away with the trophy for Esports Organisation of the Year, Riot Games won Esports Publisher of the Year along with VALORANT's win for Esports Game of the Year.
Even Gucci came away with an award for Esports Commercial Partner of the Year. It was undoubtedly a big night for the esports scene, and though it might have a lot of critics, there's definitely space in the industry to celebrate the best of the best in the esports world.
