The annual awards founded by Turtle Entertainment and presented at the Leipzig Games Convention in Germany next month, have incorporated four new awards: best Call of Duty 4 player, best Halo 3 player, console player of the year and console team of the year. The company has also released the short-list for their photo journalism competition – eSports photo of the year.

eSports photo of year like the 'scene journalist award was once again heavily represented by SK Gaming, resident photographer Rafal 'Pigvomit' Lagowski and editor Michal 'Carmac' Blicharz receiving nominations for photographs 'Bitter Taste of Defeat' (above right) and 'Unforgettable' respectively.

Only six photographers were shortlisted with Daniel Jensen, Readmore.de editor, one of four receiving a nomination in both journalism categories. Paul 'ReDeYe' Chaloner, David Donschen and Max Silver were the others nominated.

CoD4 joins Counter Strike 1.6 and Warcraft III as one of three game specific awards handed out, the committee commented that CoD4 had "established itself as part of the pro gaming canon" and although some of the nominations may baffle a native CoD player, the award recognises the growing popularity and influence of the franchise.

Nikolaj 'Mazarini' Lazarev
Antonin 'OZWALD' Grenier
Rob 'rob-wiz' Kennedy
Robert 'smithz' Krivka
Daniel 'tidde' Asp

The nominations for best CoD4 player included four Europeans and one North American. Rob 'rob-wiz' Kennedy of Team EG was the only none European selected in a small field of five mainly down to the teams third place finish at the Multiplay i33 earlier this year. Other nominations included eSuba.HAL 3000 star player Nikolaj 'Mazarini' Lazarev, TEK-9 Networks player Antonin 'OZWALD' Grenier, SPEED-LINK player Robert 'smithz' Krivka and fnatic's Daniel 'tidde' Asp.

You can view all the console nominations as well as the three other shortlisted photographs, here.