Happy New Year! Now that the hangovers have subsided, and the votes have been tallied, it's time to announce the winners of the Mass Effect Mod of the Year awards! The competition was truly fierce - so fierce in fact that we ended up with near ties between two mods in 5 separate categories. All of them came down to less than 5% difference in vote share, so in the spirit of celebrating this wide array of talent, we've decided to award both mods the award! Now without further ado, here are your Mod of the Year 2021 winners! Best Graphics Mod: A Lot of Textures (ALOT)? Created by: CreeperLava Best Quality of Life Mod: Expanded Galaxy Mod (LE)? Created by: Kinkojiro Best Story Mod (WINNER #1): Expanded Galaxy Mod (LE)? Created by: Kinkojiro Best Story Mod (WINNER #2): Take Earth Back (LE)? Created by: Tydeous & TEB Team Best Texture Mod: A Lot of Textures (LE) - Improved Static Lighting? Created by: CreeperLava Best Customization Mod (WINNER #1): Alternate Ellise Default FemShep Retexture? Created by: Audemus (Original Texture by Ellise) Best Customization Mod (WINNER #2): Customizable Default FemShep Headmorph? Created by: Jenya66 & NoiraFayn Best Apparel Mod: Expanded Shepard Armory (LE2)? Created by: Khaar Machinima & ThaliaGraces Best NPC Mod: Saren Stages (LE1)? Created by: Catachrism Best Gameplay Mod (WINNER #1): Bonus Bonus Powers? Created by: DropTheSquid Best Gameplay Mod (WINNER #2): Cerberus Retrofits? Created by: Tydeous "I Never Knew I Needed This": Immersive Emails? Created by: delawana Most Anticipated Mod (WINNER #1): Project Variety (LE3)? Upcoming Mod by: Scottina123 Most Anticipated Mod (WINNER #2): Audemus' Happy Ending Mod? Created by: Audemus & Scottina123 Community Choice Award: Pinnacle Station DLC? Created by: ME3Tweaks Modder of the Year: Mgamerz? Rookie of the Year: Zeb? Best Mass Effect 1 Mod: Pinnacle Station DLC? Created by: ME3Tweaks Best Mass Effect 2 Mod: Expanded Shepard Armory (LE2)? Created by: Khaar Machinima & ThaliaGraces Best Mass Effect 3 Mod: Expanded Galaxy Mod (LE)? Created by: Kinkojiro Best Mass Effect Andromeda Mod (WINNER #1): Project Pretty? Created by: mulderitsme Best Mass Effect Andromeda Mod (WINNER #2): Less Interaction Time and Less Omni Tool Interaction? Created by: Padme4000 Mod of the Year 2021: Expanded Galaxy Mod (LE)? Created by: Kinkojiro And that's a wrap! Thank you to everyone who voted, and let's all give a round of applause to the winners! 2021 was an incredible year for our community, and I get the feeling we're just getting started. -Audemus ORIGINAL ARTICLE: Happy Holidays folks! As the year draws to a close, I'd like to reflect on the crazy journey our community has been on this year. Never in the history of Mass Effect modding has there been a more eventful year. The release of Legendary Edition of course was a huge catalyst for the incredible modding we've seen in 2021, but it's thanks to our community-built and maintained toolkit and modding ecosystem that we were able to hit the ground running with a fresh start where modding the Mass Effect games is more accessible than ever before. So, to celebrate the talented modders bringing you your favourite mods for Mass Effect, we're hosting a Mod of the Year awards! Across 18 categories we polled our dedicated modders and users across the Mass Effect Modding Discord for their nominations from over 800 Mass Effect mod releases in 2021. I've crunched the numbers, and we're now ready to reveal the nominees. If you'd like to show your support for your favourite mods of 2021, you can find the link to our entry form down below. CAST YOUR VOTE Voting will end on 1 January 2022 at 00:00 UTC. The winners will then be announced in the New Year. We'll be handing out trophies in the form of award banners, which mod authors can place on their mod pages. See you then, and enjoy the rest of the year! -Audemus