UK esports and gaming talent were named amongst the winners at the Gayming Awards 2022 ceremony yesterday evening.
The first live Gayming Awards took place at the Troxy Theatre in London, hosted by Julia Hardy and sponsored by Twitch.
British esports personality and Rainbow Six Siege and Valorant caster, Emi ‘Fluke’ Donaldson, was awarded the ‘Best LGBTQ Contribution to Esports’ award.
Fluke said in this video: “Thank you to everyone that supported me and vouched for me. I am super lucky that I get to do this for a job, and that I can be somebody who people look up to.
“It’s like nothing I ever expected. I’m trying to do my best, but it’s the love of people that support me – my friends and colleagues – that allow me to be who I am and do what I do. I love you all, I’m excited to keep working and thank you to everybody.”
Elsewhere, Welsh streamer Aimsey, who has 770,000 followers on Twitch, was named LGBTQ Streamer of the Year.
And UK video game industry trade body Ukie, received the Industry Diversity Award for its #RaiseTheGame pledge.
The LGBTQ Tabletop Game Award was awarded to ‘Adventuring With Pride: Queer We Go Again’ by Jack Dixon.
One of the other big winners of the night was Life is Strange: True Colors by Deck Nine and Square Enix. The game was the winner of no less than three awards, taking home Game of the Year, Authentic Representation Award and Best LGBTQ Character.
There were also huge celebrations to be had for Tanya DePass who picked up the Gayming Icon award.
Prior to the event, the Streamer Rising Star Class of ‘22 was announced with six streamers being inducted into the new class, with prizes from the category sponsors: Twitch, Shure, Overclockers, Noblechairs, Streamplify and Cooler Master.
“Representation both in game and in the industry is critically important now more than ever. As the LGBTQ community is being attacked, divided and silenced, we owe it to the next generation of LGBTQ people to be seen in the games they love.”
Robin Gray, Gayming Magazine
Robin Gray, CEO and founder of Gayming Magazine, said: “Representation both in game and in the industry is critically important now more than ever. As the LGBTQ community is being attacked, divided and silenced, we owe it to the next generation of LGBTQ people to be seen in the games they love.
“It’s my honour to be able to stand here and bring us all together to lift each other up and celebrate queer excellence.
“The whole LGBTQIA2+ community is one big family united under one fabulous umbrella and we must stand together as dark forces seek to divide us. Let me say this very clearly, there is no LGB without the T.”
Full list of winners from the Gayming Awards 2022:
- Game of the Year – Sponsored by PlayStation: Life is Strange: True ColorsDeck, Nine / Square Enix
- Gayming Magazine Readers’ Award – Sponsored by EA: Resident Evil Village, Capcom
- Gayming Icon Award – Sponsored by Facebook Gaming: Tanya DePass
- Industry Diversity Award – Sponsored by Hangar 13 and 2K: Ukie’s #RaiseTheGame pledge
- Authentic Representation Award – Sponsored by Marvelous Europe: Life is Strange: True ColorsDeck Nine / Square Enix
- Best LGBTQ Character Award – Sponsored by Rocksteady: Alex Chen, Life is Strange: True ColorsDeck Nine / Square Enix
- Best LGBTQ Indie Game Award – Sponsored by Xbox: UnpackingWitch Beam and Humble Games
- LGBTQ Streamer of the Year – Sponsored by Twitch: Aimsey
- LGBTQ Streamer Rising Star Class of ’22 – Sponsored by Twitch: It’sMeHolly, cruuuunchy, CoderGirlChan, AwkwardishPanda, LuciaEverblack, Luke Boogie
- Best LGBTQ Contribution to Esports – Sponsored by Esports Technologies Inc: Emi ‘CaptainFluke’ Donaldson
- LGBTQ Tabletop Game Award – Sponsored by It Gets Better UK: Adventuring With Pride: Queer We Go Again, Jack Dixon
- Best LGBTQ Comic Book Moment – Sponsored by Square Enix: The Pride OmnibusComiXology/Dark Horse Comics
The full list of Gayming Awards 2022 nominees were announced earlier this year.
Alongside the celebrations, the next event in the Gayming calendar, Gayming Live, debuted a new trailer for the queer geek convention in July at the Knockdown Center in Brooklyn.
Organisers say a limited time offer of 30% off all tickets is available at gayming.live until this Friday (April 29th) using the code ‘GaymingAwards’.
The Awards will return in early 2023, with the show moving stateside to New York City for Gayming Awards 2023: Live on Broadway.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
