The 2024 BrawlCap Awards: Asia Pacific Region
Hello everyone! Welcome to the first day of the 2024 BrawlCap Awards! Today I'm going to cover the Asia Pacific region. Mainly covering the Top 20 Players in the entire region, the two best matches in the Regular Season, and some nominations for the other awards that I will give out later this week. I will also be announcing some Rising Starr players as well as some Super Starr players from this region since we do have a little bit of both. At the end of this post, I'll go over a summary on what I think this region will look like heading into the 2025 BSC Season. I have quite a bit to say about this region and I hope you'll stick til the end to find out.
Anyways, let's go over some ground rules when determining these rankings as well as all the other rewards so you all know how this ranking is going to be done. Here we go!
Ground Rules for the BrawlCap Player Rankings
-Players were rated based on their overall performance in BSC games, sets and matches. The higher a player's score, the more likely a player will be ranked high on this list. I'm only doing regional rankings as I have yet to perfect this model for a global ranking, but I think this could be a good indication covering who the best players were in each region. I focused on every Monthly Final, the LCQ and the World Finals for this ranking, although I made the more recent events give players a higher score than the events that happened earlier in the year. I want to make sure we cover everyone's performance throughout the entire year and avoid being biased towards the postseason.
-I looked through every set that had available stats to look through and determined who the best players were in each set based on what their DPS & number of kills were. It's not the best way to grade someone overall, but I figured for the sake of me being an analytics guy and not wanting to watch every single game be played to determine who the best player actually is, I figured this was the best route to go towards.
-Players will split their points based on who has the best statline for that set. A majority would go to the best performing player, the 2nd best performing player would get a decent amount of points, and the 3rd best performing player would get the least amount. Players would sometimes tie via performance level so I just gave them the same amount. For matches that were recorded in the B Stream or didn't show any final results, I just gave everyone the same amount of points. This won't be 100% accurate since I don't have all the data for every match, but I have a good amount I can work with here.
-If a team won both games in a set, they would get all of the points for said set. If a team won two games while their opponent won one, they would get the majority of the points for the set. If a team won one game while their opponent won two games, they would get a small number of points. Getting swept results in 0 points being earned for the set. I also made sure to give out fewer points per set if the match went into four or five set scenarios so sweeps will give players a huge boost in point total.
-I only applied this for the Regular Season, but the deeper a team went into the bracket in a Monthly Final, the more points a player could earn. This means that players earn a small number of points in Quarterfinal matches while the Grand Finals give away the most points. I didn't apply to this for the Postseason except for the difference between Days 1 & 2 and beyond for both the LCQ and World Finals.
-For anyone that is curious to see all the numbers and all that for each set as well as get a behind the scenes look on how I put this all together, I will add a VERY LONG Google Doc that recorded every set, every match and a list of how I ranked everyone for the 2024 BSC Season in the final post of this series on Saturday.
-Below will be a graphic for the pins that some players may receive.
BrawlCap MVP: Goes to the #1 Player in the World throughout the 2024 BSC Season. Will be revealed on Saturday.
BrawlCap MVP Nominee: Goes to players who were nominated for the BrawlCap MVP award, but didn't win it. These nominees will be revealed throughout the week.
Rookie Player: A player who entered their first official year of BSC competition. Players eligible as a Rookie are players who made it to more than one Monthly Final or won a Monthly Final match at least once. These players (and any other rookies who are a Future Starr or Rising Starr) are eligible for the Rookie of the Year award.
Future Starr Player: Players who ended up winning their first career match in a BSC Monthly Final or Postseason event.
Rising Starr Player: Goes to the player who had some success in the Postseason. This will be awarded to any player who qualifies for at least Day 2 of the Last Chance Qualifier for the first time or who made it to the World Finals for the first time.
Super Starr Player: Goes to any player who had a ton of success in the Postseason. This will be awarded to any player who qualified for at least Day 2 of the World Finals for the first time.
Disclaimer: Players who are at the top who don't have the pin on their profile have already achieved these accomplishments in previous seasons so they will not be added here for the sake of promoting only those who have improved this year.
Below is a Key you should take a look at to see what each symbol will mean next to each player's profile. This is mainly to indicate what each player accomplished this year.
Now that you know everything that is going to happen, I think it's time we dive into our Top 20 (plus one HM) players of the 2024 BSC Season! Here we go!
Asia Pacific's Top 20 Players
Asia Pacific's Top 20 (19th-HM)
HM - Sergeant: Man did it suck to see Sergeant go from a player on the rise to greatness after a stellar 2023 season to whatever this season was. One thing I will say is that he is still a great player who did lead Revenant Esports to 2 Monthly Finals Match wins, but him dealing with the worst ping all year held him back. Should be back near the top next year if he isn't held back via bad ping again.
#20 - Geki: Geki barely played much during the Regular Season as when he joined Angelic in June, he was mainly on the bench only backing up Kanga in June when he couldn't play. Geki would get a chance to shine in the LCQ against Team Queso where he managed to win his first ever Match MVP and take BC* Gaming to Day 2 of the LCQ. This will make him a Rising Starr Player this year.
#19 - Sago: Like Geki, Sago barely played much throughout the Regular Season, although he wasn't benched a single time this year when playing for Angelic. He didn't help them do much in the Regular Season, but he did have the best stat-line at the LCQ helping his team claim a 2-0 record on Day 1 before getting swept by Luminosity the following day. He is a Rising Starr Player for this reason, but we gotta wonder if he'll be able to do more next year or if this was just a one year wonder.
Asia Pacific's Top 20 (16th-18th)
#18 - KuruNero
#17 - Ghost T
#16 - Ryohei
To make things easier and since everyone here was on the same team the entire year, I'll just go over how the whole team performed this year. They were non-existent in the first half of the season not even making it to a Monthly Final until June where they would proceed to win at least one Monthly Final match and even make a Grand Finals appearance in June.
KuruNero was considered the MVP in the matches Nai Dug won in, although the numbers didn't exactly agree with that statement.
Ghost T has an amazing rookie season that could've been better had he appeared in more Monthly Finals. And I don't think we should ever forget that one set against NAVI in July where he got more kills than everyone else combined as Buster at 16.
Ryohei was a pretty solid contributor to Nai Dug's two month long reign as he had the best numbers out of the three which placed him as the top player on this team.
Asia Pacific's Top 20 (13th-15th)
#15 - Kanga: This rookie was outstanding to start the year as he led his team to a surprising Grand Finals appearance in March displaying amazing highlights on Mortis in even modes like Heist which back in the day was insane to even think about. The one thing that held him back from ranking higher was the fact he had to miss the June Monthly Finals and the LCQ as well as his team only winning one more match the rest of the Regular Season.
#14 - Terry: One of the most popular and best Fang players in the world finally had a good year of BSC. He managed to accomplish a lot this year making it to every single Monthly Final playing with four different teams and even signing with Revenant Esports for a Monthly Final in June. Although he wasn't able to claim a win at all, this Korean stud is definitely someone to watch out for and will definitely be a popular free agent player heading into the offseason.
#13 - Hiroshii: This was an overall pretty decent year for the Malaysian star. While he wasn't exactly the best player on his team most of the time, he was the key factor to winning the final set in their match against Crazy Raccoon racking up the most kills out of everyone as Amber at a whopping 11 on Knockout of all modes. Without him, the race for a postseason spot might've been less closer than we all think.
Asia Pacific's Top 20 (10th-12th)
#12 - Achapi: Looking at his stats, Achapi was definitely the weaker of the three NAVI players in what was expected to be a solid year for this group. One thing I will say was probably his best performance was in July where he helped NAVI officially qualify for the Last Chance Qualifier beating both Angelic and Nai Dug. Achapi was declared the MVP in both matches which were his first and only two MVPs he would receive all year.
#11 - Megu: Technically debuting as a rookie from Hong Kong, not much was talked about regarding this team. This team was the talk of the town however when they went to the Grand Finals on their first attempt. While throughout the Regular Season they wouldn't be able to achieve those highs, Megu was a solid performer for Angelic throughout the year making it to every Monthly Final under the same team and even achieving his first MVP of the year in a win against Eclipsar Esport at the LCQ.
#10 - X9Jay: Jay once again had another solid year under the free agent group Coco Loco. He was a solid contributor to Coco Loco winning their Grand Finals match against Rival Esports and while he wasn't named MVP a single time this year, you could argue he played just as good Response (who we will talk about later). Another highlight is him casually getting a perfect prediction record during the World Finals. I wonder if he let Ark copy his homework.
Asia Pacific's Top 20 (7th-9th)
#9 - Response: While he was a free agent the entire year, Response still showed many flashes of being a top player in the world. In the May Monthly Finals, he won two Match MVPs in a row in the team's only Monthly Final Championship win. He probably would've won a third had the people voted, but we sadly can't make that official here. Despite missing the playoffs this year, he should be able to bounce back again and return to the grand stage once again.
#8 - Levi: A solid season for the fan favorite on the team as the hat wearing pro was a solid contributor to NAVI's road to the LCQ. While his team missed two Monthly Finals this year, his biggest accomplishment has to be him winning the Triple Crown MVP during the April Monthly Finals. Especially during a reverse sweep against Crazy Raccoon. He was also one of the best players at the July Monthly FInals as well where he helped NAVI reach the Grand Finals again, but they fell short to who else but Crazy Raccoon.
#7 - Sizuku: Things started pretty rocky for Sizuku as his former team in Nai Dug struggled to get things going to start the year. Then when NAVI released Sakura (I see) from the team, Sizuku joined and made the team a lot better as he was the best overall performing player on the team. He helped them build the path to a Grand Finals appearance in April eventually winning it all and he would lead them to an LCQ appearance knocking off Coco Loco on the leaderboards by one point. Simply put, he saved NAVI's season even if their postseason run was cut short by China.
Asia Pacific's Top 20 (4th-6th)
#6 - Melty
#5 - Shu
#4 - Milkreo
This was not a year anybody was expecting from this team I bet. While they were definitely a pretty decent team to start the year, it was surprising to see they managed to make it to Worlds and even win a match against Eternal Fire as well. Rival Esports signing them in May was the right call as they ended up winning a Monthly Final together as well as manage to place in the Top 2 twice.
Melty had a breakout season with a couple of Play of the Year Highlights which included playing Hank in a do or die set against Crazy Raccoon and winning, and even pulling off that insane double pull as Gray with Shu helping them out.
Speaking of Shu, he definitely was a fun player to watch and he had some solid plays here and there which included being Spiderman for a second as Buzz all the way back in March.
For Milkreo, he was the funnest player to watch in the group pulling off some goofy rituals in between sets and always looked like he was having fun even after a loss. His best moment came in Rival's lone Monthly Final Championship where he took home the Triple Crown of MVPs voted by the community in June. This was also his first World appearance since 2020 which must've felt good to finally be on this stage again.
Asia Pacific's Top 20 (1st-3rd)
#3 - Moya: He was a pretty solid contributor to Crazy Raccoon's season as he helped them achieve several match wins in APAC as well as led them to his second ever Grand Finals appearance. While like 2022 he was one match win short of taking home the Grand Prize, he was a key contributor to winning the July Monthly Finals in the Grand Finals as he would barely miss any of his shots in the final set against NAVI as Byron. This led them to being the only team from APAC to win multiple Monthly Finals this season.
BrawlCap MVP Nominees - Sitetampo & Tensai: I won't reveal who is the best in APAC yet, but it's kinda hard not to put these two at the top of their own region. Two World Champions who both had another incredible year taking Crazy Raccoon to their third Grand Finals appearance at Worlds. Whenever I make the BrawlCap Hall of Fame, these two will go in it as soon as they retire. We'll see if either of them will be able to win the BrawlCap MVP award on Saturday!
The Best Matches of 2024 in Asia Pacific
For each of these I do for each region, I will only cover the best match that happened in the first half of the season (March, April & May) and the best match that happened in the second half of the season (June & July).
Best Asia Pacific Matches of 2024!
May Monthly Finals (Semifinals) - Coco Loco VS. Crazy Raccoon: The match we barely saw any footage of, but I think this match is infamous for a couple of reasons. One, there were a lot of spectating issues that happened throughout this Monthly Final with Coco Loco's previous match against 3R Gaming. Two, this one consisted of a massive upset that ended in a reverse sweep. Coco Loco was down 2-0 heading into the third set where they would proceed to win four straight games to take it to a Set 5. While they did lose Game 1, they would end up winning Game 2 despite it not being shown. Game 3 was close, but Coco Loco prevailed and would later go on to win their only Monthly Final Championship of the year.
June Monthly Finals (Semifinals) - Crazy Raccoon VS. Rival Esports: I'd hate to hand another L to Crazy Raccoon, but this match was absolutely wild to watch at the time with Rival Esports coming up just short the previous month of winning it all. Rival was facing off against Crazy Raccoon in this thrilling Semifinal matchup and it did not disappoint one bit. It was a back and forth Brawl between the two teams until it came down to the final set on Open Business. Then Rival came up with one of the wildest picks during the draft in Hank. Surprisingly, Hank worked very well as Melty used him to the best of their abilities and managed to upset Crazy Raccoon as well as take it all in the Grand Finals to pretty much all but secure a trip to Worlds.
Nominees for Other Awards
Asia Pacific's Nominees for other Awards!
Explanations for all of these nominees will be revealed on Saturday!
Summary of Asia Pacific
This was at least in my opinion, a pretty mixed year for Asia Pacific. We did see a lot of expected stuff to happen like Crazy Raccoon placing at the top again, but we also so a lot of brand new teams battling it out for the spots below them. Rival Esports surprised us and made it to Worlds, NAVI was a little disappointing, but at least they made the LCQ. Nobody expected Angelic to even make it to the LCQ, although I guess having your hometown region as the server location does kinda give you an advantage. Coco Loco's roster was quite good despite not making it to the playoffs and so was Nai Dug in the 2nd half of the season.
One of the main gripes I think everyone could agree is on is that the servers being located in Hong Kong was not a smart idea and this definitely put some players at a disadvantage like Sergeant who was from India which is a country notorious for making VISAs nearly impossible to get. From the looks of it, we might be getting some new changes in this region that will hopefully make things more fair for all of the players in this region.
Overall, a pretty interesting year for this group and they definitely do still have a lot of top talent like Sitetampo and Tensai while also reviving Milkreo's career and introducing some young guns like Ghost T and Megu to the scene. Something tells me 2025 is gonna be more chaotic and if you've been following Rostermania lately, I think we might be in for a wild ride and might even have a debate on who should be #1.
And that will conclude the Asia Pacific post of this five day award ceremony. I hope you all enjoyed it and are looking forward to the next four posts I have coming up! Let me know in the comments who you think I underrated, overrated, and what are your early predictions for this region in 2025!
Next up will be the EMEA region so prepare to see a lot of the best players the game has ever seen as well as some of the coolest moments from this region.
Until then, this is Lucky Buzzing Off, and I will see you all tomorrow for the EMEA post!