- Esports Leaders Honours will be hosted on Friday 19th June evening with a by invitation only special event at City Hall attended by the Lord Mayor and other VIP guests
- Award nominees include individuals and organisations from across the sector at all levels including EA, BLAST, the Esports Foundation, NODWIN, The MongolZ, Team Vitality, ZOWIE, Logitech G, ESL & DHL, Magnus Carlsen & Team Liquid, and more
- The winners across categories will be revealed live on the night! Following a formal review process nominees were selected by a panel from The Esports Radar team following an open, public call for submissions across categories
- Esports Leaders Honours is a part of the Global Esports Industry Week 2026 at which ESL FACEIT Group is the Host Partner, with GEIW running alongside IEM Cologne
The shortlists for the inaugural Esports Leaders Honours awards ceremony have today been unveiled across categories including Esports Leader, Rising Star in Esports, Standout Esports Advertising Campaigns, Best Product Innovation in Esports, Access & Grassroots Champions in Esports, and Industry Development of the Year.
The awards ceremony, where the winners will be revealed live on the night will take place at Cologne City Hall (Kölner Rathaus) on 19th June 2026, with the Lord Mayor Torsten Burmester in attendance. During the invitation-only evening event, winners will be revealed live on the night and receive their awards on stage at City Hall.
Winners will receive their awards on stage at the event at City Hall. All details and specifics can be seen on the Honours page here;
- Access & Grassroots Champions in Esports
- Shortlist: Stefy Bau (CEO, Init Esports), Mags Byrne (Founder, EStars), Ole Martin Gjestad (Founder, KRED Norge), Désiré Koussawo (President, SAGES Africa), David Kosir (Founder, Friendly Fire), Elliot Mack (Co-Founder and CEO, DAIGON Esports), Jon Winkle (Founder, EPIC.LAN)
- Esports Leader
- Shortlist: Akshat Rathee, Anna Rozwandowicz, Fabien ‘neo’ Devide, HRH Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Sultan, Monica Dinsmore, Niccolo Maisto, Ralf Reichert, Robbie Douek
- Rising Star in Esports
- Shortlist: Bilguunbat Enkhbayar (Co-Founder and CEO, The MongolZ), Emanuele Acerbis (CEO & Co-Founder, NOVO Esports), Heloisa Passos (Founder, Trexx), Kalam Neale (Head of Education, British Esports), Liam Whitehead (Head of Partnerships, Method), Meg Cabaras (Senior Account Executive, Esports & Gaming, Octagon), Sheridan McGuire (Founder, College Esports News)
- Standout Esports Advertising Campaigns
- Shortlist: DHL x EFG x Chew Productions – The Dispatch, G2 x Solo Leveling (Crunchyroll), HEROIC x Razed, Jameel Motorsport x Esports World Cup 2025, Team Liquid x Magnus Carlsen, Team Vitality x Nescafé Latte, Team Vitality x Stake
- Best Product Innovation in Esports
- Shortlist: DPM LOL, EVA (Esports Virtual Arenas), Logitech G – the ProX2 Superstrike Mouse, Runestone, Shikenso, UNEVN – the BASE PC Solution, ZOWIE by BenQ
- Industry Development of the Year
- Shortlist: BLAST and GamingMalta announce multi-year partnership, including permanent studio spanning over 1,000m², The launch of Esports Nations Cup, India drafts new rules to regulate esports and gaming, with esports formally recognised as sports under the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, the sale of MOONTON, creator of Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, to Saudi Arabia’s Savvy Games Group in a deal valued at approximately $6 billion, Qiddiya-owned RTS fully acquires Evo, Riot Games opening up for betting sponsors in EMEA and Americas, the PIF, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners moving to purchase Electronic Arts (EA) for $55 billion
The ‘Local Hero’ category will see the winner announced on the night too, but this one does not include a shortlist. This category recognises an individual who has made a significant contribution to the betterment of esports locally to wherever the ceremony is being hosted. Given this year’s ceremony is taking place in Germany, The Esports Radar has partnered with E-Sport-Bund Deutschland (ESBD), who will decide this edition’s winner.
Sam Cooke, CEO of The Insights Group (The Esports Radar), said:“As ever with this kind of exercise and selecting those who deserve recognition across these areas this was extremely difficult, but we’re really pleased with those we’ve chosen! They’ve all contributed something meaningful in different ways to esports over this past year in particular, and for many of them for much longer than that too.
We’re excited to celebrate these people, organisations and the space in Cologne at City Hall in June, and even more excited to scale this Honours platform into the future; we want it to be more representative and do the sector worldwide justice; those developments and that process will follow soon after 19th June!”.
Partners
GEIW 2026 is supported by a growing network of industry partners, reflecting the collaborative spirit of the event. Confirmed partners include:
- Title Partner: Runestone
- Host Partner: ESL FACEIT Group (EFG)
- Supporting Partners
- ZOWIE and Abios
- Strategic Partners
- ESBD, yellow house, World Intellectual Property Organisation: Arbitration and Mediation Centre, International Games and Esports Tribunal (IGET)
- Social Media Agency Partner
- Get In
Disclaimer: The Global Esports Industry Week and Esports Leaders Honours are initiatives with participation of The Esports Radar, part of The Insights Group.
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