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eSports Photo of the Year

I woke up Tuesday morning to a barrage of Twitter mentions notifying that one of my photos had been nominated for the 2009 eSports Photo of the Year.  Personally I was hoping that I would be nominated as one of the finalists, but not exactly as confident as others had been telling me I should of been. What surprised me was that the academy chose my photo of Ed Ma after dropping a crucial set at the Super Battle Opera Qualifiers finals, rather than the photo with the reaction to Mike Ross’s improbable win over Haunts also at the SBO Qualifiers – better known by the Street Fighter 4 community as the “Believe” photo.

Whereas “Believe” showed the atmosphere with the excitement and jubilation of the crowd, the Ed Ma picture captures a more intimate photo of him after 15 hours at Denjin Arcade, coming so close to winning the USA spot to Tokyo only to see it slip away. To be honest, it was a secret favorite of mine out of the entire set from the qualifiers. Though both photos capture the raw emotion that eSports can bring out of competitors and spectators, Ed Ma’s solitary figure slammed into the arcade screen with despair reminds me of just how lonely it can be for the losers of any competition. With nary an eye passing to glance at him, the crowd is too busy reacting to the elation of the victors.

Being nominated for the eSports Photo of the Year means a lot to me, especially given the fact that I only started doing eSports specific photography since May 31st, just about a month and a half. Perhaps what humbles me most with the nomination is that both photos were just taken at my 2nd eSports event, only a week’s experience into the genre. For the fighting game community to embrace my photos in such a short period of time, my hope is that my nominated photo can bring the due exposure the scene truly deserves. Furthermore, being the sole photographer nominated from North America shows the deteriorating state of eSports in our region. My hope is in future iteration of the awards, not only is the more of the fighting game community represented but that of American eSports is as well.

Click for all the photos nominated for the 2009 eSports Photo of the Year.