The best esports plays of 2021

2021 has been an amazing year in esports. There have been ups and downs, COVID played spoilsport for a few titles (sorry Dota 2 fans), but the quality of games reached new heights. As we head towards the end of the year, here’s a compilation of the best esports plays of the year. 

It was the fifth map of the grand finals of the ESL Pro League Season 13. The two teams had been neck to neck so far, with two maps (Train and Inferno) going to Overtime. In fact, the Train map was a special one as Gambit and Heroic fought for 54 rounds on a single map. 

The fifth map was Mirage and both teams were well-versed in it. However, Heroic was clearly dominant and ran away towards victory. They reached 15 to Gambit’s 6 rounds, but the 22nd round seemed to be in favor of the CIS squad. CadiaN was left alone against four Gambit members; the casters and Heroic fans had little hope for this round. Little hope kept on rising with each kill that CadiaN administered.

The Heroic IGL started with a knife kill on Gambit’s Dmitriy "sh1ro" Sokolov. CS: GO fans are still surprised at how he managed to get away with the AWP nonetheless. After that, as the Gambit players came to fight him one by one, CadiaN got frag after frag. The joy in the Heroic camp after that fabulous 1v4 displayed their raw emotions and the quality of the play. It was a 1v4 that not only won them the round, the map but it also secured their ESL Pro League Season 13 victory.

This is not necessarily a single play, but a culmination of multiple plays throughout the tournament. Navi has been the most dominant team in 2021 and they topped it off with a win at the CS: GO Major and the BLAST Premier World Finals.

The best player of 2021 was S1mple, without a doubt. The GOAT had an amazing year out-classing his opponents in Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut and Nikola "NiKo" Kovač. But there was one tournament where he particularly stood out, with four aces, the most in a single tournament. There were four instances during IEM Cologne 2021 when S1mple single-handedly wiped out the entire enemy team. 

It was the lower bracket run for OG. The two-time TI champion had picked Tiny for Syed Sumail "SumaiL" Hassan, which was one of the flavors at TI10. And SumaiL dominated the entire game, even dominating Team Spirit in a 1v5 situation. Things looked dire for Team Spirit as they simply did not have any answer for Tiny.

This was true until Magomed "Collapse" Khalilov decided to do something that was completely extraordinary. Something that brought back memories of Dendi's fountain hook at TI3.

OG were ahead throughout most of the first map with SumaiL’s Tiny indestructible. Team Spirit tried everything and nothing worked. But there was this one play, a play no one had thought about that saw Tiny in the enemy fountain. 

SumaiL’s quick reactions saw him buying a Ghost scepter to try to survive, but even that was not enough. He could have probably survived 1v5, but when the fountain is also hitting you; there’s little you can do. This play single-handedly saw every Dota 2 fan, analyst and player take notice of Team Spirit. 

Team Spirit would then go on to win TI10, completing an amazing lower-bracket run that saw them take on several favorites on the way.

The rookie of the year earned his title after a breathtaking performance in Game 4 against 100Thieves. Kyle "Danny" Sakamaki wiped out 100Thieves after what seemed to be a lost game for his team. The youngster’s performance was incredible and also helped his team stay alive. 

100Thieves were pushing to end the series but Danny had other plans. Pushing through to the other side of the map and ensuring there are minions, Danny forced 100Thieves to take the fight to him. Ultimately he was able to wipe out the remaining two players and secure his ace, but more importantly, help Evil Geniuses win the match.

Despite being a play at the very start of the year, Virtue’s vertical plant denial versus Team BDS at the Rainbow Six Pro League remains one of the best of the year. G2 faced BDS in the grand finals of the European League. G2 had faced BDS a few months earlier in the European League 2020 and had lost handily. But G2 had other plans during the 2021 event. 

It was the first map and both teams were tied neck to neck at 7-7. One round for the victory. And BDS got all the initial frags leaving only Virtue to try to win the map. And he did. In what can be described as a fantastic positioning and awareness of the enemy’s movement, Virtue got a kill in the post-plant, a 1v4 situation. He got the kill on BriD to secure Theme Park for G2 esports. It was a smart play that enabled his team to win this match and secure his place in the best epsorts plays of 2021.

Playing football with cars requires a lot of skill. From adjusting the angles to the speed, there is a lot of minute details that often go unnoticed when it comes to fantastic plays. One such goal Marc "MaRc_By_8’s ceiling shot in the Grand Finals of the RLCS Season X- Spring; Europe versus Solary. IT was the fifth game of the series, and with BDS of tournament point, this goal set the ball rolling on Wasteland.

The play was particularly impressive if you notice MaRc_By_8’s jump as soon as the ball leaves his teammate Evan "M0nkey M00n" Rogez. The perfectly timed move enables Marc to bounce the ball off the corner ceiling and into the enemy’s goal. It was a fabulous play, one that was a contributing factor to BDS’ tournament success and is one of the best esports plays of 2021.

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