Game Infinite's Best of 2021 Event Recap
2021 was an absolutely amazing year for games, and with that saw amazing cosplay, fan art, and other creator content! End of year we do a massive end of year event, where we celebrate the gaming industry as a whole, along with the content creators in the community. We also celebrate content from games in our various Gi Channels. 2021 lead us to do the biggest "Best Of" yet. We included more channels, more community polls, and more articles, than ever before. This article will be a celebration and recap of all the "Best Of" awards that Game Infinite gave out and community selections. All creator content is shared with permission. As the event concludes, we will select two winners from the winner pool to win a grand prize of either a free shirt, or a 25$ gift card prize.
We want to thank all creator participants who trust us with their content. Just being nominated speaks to the quality we see in your content. We want to congratulate the winners of each community poll as it shows how much the community values your amazing work! All creator content is shared with permission. Links to participants in each category are connected throughout.
Gaming Industry / General
This category we shout out a select few games of 2021, that had special praise. These choices were picked by Game Infinite.
Forza Horizon 5 - GOTY 2021
Splitgate - Indie GOTY 2021
Apex Legends - Best Ongoing Game 2021
Mass Effect Legendary Edition - Best Remaster 2021
Tales of Arise - Best RPG 2021
Life is Strange True Colors - Best Narrative 2021
Forza Horizon 5 "Innovative Approach to Custom Character" - Best New Character 2021
Splitgate "Battle Rifle" - Best New Video Game Weapon 2021
In addition to these, we also did several Game Infinite Best of 2021 Event Articles you may find interesting.
Best Revisits of 2021 (Remasters, Expansions, Seasons)
Top 10 New Video Games Weapons of 2021
Top 10 New Video Game Characters of 2021
Most Anticipated Games of 2022 and Beyond.
A look back at our past GOTY Winners...
Game Infinite Player's Choice GOTY 2021
We asked the Game Infinite community what their pick for GOTY 2021 would be. During this event, we did many community polls, and it seems right to introduce a "Player's Choice" category, to see what our community enjoyed most this year. Some runner-ups include Deathloop in number 2, with Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart and Life is Strange True Colors receiving praise as well. However, in the end, the most votes arrives for Lady D herself in Resident Evil Village. Make sure to tell us what your favorite game of the year was in the comments on this articles post on socials. Do you agree with our top pick in Forza Horizon 5, or do you side with the masses and pick Village?
Best 3D Render Art
3D Render Art was a new category we innovated on this year, as we have seen a growing interested to 3D art and felt we had come across some truly amazing talent in 2021.
Nier Automata (2b) - @milapone_official WINNER
Resident Evil (Jill) - @gta_gvjlima
Mass Effect (Commander Shepard) - @cshells_n7
Wonder Woman - @p7j5art
Tomb Raider - @doppelzgz
GiFriends Creator Community
GiFriends is the name of our creator community. While we support hundreds of creators, this community is for creators we have partnered with to regularly support and feature as a member of the Game Infinite family. These talented creators continue to deliver quality content, and we give them special mention here.
GiFriends Best Fan Art
The community voted for the amazing and talented @nico_artoooo and their Triss fan art from the Witcher series. Major shoutout the the incredible art from these other GiFriends artists.
Witcher (Triss) - @nico_artoooo WINNER
Resident Evil (Lady D) - @naytendo
Danganronpa (Mikan) - @suoniko
Genshin Impact (Xiao) - @mafersketch
Genshin Impact (Mona) - @_paintless_
My Hero Academia (Midoriya) - @2b_mako.arts
GiFriends Best Original Character Art
Our talented GiFriends has created some absolutely amazing original art. These are original characters, made by our GiFriends artists. They are all available in the Creator Collection on the GI Store where you can support these creators financially.
@naytendoshop Yukki
@suoniko Jelly
@aelion_draws Zuri WINNER
@woofgalaxyofficial Borias
@sabrinatwyla Prism
GiFriends Best Cosplay
Mass Effect (Miranda Lawson) - @cshells_n7 / @ishouldgo_n7
Wonder Woman - @altheashrimpiecosplay (Althea)
Super Girl - @altheashrimpiecosplay (Shrimpie)
Valorant (Killjoy) - @brendie.art WINNER
Harley Quinn @dragonlordcosplays
Genshin Impact (Eula) - @zorua.maximum
GiFriends STREAMER OF THE YEAR
It truly was amazing to see the followers of these talented creators flock in support of their favorite streamer. I know it meant a lot to them to see our community and theirs come together to celebrate them. We at Game Infinite love it when we get to catch their streams, and absolutely can't wait to see how they bring it this 2022. Zorua is helping us beta test a new promotional program for streamers called GiFriends Elite, that we hope to launch in 2022. Jay had his streaming highlighted by the actual Tomb Raider official page. Brandy is so close to Twitch Partner, we can't wait to see her cross that finish line! Pam was our two time Best Cosplay winner, so it was amazing to support her on her transition towards more streaming focused content this year!
A) @scionjay96
B) @slaywithbrandy WINNER
D) @pamm.pann
Final Fantasy Infinite
Best Final Fantasy Fan Art
(In Order from Left to Right, Top to Bottom)
A) @sey_fanarts WINNER
D) @teban1983
Best FFXIV Character Shot
Final Fantasy XIV is a huge part of the FF Community, and it has spawned an entire community of photo enthusiasts who spends as much time photographing characters in the game as they do other game content. The customer characters they create are often incredible!
(In Order from Left to Right, Top to Bottom)
B) @morri_morri.ffxiv WINNER
C) @xiv.kai
E) @eph.ffxiv
F) @asuka.s.o
G) @ellie.xiv
Best Final Fantasy Tifa Cosplay
Tifa is easily the most popular Final Fantasy character to cosplay. More cosplay is done fore Tifa than any other character, and many in our Final Fantasy Infinite community, love bringing this incredible character to life. Due to Tifa's popularity, she gets her own cosplay category. Here are some of the best Tifa's we saw this year.
(In Order from Left to Right, Top to Bottom)
B) @luce_cosplay WINNER
Best Final Fantasy Cosplay (misc.)
(In Order from Left to Right, Top to Bottom)
A) @yayachu
B) @talesoflightning WINNER
C) @kittiyume
Mass Effect Infinite
We were extremely excited to include our newest Gi Channel in the event for it's first year. Launching Mass Effect Infinite in 2021, was an especially exciting launch for me, as Mass Effect is my all time favorite video game, and 2021 was the year we got to breathe new life into this franchise with the remastered Legendary Edition.
Best Mass Effect Fan Art
Talented artist Nico_artoooo, behind the original design our own Infinite Girl, continues to regularly deliver incredible fan arts, with their second win of the event! Not only did they win Best GiFriends Fan Art with their Triss, the community selected his Miranda Lawson as Best Mass Effect Fan Art! We agree that he really nailed the attitude and look of Miranda.
Legion - @dielectrode
Liara - @art_of_hyperion
Tali - @treaclescat
Miranda Lawson - @nico_artoooo WINNER
Best Mass Effect Cosplay
Miranda continues to be a popular character for Mass Effect creators as Stormborncat was also selected for Best Cosplay, absolutely slaying her alternate uniform design.
(In Order from Left to Right, Top to Bottom)
Fem Shep - 1 @cecilosaurus
Miranda - @stormborncat WINNER
Fem Shep - 2 @amelie_szcz
Bro Shep - @talon_revan_cosplay
Miranda 2 - @imagine.the.fire
Apex Infinite
Apex Infinite continued in 2021 to be our most popular Gi Channel. The Apex community absolutely loves the cosplays, fan arts, and other Apex content we deliver, and 2021 was our biggest year yet. We were absolutely blown away by our creator partners and the amazing content they produced.
Best Apex Cosplay
Jessiiistephiii absolutely killed it as Loba. She has everything from a quality look to the pose. She does an absolutely fantastic job bringing to life my personal favorite Legend in the game, and the community agreed when they voted her Best Apex Cosplay.
(In Order from Left to Right, Top to Bottom)
B) @jessiiistephiii WINNER
C) @raikohru
E) @iblearycos
F) @luminalisa
Best Apex Wattson Fan Art
Wattson was such a popular character for fan arts in 2021, that we felt it necessary to section off to her own category. It was a close one, but ultimately the community fell in love with Rythuliaan's soft and watercolor art style.
(In Order from Left to Right, Top to Bottom)
A) @suoniko
B) @rythuliaan WINNER
C) @sergahdz00
D) @entransing_
Best Apex Fan Art
So many amazing fan arts were made in the Apex community, but Warren really just knocked their Valk art of the park. Commenters said how much this looks like an official piece of art made by Respawn. If Respawn doesn't contact Warren to get this art in some official capacity, they'd be making a mistake.
A) @maybot_art
B) @glezartz
C) @treaclescat
D) @warren.x.art WINNER
E) @so_soleful
Best New Legend of 2021
One of the things that makes Apex Legends unique and keeps it fresh each season, is the addition of a new hero character, called Legends. These new characters bring new abilities, gameplay mechanics, lore, and shake up the meta of what works best in the game. 2021 brought some truly fun and engaging characters. Crowd favorite Fuse was a close second, but it was Valkyrie that took the title as voted by the Apex Infinite Community. Her quips and high flying action brought a next-level amount of verticality and traversal to the game, that make her one of the more fun Legends to move around with. Plus her rockets and hover abilities can make her great for third party attacks. Tell us in the comments, who was your favorite addition to 2021's Apex Legends. Tell us what type of character you would like to see added to the game and why it is another medic because good god we need another one.
Tomb Raider Infinite
The Tomb Raider community is one that continues to support and thrive in the Game Infinite community. They consist of some of the nicest and most supportive people in the gaming community. They continue to bring amazing talent to Tomb Raider Infinite. We really enjoyed launching our Tomb Raider Tuesdays over on twitter, and our Tomb Raider Creator Round Up was a blast. Below are some of the amazing Tomb Raider Creators we celebrated this year.
Best Tomb Raider Cosplay
Any one of these talented cosplayers could step into the live action shoes of a Lara Croft and we would believe them to be Lara herself. They all nail the look, attitude, and vibe that is our favorite adventurer.
(In Order from Left to Right, Top to Bottom)
A) @lili_din_farghul WINNER
D) @angell.cos2
Best Tomb Fan Art
We had so many talented Tomb Raider Fan Arts this year, we just had to split it into to groups! Major shoutout goes to eliottsontot who made it to the top 2. With Tomb Raider Infinite and Tomb Raider Tuesdays, we are extremely excited to see the Lara's these and other creators create in 2022! Ultimately, the community just fell in love with Doodles_by_reha's cartoon and whimsical art style. The reboot Lara is often gritty, and dark, and this art just really lightens up the mood and can't help but put a smile on any Tomb Raider fan.
(In Order from Left to Right, Top to Bottom)
Group 1
C) @eliottsontot RUNNER UP
Group 2
A) @_adayka_
B) @amargonzart
C) @doodles_by_reha WINNER
D) @marvzwart
Best Tomb Raider Screenshot
It was Jay's talent and passion for the Tomb Raider photography that initially brought us to being a fan of his, and what ultimately lead us to launching Tomb Raider Infinite in the first place. Since then, we have come to know so many amazing photo artists in the Tomb Raider Community! These are some of the best ones we featured in 2021! These photo artists honestly all deliver amazing shots that really just bring to life characters in games.
(In Order from Left to Right, Top to Bottom)
A) @tcmb_raider
B) @scionjay96
C) @purecroft
D) @kmb_rlr
E) @laraswackyadventure WINNER
Star Wars Infinite
Best Star Wars Cosplay
We were excited to include Star Wars Infinite in the Best of 2021 Event for the first time, with help from our talented and trusted Mods @nerdherderpodcast. These talented cosplayers brought amazing Star Wars characters to life from across the Star Wars timelines, with incredible armors and detailed costumes.
Starkiller - @redsabers.fr
Boba Fett - @dcwbuilds WINNER
Phasma - @annebamberg
Padme - @veerivscosplay
Nier Infinite
Nier Infinite has proven to be one of our fastest growing channels, I predict to be competing with Apex Infinite for top sport in 2022. The Nier community just cannot get enough of the Nier universe and 2B herself. She continues to be a fan favorite for cosplay and fan art. We love showcasing the endless amount of talented creators who bring to life this fan favorite android and friends.
Best 2B Fan Art
Mako is an artist with an instantly recognizable art style and the ability to turn out quality content quickly. They are always drawing, and the community fell in love with their Princess 2b. What we loved about this community poll, was just how vast and different the character is portrayed, showing the range that this character offers artists. We love how 2b can be anything from a cute chibi type character, to anime style, to a princess.
(In Order from Left to Right, Top to Bottom)
A) @xarinesca
B) @deathriel
C) @2b_mako.arts WINNER
D) @astroboyjed
E) @kukiilou
Best 2b Cosplay
2b Cosplay was another cosplay that we just had so many amazing talented creators, we had to split it into to groups. Major shoutout to eubichan for being our runner up, winning round 1 proves how much the community enjoyed her amazing cosplay. Ultimately Fenychan took it home, with one of the absolutely most stunning 2b cosplays! Here is another one where Square Enix needs to reach out for the quality professional cosplay.
Group 1
D) @eubichan RUNNER UP
Group 2
A) @fae.eerie
B) @fenyachan WINNER
Best A2 Cosplay
It was exciting to introduce a new category, celebrating cosplay for A2! Cosplayers in the Nier community enjoyed bringing this other beloved character to life and we were impressed by these creators!
B) @sakura.loli
D) @nierysx WINNER