2021 Hunter Awards - The Votes are In!

:sparkles: THE VOTES ARE IN! :sparkles:

Hello Hunters, and welcome to the first Hunter Awards - aka the Rykers! This week we will be announcing our winners, half decided by you, the Community, and half decided from in-game data!

:star2: Day 1 - Monday, Feb 8th :star2:

Transcript:

Hello Hunters! Welcome to Day 1 the 2021 Hunter Awards! I’m your host, Skathi.

For the past two weeks you’ve been voting for your favourites in Hero Hunters. The votes are in! It’s time to reveal our winners.

:sparkles: Faction of the Year:

Every Hero in Hero Hunters is divided into one of several Factions vying for control of the city. We asked the community to vote on which Faction had the strongest showing in Year 4, based on roster strength and overall usefulness.

The nominees are:

  • Rangers
  • Peoples Guard
  • UAF

And the Ryker for faction of the year goes to… the Rangers! Congratulations!

:star2: Rare Skin of the Year:

Rare Skins provide a significant power boost while drastically changing the way Heroes look on the battlefield. Who wore it best this year?

The nominees are:

  • Sapphyr - Sentai
  • Artemis - Sun’s Out
  • Serial - Heronium Infected

And the Ryker for rare skin of the year goes to… Serial - Heronium Infected! Congratulations!

:sparkles: Most Promotions of the Year:

We combed through our data to find the Heroes our players Promoted the most this year. From Bronze to Ruby, who was the most promoted?

The nominees are:

  • Butter
  • Nightingale
  • Cross

And the Ryker for most promotions goes to… Nightingale! Congratulations!

:star2: PvP Popularity Award

Closing out today’s awards, we have the PvP Popularity Award. This Ryker will go to the Hero with the highest pick rate across all players! They might not necessarily be the best Hero in the game, but they’re certainly the one that players most wanted on their winning team!

The nominees are:

  • Phalanx
  • Mandrake
  • Keel

And the Ryker for PVP Popularity goes to… Phalanx! Congratulations!

That’s all for now! Join us Wednesday and Friday this week for more award excitement! Thanks for watching, and congratulations to our winners!

:star2: Day 2 - Wednesday, Feb 10th :sparkles:

Transcript

Hello Hunters! Welcome to Day 2 the 2021 Hunter Awards! We’re back with even more exciting categories! I’m your host, Skathi.

:dizzy: Battleground of the Year:

First up today, Battleground of the Year.

This award goes to the most popular PvP map, as decided by you, the community!

The nominees are:

  • The Atrium
  • The Terminal
  • The Subway

And the Ryker goes to… It’s a tie! Congrats to the Atrium and The Subway!

:star2: MVPvP Award

Next up, the MVPvP Award.

This very special award goes to the Hero with the highest win rate in PvP matches across the entire year.

The nominees are:

  • Phalanx
  • Kiyoshi
  • Keel

And the Ryker goes to… Kiyoshi! Congratulations!

:sparkles: Squad of the Year Award

Speaking of PvP, it’s time to crown the Squad of the Year!

This award goes to the most popular PvP team, based on player activity recorded over the last year, excluding Beginner, Rookie, and Regular brackets.

The nominees are:

  • Halo, Keel, Krieger, Matador, Marianas
  • Halo, Keel, Phalanx, Baron, Marianas
  • Halo, Krieger, Phalanx, Baron, Marianas

And the Ryker goes to… Halo, Keel, Krieger, Matador, and Marianas! Congratulations!

:dizzy: The Klayton Award

And now, it’s time to close out today’s show with the coveted Klayton Award

Not all Heroes are created equal, and sometimes, Heroes get adjusted to make the game more interesting. We asked you, the community, to tell us who you think needed a buff the most in Year 4.

The nominees are:

  • Klayton
  • MK 2
  • Ryker

And the Klayton Award goes to… Ryker! Sorry Klayton, better luck next year.

That’s all for now! Join us Friday for the final installment of the Hunter Awards 2021! Thanks for watching, and congratulations to our winners!

Day 3 - Friday, Feb 12th

Transcript

Hello Hunters! Welcome to the final day of the 2021 Hunter Awards! I’m your host, Skathi

We saved the best for last. It’s time to reveal who you’ve crowned the Hero of the Year! We’ll also be honoring the Hunters who made the biggest impact on the game this year!

Before we get into the awards, we want to take a moment to remember those we have lost this year….

:star2: Hero of the Year

First up, Hero of the Year.

This award goes to the Hero that collectively stood out as the ultimate Hero during Year 4. All currently-released Heroes were eligible for this award, but only one can reign supreme.

The nominees are:

  • Kiyoshi
  • Serial
  • Krieger

And the Ryker goes to… Serial! Congratulations!

:dizzy: PvP Dominator Award

The PvP Dominator Award is a special award, going to the player with the most PvP match wins in Year 4. You all fought hard for supremacy in Brawls and PvP Tournaments throughout the year. Let’s see who came out on top.

The nominees are:

  • BurningGuardian898
  • FAIL4FUN
  • CherryRunner25718

And the Ryker goes to… FAIL4FUN! Congratulations and thank you to all of our players for making the competition exciting.

:sparkles: Alliance of the Year

The Alliance of the Year Award honors the one Alliance with the most Alliance Wars wins throughout the year in the Specialist, Expert, and Master brackets. The competition was fierce, with many Alliances dedicating themselves to the art of war throughout the course of the year. It’s time to announce the Alliance of the Year.

The nominees are:

  • Liberated [VRIJ]
  • Retirement Fund [TSTK]
  • ZVK [ZVK]

And the Ryker goes to… Retirement Fund! Congratulations and to all of the Alliances that played Alliance Wars this year.

:star2: Hunter of the Year

The time has finally come to announce our Hunter of the Year. We asked you to tell us which player made the biggest contribution to the community over the last year, whether through skilled play, helpful advice, or community growth efforts.

We got a lot of submissions for this category. We always knew that our community was filled to bursting with passion and heart, and you showed us that your dedication to the game, and to each other, is beyond outstanding.

Because of the passion of the Community, we have crowned three players Hunter of the Year! The Winners are:

Osric Temper

  • Osric is a well-known PVP Powerhouse, dominating the high level PVP scene.
  • One player remarked “[Osric Temper] has great leadership qualities and [is] always willing to help his teammates to grow and cherish.”
  • Congrats on being one of our Hunters of the Year, Osric Temper!

Next Hunter of the Year is…

Ghastly

  • Ghastly is a well known community member, active in all avenues of the Hero Hunters community.
  • One player remarked: “He has helped a lot of players with his involvement in the game, whether it’s how to pass certain levels or which heroes to upgrade. His advice on what teams to use in different levels has helped most of the community members I know.”
  • Congrats on being one of our Hunters of the Year, Ghastly!

And last but not least, our final Hunter of the Year is:

J A D O

  • J A D O can be found in VIP chat helping new players, and coming up with awesome Hero Concepts on the Hero Hunters Forums
  • One player remarked: “Anytime I ask a question in VIP, JADO is quick to answer. He is always willing to help. He is huge in the community. Also every event that comes around especially the scavenger hunts his contributions are immeasurable…he puts a lot of his own time into HH and without his presence you would definitely notice.”
  • Congrats on being one of our Hunters of the Year, J A D O! And thanks to everyone for their nominations!

On behalf of all of us here at Hothead Games, thank you so much for your continued support. It’s been an amazing four years, and we’re excited to show you what we have planned for Year Five.

Thanks for watching! We’ll see you in the Hunt!

:sparkling_heart: :sparkling_heart: :sparkling_heart:

22 Likes

Results are really surprising, lol. Rangers, Phalanx?! When all year was marked with Marianas meta.

For Serial regular skin it’s most useful because survivability may decide everything. And it’s just ugly too. With awesome texture of wicked metal, but Serial in that skin look like zombie from Command & Conquer Universe.

Ruby Nightingale it’s simple a joke. Support class in Ruby it’s waste of rare MK cores. We need serious rework because even duo of Ruby Beck with buff from Ruby Francoise don’t get any decent advantage.

The votes and data don’t lie! Players voted on Faction of the Year and Rare Skin of the Year, while PVP Popularity and Most Promotions was determined by in-game data and analytics.

12 Likes

Some of these were quite unexpected. Can’t wait for the rest of the results

1 Like

That’s crazy! Didn’t expect Rangers and Ryker to win a reward!!! Wow! I guess VIP is the microcosm here, cuz it’s apparent the larger player base isn’t as vocal…until now!

4 Likes

I’m really surprised that Serial did not make it to the top 3 of the Top 3 PvP popularity Award, but if you dig into the #s’ a little more, it’s probably because not all entry level players has him as he has a 7 star entry. Those of us that play in the 120k pvp bracket range see him nonstop and just assumed that he would be among the most popular on the pvp side.

1 Like

Rangers is probably my favorite faction especially for pvp/bounty with Astrix. I was happy when Keel and Drake were nerfed as they are used and abused in pvp and its lead to more original and creative team composition. Really like the Saph skin but it was released when I took a break from the game hopefully I will be able to get it eventually with a vault token. Gale should be one of the 1st 10 starred heroes for anyone given the low stamina hard mode frags and silver crate frags. Peoples guard is used too frequently as the featured faction I wish they would use them all more equally. Really like the Cara buff which is good for UAF Airborne, especially in bounty. I’m interested to see who wins what. Love the game since coming back tho!

3 Likes

These 3 heroes are the first you get in the game so of course they are going to be the most upgraded, it says from Bronze to Ruby meaning everything in between not specifically going from Bronze to Ruby. Almost every new player upgrades these 3 to bronze or silver within the first week of the game hence why they are the most upgraded by data.

A lot of this data is heavily skewed towards the newer players, would be interesting if HH could release the average level of said players who are included in this data. I would take a guess that is is only around level 30 or 40 average. This is likely why despite us high level players seeing Serial all the time, he is unlikely to be the most used as players within this low average level won’t have unlocked him; Keel, Mandrake and Phalanx are still the dominant low and mid level PVP heroes without a doubt. Gold and Platinum PVP is a whole different world from Plat+5 and Ruby PVP.

3 Likes

We won’t be releasing specifics on the data, as this is supposed to be a fun award event celebrating the last year of the game, and not something that should become a point of contention or cause ire. Relax. Enjoy. Not everything needs to be so serious, and not every statement we make should be treated as an opportunity to ask for access to our records to disprove what we’re saying.

3 Likes

In no way was I making this a point of contention but merely explaining why the data is what it is to some of the people above. Was just asking a curious question, no need to make such a big deal about it :man_shrugging:t3:

2 Likes

I personally dig it, stats are stats, and all the heroes listed I do see in pvp teams often. Don’t know why people are making points over the fact that Serial is not #1 in all areas :joy:.

3 Likes

New shiny video. :star2: Must “list” it, so others browsing/subscribed on YouTube can see it uploaded to them.

1 Like

Ngl, for the pvp one i thought it would have been a big healer or Serial cause you know (originality). But didn’t expect Phalanx. Sometimes forget she is there and her shields are a thing.

I hope there will be a winner for Patrol Heroes too…
And winner for most unused heroes if there’s no factions events…
(so that hero obviously needs more buffs)…
:grin:

2 Likes

I really like the format very swish haha

I agree I look at this as fun and shouldn’t be looked at as a nit picking exercise…

Go HH :muscle:

Just to clarify, it’s “unlisted” currently. So only those who have the link can see it.

image

We read your first message! Thanks.

So presumably if the data portion of the analysis was done each year the numbers would remain the same. (Assuming popularity of the game stays the course.) I appreciate this look into the data. Makes sense that some players prefer to keep their heroes at lower numbers to play in the lower brackets. I have absolutely always LOVED Ryker and wish he was worth a hoot at higher levels. Unfortunately he gets lost in the power heroes of today.

@Skathi Could you speak to the business decision to not share the deeper data? I would love to apply some analysis and graphs to your numbers. Maybe even spin up a little AI to find interesting patterns…

Part 2 is now up!!

#KlaytonWasRobbed :sob:

4 Likes

Lol, i like how Klayton lost.