Keeping up with the positive theme of recognizing and appreciating people in the community, after careful deliberation and polling, we have our nominees, so let’s begin by looking over the categories and nominated players.
(Disclaimer: The nominees are based on the results of the public poll we conducted and on writer opinion, considering the sample size for the survey is somewhat limited.)
Best Carry Player
The award for the best, most consistent safelane player
Nominations: Denden, Muffinsan, Myst, GabePork
The focus in season 16 seemed to be mostly on the mid players, but some very strong carry players managed to make their mark.
Den’den— A household name in RD2L, Denden did what Denden always does — click creeps. Bouncing between two separate teams, Denden maintained consistent performances for both Cory and myself, earning him a spot on this list.
Muffinsan — The season winning safelane player was also a name on people’s minds, delivering strong games on many heroes. Some might argue, however, that being on Mugen’s team, Muffinsan might not have done the heavy lifting some of his peers were destined to.
Myst — The surprise of the season in terms of safelaners in season 16, Myst transitioned from a support to a carry and ended up forming one of the stronger core duos alongside Omegasaw.
GabePork — One of the highest MMR players in the league, Gabe didn’t find as much success as one would perhaps expect him to, but his skill level nets him a nomination.
Winner: Den’den
Despite many claiming that Den’den is washed up, he ended up with a top 4 finish after playing in two teams, maintaining the highest CS averages and 2nd highest GPM counts, as well as being a crucial cog in some of his teams’ wins.
Best Mid Player
The award for the most imposing and dominant mid player
Nominations: Cvaekt, Glete, Mugen, Waloo
Cvaekt — Despite his infamy, Cvaekt is still one of the best mid players in the league, which he showed in season 16 as well, often carrying from the midlane. However, it is notable that Cvaekt’s hero pool has been perhaps a bit limited, but those who didn’t respect his ability tended to regret it.
Glete — Easily a top 5 RD2L player, Glete’s easy going nature and extreme Dota skill land him a spot in the list. Playing a wide variety of heroes and bossing games from the midlane, it’s hard to deny Glete’s ability, though it perhaps wasn’t enough, as his team saw an early exit.
Mugen — Quite possibly the best player in RD2L, Mugen’s season win — despite a questionable overall roster — proved just how good it is. It doesn’t matter who’s around Mugen, he’ll just take the game by the horns and win it.
Waloo — A hugely underrated player coming into the season, Waloo’s midlane performances were a huge part of why his team surprised so many with their performances.
Winner: Mugen
It was never going to be anyone else. Mugen is in a class of his own, and for all intents and purposes, he is the best player around.
Best Offlane Player
The award for the highest impact, most stable offlane player
Nominations: Nsphere, The Real Roo, Sitham, Haraway
Nsphere — Reaching the finals as a part of Amos’ team, it’s hard to deny that this success was in large part due to Nsphere’s amazingly wide hero pool in the offlane.
The Real Roo — In his most impressive RD2L season yet, Roo proved he can play a lot more than just Dark Seer, but once again, some doubt is cast on his individual ability since the season win was down to Mugen. Still, it’s hard to ignore Roo.
Sitham — Despite being picked onto one of the teams that looked unimpressive, Sitham was the offlaner for a team with multiple of them for a reason — wide hero pool, high impact, consistency. Sitham was a large factor in Waloo’s team getting as far as they did.
Haraway — A surprising presence in the offlane, previously unknown in RD2L, Haraway delivered strong games on a lot of interesting heroes, playing very well together with his team, calling the shots and drafting.
Winner: Nsphere
Nsphere was undoubtedly the highest impact offlane player in the season, pushing his team into the finals of season 16.
Best Position 4 Player
The award for the greatest of all the position 4's
Nominations: Lokie, Melalez, Severe
Lokie — The only first pick position 4 player, Lokie had a lot of pressure to perform exceedingly well from that role — and he had no issues doing so.
Melalez — Alongside his classic Phoenix, Melalez put in a series of strong position 4 performances on heroes like Dark Willow and KotL, always making good use of his farm priority.
Severe — Pangolier and Bounty Hunter join the classic Severe Furion on the list of heroes he performed very well on this season.
Winner: Lokie
Quite possibly the only support player in the league able to solo carry games through his shotcalling and rotation, Lokie was arguably one of the only support players who could be called one of the most impactful players of the season.
Best Position 5 Player
The award for the most reliable hard support
Nominations: MoltenKnight, Ruskomsnusk, Thronplunder, Timitson
MoltenKnight — Another finalist nominated, MoltenKnight was another crucial cog in Amos’ team, with excellent games on the likes of Wyvern, Grim, Lich and multiple other heroes.
Ruskomsnusk — A natural offlane player, playing carry in the other division while playing support in this one…and being one of the standouts in the role. What a player, huh?
Thronplunder — Now an RD2L winner, Thron managed to put in support performances solid enough to net multiple nominations from the community.
Timitson — An FA for Mewes, Timitson is one of the most improved players in the season, and one of the most surprising ones at that.
Winner: MoltenKnight
A series of exceedingly reliable seasons from MoltenKnight, this one was marked by first-ban-worthy Wyvern performances, while still being able to perform on many other heroes on his team’s way to the finals.
With these categories concluded, the best team of WED season 16 is as follows:
Den’den, Mugen, Nsphere, Lokie, MoltenKnight
Best Player Overall
The award for the most valuable player of season 16
Nominations: Mugen, Nsphere, Lokie
Mugen — The season winner, who arguably could’ve achieved that title no matter what his team was, is one of the easiest nominations.
Nsphere — The driving force behind Amos’ team reaching finals after Harbinger joined, Nsphere had a stellar season in the offlane.
Lokie — In the process of making an unlikely team go quite far in the playoffs, Lokie established himself as one of the best players in the division through his impeccable shotcalling and position 4 play.
Winner: Mugen
It’s hard to deny it. I tried to in the preseason power rankings, but it’s pointless — Mugen is the MVP, and was always going to be. Not much more to say here.
Most Improved Player
The award for the player who has improved the most throughout the season
Nominations: borninbronx, Harbinger, The Real Roo, Thronplunder, Timitson
borninbronx — Part of the lower MMR support player cast in RD2L, borninbronx and similar players regularly net compliments for their willingness to listen, improve and general attitude about the league. Borninbronx, however, seems to take it to heart, as many people comment on his progress throughout the season — though, admittedly, it’s not very hard to improve significantly when there’s so much room for improvement.
Harbinger — From meme to mercenarial menace, Harb took down many titans in the midlane throughout all of season 16, getting better and better week to week.
The Real Roo — Going into the season, many saw Roo as a decent at best offlaner, limited by his hero pool, but throughout season 16, Roo accepted the challenge and proved that he’s not just a spiky-headed purple man, but also a good stun hero player — because that’s realistically what Mugen needed from his offlaner.
Thronplunder — One of the most mentioned nominations in this category, Thron has been at it for many seasons, listening to better players as he tries to improve his support play despite being mainly a carry player. Still, there might be some bias in these nominations, considering Thron won the season and his impact and development may be hard to judge accurately.
Timitson — Another player nominated by many members of the community for this category, Timitson put in outstanding performances for his team relative to his MMR, though one can’t escape the feeling that much like Thron, people just underrated him going into the season.
Winners: Harbinger and The Real Roo
Our first shared win, Harbinger and Roo both improved significantly throughout season 16, an impressive feat considering the most improved players tend to be the lowest MMRs.
Harbinger in season 15 was an ultimately unremarkable player, with a couple of decent games, but Harbinger in season 16 was the name on everybody’s mind, with standout performances on Viper, MK, QoP and TA.
Roo’s win in this category is sealed by his adaption throughout the season, learning to play with his team and sealing the season win.
Highest Value Player
The award for the best player relative to their draft position
Nominations: Revenger, Tyler, Zharp
Revenger — The last pick of the season ended up performing much better than expected, working well with his very high MMR team and even making some plays himself.
Tyler— A 5.4k player picked at the point in the draft where everyone was looking for the best 4ks, Tyler put in some solid performances, and while perhaps not being a standout, he earns a spot on the list by virtue of when he was picked relative to his MMR.
Zharp (Trippple Thread) — Earning a spot on the list for reasons similar to Tyler, many people passed up the opportunity to pick Zharp. I capitalized on this, and he put up many gamewinning performances — especially for a 15th pick, but this is to be expected with his 5.6k MMR on the draft sheet. Despite his eventual ban, Zharp was a massive factor in my team’s success.
Winner: Zharp
Personal bias aside, pre-ban Zharp managed to carry many games with his very clean carry play. Considering he was a high 5k second pick, it’s not hard to see why he’s the winner here.
Most Surprising Team
The award for the team who exceeded everyone’s expectations
Nominations: Amos, Haraway, Waloo
Amos — Ending up as one of the finalist teams, I think few would’ve foreseen the runner-up spot for this team. Admittedly, the addition of Harbinger seemed to bolster this team. In the pre-season, I talked about the high potential for this team, and they seemed to realize it, playing solid all across the board.
Haraway — A team many destined to crash and burn, haraway’s team was just solid and consistent for a very long time, not being intimidated by the higher MMR teams and introducing us to some noteworthy new players.
Waloo— Waloo’s team had no business getting as far as it did, but he and his teammates proved many doubters wrong, playing very well and ending up as a top 4 team.
Winner: Team Waloo
While Amos’ team was a strong contender, I think their success would’ve been much less surprising had they not received Harbinger as an FA. Meanwhile, Waloo’s team showed us the true ability of multiple players on it, with Waloo himself, Sitham and Ruskomsnusk putting in very good performances.
Best Captain
The award for the best captain in terms of leading their team
Nominations: Amos, Madsen, Mugen, Waloo, Waterfalls
Amos — One of the most nominated in this category, Amos must’ve done his job quite well, considering how far his rag-tag crew got in spite of doubts from the community.
Madsen — Flattered to receive multiple nominations, I would attribute this mostly to being pretty dedicated to the role, putting in a lot of time to prepare for the season.
Mugen — Despite not perhaps being as high-maintenance with his players as many other captains, Mugen’s sheer Dota ability let him lead his players to victory, and at the end of the day, that’s a mark of a great captain.
Waloo — Putting together a seemingly unimpressive team yet making them click and going far with them explains why Waloo earns yet another nomination, this time in a different category.
Waterfalls — The gold standard for RD2L captaining, Waterfalls is a famously renowned captain, maintaining friendly atmospheres and being very organized.
Winner: Waloo
For the reasons listed above, Waloo takes yet another award for season 16, this time as the best captain.
Best Captain Player Draft
The award for the single best player draft
Nominations: Madsen, Mewes, Haraway
Madsen — I pride myself on my player drafts, and many would seem to agree with that proficiency. In the season 16 draft, I managed to grab an amazing shotcalling support player and a high MMR core player, while also closing the team out with 3 very balanced picks.
Mewes — Glete, KTZ. With these two picks, Mewes established one of the strongest on-paper core duos of the season, and rounded out the team with some great supports, alongside with himself on the offlane role.
Haraway — In a very unexpected turn of events, Haraway managed to turn what looked like one of the worst drafts in the preseason into a strong, cohesive unit which bonded well and in doing so introduced the community to many new players.
Winner: Madsen
Vanity aside, while I may suck at Dota, my player drafts are exquisite. Despite managing to pick up a pair of players with, uh, let’s call it “history”, in Lokie and Zharp, it ended up working well for a very long time, and despite Zharp’s eventual ban, we got a strong FA and had a strong push in the semi-finals, barely losing out on the finals.
Congratulations to the winners and thanks for reading!
