The ESLAND Awards (Spanish: Premios ESLAND) are an annual awards ceremony given to content creation from Spain, Latin America, and Andorra, by Spanish YouTuber and streamer David Cánovas Martínez "TheGrefg".[1][2][3] The winners of each award are chosen by public vote and from among the top content creators in the Spanish-speaking community.[4][5][6]
The first edition took place on January 17, 2022, at the Palau de la Música Catalana, Barcelona, and was streamed live on the streamer's Twitch channel. With more than 1 million sixty thousand viewers, it became the third most watched stream on the platform.[7][8]
"ESLAND" is an acronym that refers to "España", "Latinoamérica" and "Andorra" (Spain, Latin America and Andorra).[9]
On December 4, 2021, TheGrefg announced the arrival of the Esland Awards through its Twitter account. There he detailed that it would take place on January 17 of the following year, from 18:00 to 23:00 (CET). The winner of each award would be chosen by a public vote, through the website, and the private votes of "150 of the most important content creators in the Spanish-speaking community".[10][11]
The event was presented by TheGrefg himself, who called it "the most important project of his life".[12] On the other hand, some media considered it "the Goya of Twitch" or "of the streamer world".[13][14]
TheGrefg stated that in a second edition, the Esland would be held in Latin America to "have worldwide coverage".[15] It was held on 29 January 2023 at the Auditorio Nacional in Mexico City.[16][17]
On January 19, 2022, a clip went viral from streamer Folagor, who showed his disagreement with the nominees in the "roleplayer of the year" category, calling them "fucking bullshit". The controversy trended on Twitter with another clip, where he said that streamer Biyin, who was nominated as a "revelation streamer," became famous "for being AuronPlay's girlfriend," so he didn't understand the reason for her nomination. After other streamers spoke out on the issue, in a broadcast, Folagor apologized for his expressions, explained that Biyin's clip was "taken out of context" and, still maintaining his opinion, stressed that "it should have been other people who should have been nominated".[25][26][27][28][29]
In October 2022, due to the announcement of the second edition which would take place on Mexico City, a controversy came up, in which Spaniard streamers Rubius and AuronPlay, among other streamers said that "they weren't going to Mexico because it would be too far". These comments weren't well received by their mexican followers, which led to a decrease on these streamers' followers counters.
On the second edition, a nomination to the user "Follacamiones24" (which could be translated as Trucksmasher24) on the dance of the year category went viral due to its irrelevance on Twitch platform, as he was an X social media user. Different influencers showed their opinion, being the most influential the opinion stated by the streamer TheGrefg, who said that the X user previously mentioned was not going to be supported by the community. These words carried with theirselves different reviews about its user's fair participation on these awards edition.