What are the Maelk and Akke Awards, and who earned them at TI 2026?

Enter the Maelk and Akke Awards, two community-created honours that celebrate the unsung and the bizarre. These awards do not come with a trophy or monetary implication, and there is no official recognition attached to them. They are purely made by the community for entertainment value.

The Maelk Award is one of Dota’s most infamous honours. Named after Danish pro player Jacob "Maelk" Toft-Andersen, it is awarded to a player who achieves in a tier one tournament a stat so ugly that it’s actually beautiful: A game victory with zero kills and at least 20 deaths.

Maelk himself landed such a strange victory in 2012 during the joinDOTA Masters semifinals while playing for Evil Geniuses. He had a 0/20/21 KDA on Venomancer, and EG still won that game. It was such a hilarious stat to have that even Valve has referenced it over the years.

The Akke Award is about the ultimate sacrificial playstyle. Named after Joakim "Akke" Akterhall, the legendary TI3 champion and support player for The Alliance, this award recognises exceptional support play such as winning a game with an absurdly low number of last hits.

Akke himself was known for his selfless style, often ending games with minimal farm while enabling his cores to shine, but in 2016, during the TI6 group stage, he won a game against Evil Geniuses with ZERO last hits. While the perfect Maelk and Akke performances haven't been replicated in the modern era of Dota 2, we still look at players who come closest to the original benchmarks, and at this year's The International, both awards stand.

Maelk Award: 9Class

In game two of the Grand Finals against Team Spirit, Team Vision's Edgar "9Class" Naltakian on Rubick delivered a performance that would make Maelk proud. He finished with 0 kills and 13 deaths, but more importantly, Team Vision won the game.

Akke Award: Malady

In the group stage series Team Yandex vs Team Resilience, Arman "Malady" Orazbayev on Witch Doctor won a game with just 10 last hits. He had only Arcane Boots as a completed item on him, but it’s worth mentioning that Yandex really stomped TR that game. The Chinese squad made the GG call only 18 minutes into the game, with the score board being 21 to 5 in Yandex’s favour.

Both Malady and 9Class came close to winning this year’s TI. 9Class and his Team Vision are runners-up at TI 2026, while Team Yandex and Malady finished third. Both players proved once again this year with their performance on the biggest Dota 2 stage that you don’t need to top the leaderboard to have an impact on your team’s victory.

The Maelk and Akke Awards are a reminder that Dota 2 isn't just about flashy kills and big numbers. Sometimes, the most memorable performances are the ones that don't look like much on paper.