SWOOPY AWARDS OVERVIEW
Welcome to the Swoopies, our seasonal league award show!
At the end of each season the Swoops team gets together and goes through a rigorous process of deciding which Swoopsters and which team owners are deserving of the most coveted awards in virtual basketball, narrowing down each category to three finalists. Our list of Swoopies includes:
- MOST VALUABLE SWOOPSTER
- DEFENSIVE SWOOPSTER OF THE YEAR
- GENERAL MANAGER OF THE YEAR
- OWNER OF THE YEAR
- ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
- MOST IMPROVED SWOOPSTER
Finalists are revealed Wednesday, August 2nd, with winners announced live via Twitch on Tuesday, August 8th.
AWARD EXPLANATIONS
MOST VALUABLE SWOOPSTER
The Most Valuable Swoopster award is given to the player who throughout the season has best displayed a combination of individual statistical dominance, impact on their team's success, and that Swoopster's ability to perform against all levels of competition. There is also an MVP tracker throughout the season to go along with our regular updates of power rankings and statistical leaders.
In Season 0, Posty McBuckets of the North Side 416ers was crowned our inaugural MVP.
DEFENSIVE SWOOPSTER OF THE YEAR:
The Defensive Swoopster of the Year is based on the same criteria as the MVS, but specifically looking at the defensive side of the ball. Which Swoopster has anchored the best defense in the league, best covered for their less defensively inclined teammates, locked down opposing star players, etc.
In Season 0, Timmy Dao of Unchained Web became our first Defensive Swoopster of the Year.
GENERAL MANAGER OF THE YEAR:
The General Manager of the Year is given to the team owner who has shown off their expert scouting ability and acquired talented Swoopsters, made savvy, unique, or unexpectedly fruitful trades and purchases, and put together an extraordinarily high quality roster as a result of their decisions on and off the court.
In Season 0, StarGodJL of the Star Gods was named General Manager of the Year.
OWNER OF THE YEAR:
The Owner of the Year is an award given to our "Community MVP." It's given to the Team Owner who best embodies the spirit of Swoops, is active, kind, helpful, and a force of positive energy in the Swoops Universe. That could be someone who is an invaluable content creator who helps enrich the Swoops experience, a trusted voice in the community who is there to provide assistance and advice, or a tireless ambassador for Swoops, showing off what it is that we've built and continue to build and inspiring people to find out more about our world so they can become team owners too. While this is the only award that is not directly tied to achievement inside of the game, it is the one that we are most proud to hand out.
In Season 0, we were honored to hand out the first Owner of the Year award to Wilderr of the A.I. North 67's.
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR:
The Rookie of the Year award goes to the Swoopster who, in their first season, found themselves in a meaningful role, had outlier statistics among their peers, and made the greatest impact on their team.
We want there to be a multitude of ways to earn Rookie of the Year honors, because there are a multitude of ways for a Swoopster to be great.
Some seasons the Rookie of the Year will be a Swoopster who came into the league guns blazing and was putting up huge numbers from day one. Other years, it may be a big man who was ready to anchor the defense of a Swoops team right away. It could even be a rookie whose all-around game enabled them to fit in as a multi-tool player for a team, becoming the last piece their squad needed to become a Swoops powerhouse. It's not a one size fits all award.
One point of clarification regarding the Rookie of the Year award; only Swoopsters in season one of their career (meaning those with a '1' listed under SEASON on their player card) will be eligible for the award. That is an important detail given the fact that our mints include a mixture of players entering their first season (i.e. rookies) and those veterans in seasons two or three.
MOST IMPROVED SWOOPSTER:
The Most Improved Swoopster award goes to the Swoopster who has demonstrated the largest jump in performance from the prior season, while providing a boost in performance for their team as well.
That could be a Swoopster who had a stellar evolution day and saw a sizable boost to their attributes, resulting in an equally meaningful increase statistical performance during the season as a result.
It could be a Swoopster who may have been riding the bench the prior year but found their way into the starting line-up, did the absolute most they could with those minutes, and were significantly more impactful as a result.
It could even be a Swoopster who may have played well on one team, but was moved to a different team in the off-season or mid-season, and flourished as a result of their newly found home.