Lastnight at the John W.H. Bassett Theatre in Toronto the Canadian games industry came together to celebrate the best and brightest in the Canadian landscape. From the best games of 2025, to content creators, Esports players and a small peek at some of the upcoming games, it was a special night.

Yours truly was in attendance. It was my first time going to an event like this and I didn’t quite know what to expect. The ceremony itself was a great time with lots of laughs and celebrations. The Shepards hosted, as Jennifer Hale and Mark Meers did a fabulous job keeping everyone engaged and entertained.

Just being in that room with all these developers and content creators felt a little surreal and it was hard not to feel inspired. Everyone talked about how important the Canadian games industry is, and how proud they were to be Canadian.

I too am proud to be Canadian and proud to run a website hosted in Canada. While we have writers from all over the world, and I am proud to say that as well, being Canadian will always be at the forefront of Gamer Social Club. There’s a reason i was adamant to have our website be a .ca to display my Canadian pride.

But to hear some of the content creators who were interviewed during the pre-show and during the video packages talk about their journey, how they just wanted to have a voice in gaming and took the chance while staying true to themselves, as I said it was inspiring.

Of course those creators have much more outgoing personalities than myself, there’s a reason they are infront of a screen and I chose to create something behind the screen using written words, but I think that’s the beauty of gaming and the gaming community. You can make it no matter what you choose to do, so long as you show passion and drive to do so. Who thought some guy from a small city in Canada could find a great team and build a website thats featured on Metacritic and interviewing industry giants in just 2 years. Certainly not me!

All of this is a long winded way to say, if you are reading this and wanting to get into gaming as a creator, whether that’s in games media like myself or become a streamer or Youtuber, take the leap and bet on yourself. Whether you make it big or not doesn’t really matter. The biggest joy and accomplishment in all of this is putting yourself out there and doing it with something you love like video games.

South Of Midnight Wins Big

As for the award ceremony itself the pacing of the show was great because the awards were coming pretty quickly. A presenter would come on stage, announce the nominees and winner and a short speech would follow. The developers were then slipped off the stage to the back and on the next award would be presented.

The biggest winner on the night was Compulsion Games and South of Midnight. I would laugh and tell my wife while the next set of nominees were announced that Compulsion might as well just stay on the stage because they were about to be called back up. The last 2 awards in particular, for Studio of the Year and Game of the Year, the team had just sat back down in their seats and then were immediately called back up for the next award.

The game itself also enjoyed the loudest pop when first being announced as a nominee. I honestly wasn’t expecting this as I didn’t think South of Midnight was that popular. I loved the game when I reviewed it last year. I thought it should have won best art and best music at last years Game Awards. It was nice to see it get the love it deserves from the Canadian community.

All in all South of Midnight and Compulsion ended up taking home 7 awards for:

• Best Art Direction
• Best Narrative
• Best Soundtrack
• Best Audio Design
• Best Console Game
• Studio Of the Year
• Game Of The Year

Lost Records: Bloom & Rage was also a big winner by winning the Fan Choice award. Again this was another game I quite enjoyed but I didn’t think was popular enough to win a fan choice award. It was interesting to see that South of Midnight won big on the night but wasn’t even in the top 5 for fan voting! You can see the full list of nominees and winners at the bottom of this article.

Victor Lucas Honored With Game Changer Award

The show also featured an award for Victor Lucas, the creator of The Electric Playground. This award was similar to a lifetime achievement award at something like the Oscars and no one deserved it as much as Victor Lucas. A pioneer not just in Canadian media but in gaming media worldwide, Lucas helped put gaming on the worldwide map with Electric Playground.

The fact that the show is still going nearly 30 years later is a testament to what he created. There was a lovely video package before his acceptance speech and you could tell how much Lucas has touched the hearts of all those in the video, let alone most of us in that theatre.

Speaking of the speech, Lucas did a fantastic job and as I’ve been saying throughout this article, it was pretty inspiring. Getting choked up speaking about his wife supporting him touched me and brought a tear to my eye as my wife supports me in the same way. He spoke on the industry and what it meant to him and it has only motivated me to bring an even better product to our readers at Gamer Social Club. If you are reading this Victor, thank you for inspiring all of us to create content around gaming.

And thanks to the Canadian Game Awards for putting on this event. It was my first time going but certainly won’t be my last as I will try and make it every year to celebrate this industry in Canada.

You can see the full list of nominees and winners below. The winners are bolded.

Game of the Year

• Assassin’s Creed Shadows (Ubisoft Quebec — Quebec City, Que.)
• Hell is Us (Rogue Factor — Montreal, Que.)
• Lost Records: Bloom & Rage (Don’t Nod Montreal — Montreal, Que.)
• South of Midnight (Compulsion Games — Montreal, Que.)
• Wanderstop (Ivy Road — Vancouver, B.C.)

Studio of the Year

• Compulsion Games (Montreal, Que.)
• Digital Extremes (London, Ont.)
• Rogue Factor (Montreal, Que.)
• Tribute Games (Montreal, Que.)
• Yellow Brick Games (Quebec City, Que.)

Best Indie Game

• Ambrosia Sky: Act One (Soft Rains — Toronto, Ont.)
• Ctrl Alt Deal (Only By Midnight — Edmonton, Alta.)
• Fresh Tracks (Buffalo Buffalo — Vancouver, B.C.)
• Marvel Cosmic Invasion (Tribute Games — Montreal, Que.)
• Wanderstop (Ivy Road — Vancouver, B.C.) – Sadly Ivy Road was shut down earlier this year and no one could accept this

Best Game Design

• Assassin’s Creed Shadows (Ubisoft Quebec — Quebec City, Que.)
• Battlefield 6 (Battlefield Studios — Montreal’s Motive is one of numerous studios that works on Battlefield)
• Hell is Us (Rogue Factor — Montreal, Que.)
• Eternal Strands (Yellow Brick Games — Quebec City, Que.)
• South of Midnight (Compulsion Games — Montreal, Que.)

Best Narrative

• Assassin’s Creed Shadows (Ubisoft Quebec — Quebec City, Que.)
• Hell is Us (Rogue Factor — Montreal, Que.)
• Lost Records: Bloom & Rage (Don’t Nod Montreal — Montreal, Que.)
• South of Midnight (Compulsion Games — Montreal, Que.)
• Wanderstop (Ivy Road — Vancouver, B.C.)

Best Art Direction

• Eternal Strands (Yellow Brick Games — Quebec City, Que.)
• Lost Records: Bloom & Rage (Don’t Nod Montreal — Montreal, Que.)
• Marvel Cosmic Invasion (Tribute Games — Montreal, Que.)
• 33 Immortals (Thunder Lotus Games — Montreal, Que.)
• South of Midnight (Compulsion Games — Montreal, Que.)

Entertainment Software Association of Canada Fan Choice Award

1. Lost Records: Bloom & Rage (Don’t Nod Montreal — Montreal, Que.)
2. Warframe: The Old Peace (Digital Extremes — London, Ont.)
3. Fresh Tracks (Buffalo Buffalo — Vancouver, B.C.)
4. Hell is Us (Rogue Factor — Montreal, Que.)
5. Assassin’s Creed Shadows (Ubisoft Quebec — Quebec City, Que.)

Best Audio Design

• Assassin’s Creed Shadows (Ubisoft Quebec — Quebec City, Que.)
• Battlefield 6 (Battlefield Studios — Montreal’s Motive is one of numerous studios that works on Battlefield)
• Eternal Strands (Yellow Brick Games — Quebec City, Que.)
• Hell is Us (Rogue Factor — Montreal, Que.)
• South of Midnight (Compulsion Games — Montreal, Que.)

Best Score/Soundtrack

• Assassin’s Creed Shadows (The Flight and Montreal’s Teke: Teke)
• Eternal Strands (Austin Wintory)
• Lost Records: Bloom & Rage (Montreal’s Milk & Bone and Ruth Radelet)
• Marvel Cosmic Invasion (Tee Lopes)
• South of Midnight (Olivier Derivière)

Best Performance

• Erica Luttrell as Melissa Mills in Battlefield 6 (Toronto, Ont.)
• Olivia Lepore as Swann Holloway in Lost Records: Bloom & Rage (Montreal, Que.)
• Momona Tamada as Oni-yuri in Assassin’s Creed Shadows (Vancouver, B.C.)
• Peter Shinkoda as Fujibayashi Nagato in Assassin’s Creed Shadows (Montreal, Que.)
• Elias Toufexis as Rémi in Hell is Us (Montreal, Que.)

Best Console Game

• Assassin’s Creed Shadows (Ubisoft Quebec — Quebec City, Que.)
• Battlefield 6 (Battlefield Studios — Montreal’s Motive is one of numerous studios that works on Battlefield)
• Hell is Us (Rogue Factor — Montreal, Que.)
• Marvel Cosmic Invasion (Tribute Games — Montreal, Que.)
• South of Midnight (Compulsion Games — Montreal, Que.)

Best PC Game

• Aloft (Astrolabe Interactive — Montreal, Que.)
• Ambrosia Sky: Act One (Soft Rains — Toronto, Ont.)
• Battlefield 6 (Battlefield Studios — Montreal’s Motive is one of numerous studios that works on Battlefield)
• Eternal Strands (Yellow Brick Games — Quebec City, Que.)
• Foundation (Polymorph Games — Quebec City, Que.)

Best Mobile Game

• EA Sports FC 26 Mobile (EA Canada — Vancouver, B.C.)
• Elsewhere Electric (Games by Stitch — Toronto, Ont.)
• LHEA and the Word Spirit (Soul Fuel Games — Centre-du-Quebec, Que.)
• Rainbow Six Mobile (Ubisoft Montreal — Montreal, Que.)

Best VR/AR Game

• Chronostrike (Pentachromatic Games — Montreal, Que.)
• Elsewhere Electric (Games by Stitch — Toronto, Ont.)
• Fruit Golf (Coal Car Studio — Vancouver, B.C.)
• Prison Boss Prohibition (Trebuchet — Montreal, Que.)
• Verse VR (Lofty Sky Entertainment — Toronto, Ont.)

Best Esports Event

• Battle of BC 7 (Vancouver, B.C.)
• Call of Duty Champs (Kitchener, Ont.)
• Electric Clash 2025 (Toronto, Ont.)
• Raptors GC Tournament (Toronto, Ont.)
• Valorant Masters Toronto 2025 (Toronto, Ont.)

Best Esports Player

• Adam “mada” Pampuch (Canada)
• Brandon “Dashy” Otell (Canada)
• Keith “NAF” Markovic (Canada)
• Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken (Kelowna, B.C.)
• Troy “Canadian” Jaroslawski (Canada)

Best Esports Coach

• Antonin “AEC” Tran (Montreal, Que.)
• Kurtis “Aui_2000” Ling (Vancouver, B.C.)
• Loic “Effys” Sauvageau (Quebec)
• Mervin-Angelo “Dayos” Lachica (Ontario)
• Shaun Byrne (Windsor, Ont.)

Best Esports and Gaming Organization

• Raptors GC (Toronto, Ont.)
• Shopify Rebellion (Toronto, Ont.)
• Toronto Ultra/KOI/OverActive Media (Toronto, Ont.)
• Vancouver Surge (Vancouver, B.C.)

Best Content Creator

• Alex “Vansilli” Nguyen (Montreal, Que.)
• Ashley Roboto (Southern Ontario)
• Nicholas “NickEh30” Amyoony (Halifax, N.S.)
• Stef Sanjati (Toronto, Ont.)
• Victor Lucas/Electric Playground (Vancouver, B.C.) 

Innovation in Accessibility

• Assassin’s Creed Shadows (Ubisoft Quebec — Quebec City, Que.)
• EA Sports FC26 (EA Vancouver — Vancouver, B.C.)
• South of Midnight (Compulsion Games — Montreal, Que.)
• Squeakross: Home Squeak Home (Alblune — Montreal, Que.)
• Wanderstop (Ivy Road — Vancouver, B.C.)