JOTYA Winners

by Crazy Ivan


The numbers are going up about 24 hours late and for that I apologize.  We ended up having way more people over for the big game than we intended and I got caught up.  And, of course, the game was spectacularly good and we were all feeling pretty celebratory here in NYC afterwards.  But the final votes have now been counted and the winners are in.

First, a quick congratulations to all the nominees.  While I'm sure everyone scrolled down to the winners before actually reading this, it can't be overstated what an honor it is to be recognized by your peers in a contest like this.  Nominations and votes are by Myachi Maniacs from all over the world (okay, the United States and Switzerland) and while Myachi Masters do sometimes vote in them, the only people controlling the outcome here are the Myachi Maniacs and the nominees themselves.

And of course, my favorite thing about doing the JOTYAs every year is hearing from some former forum regulars that seem to pop in once a year and cast their votes.  So a quick thanks to everyone who voted and took the time to make this the biggest JOTYA to date (over twice as many votes as last year).

So let's start off with the most contentious battle in the whole program, the...

 FORUM AWARD 

This year we had a great slate of nominees and all of them garnered a few votes, but two of the four were neck and neck throughout the voting process.  It was quite a horse race watching one of them pull ahead and then the other.  In fact, I thought that we were going to have a tie in this category for the second time, but when the last vote came in, it swung the pendulum a hair's breadth toward the winner.  Who won by exactly one vote.

And who is that narrow victor, you might ask?

Why, MMFL, of course who is taking home his second Forum Award.

And while I always feel a pang of sympathy for all the nominees that don't end up winning, I especially feel for Blue Samurai, who came one vote shy of the tie.  So sympathetic, in fact, that he'll be earning a special 5th pick in the sack draft later in the week for an "Honorable Mention" prize.

Now, let's move on to the 2nd most heated battle of the year, the...

 TRIXTER AWARD 

This fight was close, but not quite as close as the Forum award.  Where MMFL won by a single vote, the eventual champion in this contest would win by a whopping two.

There was an interesting mix of candidates this year.  3 of the 4 were veterans of the game, but an influential new-comer was also represented.  He may have joined the game recently, but he has the skills of a vet and that's all that matters for this award.  But would his skills be enough to catapult him past legends?

Well, as it turns out, not quite.  There was a solid 4 way battle in this category and the 4th place finisher was only 5 votes behind 1st place, but ultimately it would be the most veteran player in the mix that would win it.

Congratulations to KickStand (aka Coreyster), this year's Trixter Award winner.

And a quick shout out to Helium, who came in a very close 2nd despite having joined the forum on Jan 1st of this year.  What a way to make a quick impression.

Now, let's move on to my personal favorite award, the...

 STWAKOJ AWARD 

This is the most international of the JOTYAs, having twice gone to the UK and once to a US citizen living in China.  In fact, last year would mark the first time it was ever won by somebody inside the USA.  Any nominee familiar with that history was probably nervous when they saw that Switzerland's favorite Myachi Maniac was among their competition this year.

While this one wasn't quite as close fought as the first two I listed, there was a bit of a battle on this one as well.  It wasn't until Thursday that the eventual winner really started to pull ahead and though he ended up winning by 6 total votes, it was a close race for the first full week of voting.

And once again, this year's STWAKOJ Award will find it's way overseas.  Congratulations to Myachi Max, this year's champion spreader of the word of Myachi.

And a quick shout out as well to J-Slack, who came in 2nd place in this category and earned a pretty substantial number of votes.  To give you an idea how many, while he came in 6 behind Max, he actually garnered more votes in this category than last years winner.

And finally, the most important of all the awards, and the least contended as well, the...

 LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD 

There were four very deserving nominees this year, but it was pretty clear early in the voting who was going to win.  While all four nominees got several votes, in the end it was a landslide.  The winner actually gathered up more votes than all three other nominees combined.  Not only does this speak volumes in such an important and prestigious award, but it will also earn him the top spot in the upcoming Myachi draft.

So a huge congratulations to Downtown Myachi, the winner of the 2nd ever Lifetime Achievement JOTYA.

And thanks again for all the votes, nominations and fun.  Looking forward to next year's already!