The Valorant Champions 2023 ended a week ago, marking the end of the VCT 2023 competitive season, which means it's time to summarize. Our editorial team analyzed data from two major tournaments that took place during this time - Masters Tokyo 2023 and Valorant Champions 2023 and prepared a list of 10 professional players who showed the best results among all other participants.
To create this top for you, we did meticulous work with the data of each player. Our editors analyzed the statistics of 80 participants of Valorant Champions 2023 and 61 professionals from Masters Tokyo 2023, which is available on our website. When calculating the data, we took into account such indicators as the number of kills and deaths on each map, the kill-death (KD) ratio, the total number of maps played in both tournaments, the percentage of damage dealt, and most importantly the average combat rating or rating of each player. Also, note that our editorial team took a comment from the coach of the Japanese team FENNEL, Ivan "Johnta" Shevsov, so we will leave his comments next to some players.
The final results will most likely surprise you, as they surprised our editorial team, because some players unexpectedly made it to the top 10. We present to you the players of the past hottest season, who turned out to be the best of the best. But in order not to reveal the main intrigue, we will start the list from the 10th place, so you will only find out the best player at the end of the article.
10th place – Jason "f0rsakeN" Susanto
Our list is opened by the player of the silver champions of Valorant Champions 2023 - Paper Rex, Jason "f0rsakeN" Susanto. The Indonesian cyber athlete was previously a professional in CS: GO and actively uses the experience gained in the new discipline. He is one of the key players of the team, thanks to whom Paper Rex had a great season, winning the VCT 2023 Pacific League, taking second place at Masters Tokyo 2023, and second place at the last world championship. Interestingly, Jason cannot be called the most stable player of the team, in one match he can compete with the main star of the team, Jinggg, in the number of kills and take the first place among all players. And in another, f0rsakeN may be in the lowest position in the post-match table, with a terrible negative KD. Despite this, based on the results of two tournaments, f0rsakeN still made it to our list, albeit at the very end, in the last place.
Jason is also known for his multitasking and ability to play on many characters, in the last 90 days f0rsakeN's favorite characters are: Harbor - 7 matches, Jett - 6 matches, Killjoy - 5 matches, Cypher - 4 matches, Skye - 4 matches.
9th Place – Nikita "Derke" Sirmitev
The next player occupying the 9th position is Nikita "Derke" Sirmitev from the European team Fnatic. We'll hint in advance that he is not the only player from the “Oranges” who made it into the top 10 best players; in fact, most of the players in our ranking are from the European team. Derke is the backbone of the team and has been playing under the Fnatic flag for over two years now, and according to a recent interview, has no plans to leave the club. Acting as a duelist, Nikita brings the team the majority of frags in most matches. Interestingly, although he is the main combat unit of the club, he often takes the second or third position in the post-match table, yielding to his colleague Leo.
There are many Fnatic players in the ranking, but compared to others, Derkep slightly dropped off at the final tournament of Valorant Champions 2023.Comment by Johnta
8th Place – Leo "Leo" Jannesson
Another participant in our ranking from team Fnatic is Leo "Leo" Jannesson, who is right after his colleague and outscored the latter by only 16 points. The young 19-year-old player, after joining the team, proved himself a consistently high-class initiator, preferring Sova and Skye among all other characters. Despite the fact that the situation on the professional stage has changed since the end of the championship, a while ago Leo was considered the best of the best. Last year's world finalist “yay” former player of OpTic Gaming called Leo the best player in the world, which you can read about in our material. Later, our editorial board, based on the words of the professional and the merits of Leo, determined him as the best player, which you can read about in the article. Let us remind you that this is only a subjective opinion, moreover, the situation has changed today, but one cannot deny Leo's successes in Fantic, which brought the team many trophies, or his individual statistics.
As we wrote above, Leo also prefers only a couple of heroes that perfectly suit his position in the game. Favorite characters for the last 90 days are: Skye - 9 matches, Sova - 8 matches, Fade - 7 matches.
Leo showed awesome gameplay at Masters Tokyo and Valorant Champions 2023, so he definitely deserves to be in the top.Comment by Johnta
Also read: How We Remember Valorant Champions 2023
7th place – Wang "whz" Haozhe
The next participant, who is in seventh place in our ranking, is a real surprise. We are talking about Wang "whz" Haozhe from the Bilibili Gaming roster, a team of Chinese newcomers, and we will now explain why. First of all, like his team, whz is a newcomer to the international Valorant scene, having participated exclusively in the Chinese league until 2023 and having no experience competing against top players from other regions. Despite this, Wang and his team performed very well at their first Valorant Champions 2023 world championship, where they finished 7th-8th. But the main reason why no one expected the player to be in this ranking is that Bilibili Gaming did not participate in Masters Tokyo 2023, so the player's statistics were only calculated for the world championship. We emphasize that with indicators from only one tournament, whz entered the top 10 players who participated in both tournaments. This means that the Chinese player is a real professional, and if Wang had participated in Masters Tokyo 2023, he would definitely have been at the top of our list.
As can be seen from the statistics above, whz plays as a duelist and fully lives up to this role. His favorite characters over the last 90 days are: Raze - 18 matches, and Jett - 10 matches.
whz is a real surprise who burst into this ranking. But if you look at the matches of the BiliBili team against NRG, it becomes clear that this guy is not here for nothing.Commentary by Johnta
6th place – Erick "aspas" Santos
The star player of last year's world champions LOUD - Erick "aspas" Santos also made our list, but ended up in an unexpectedly low position. The young Brazilian player was recently known throughout the Valorant community as the best duelist in the world, but after the last championship, this title has been shaken. Although LOUD had a rather mediocre season, finishing 7th-8th at Masters Tokyo 2023, they showed a great performance at the world championship despite the skepticism. The team successfully fought against many tournament favorites, including Fnatic, whom they defeated twice, eventually finishing in 3rd place. Despite this, aspas' personal indicators leave much to be desired, as in many matches he lost in KD values to his teammates, and there were even matches in which Erick was at the bottom of the post-match table.
Let's remember that before the start of the championship there were many rumors about aspas. According to esports journalists, there is an internal split in the team, and the star player himself will leave the team next year. You can read more about this in our material. So far, it is unknown whether the rumors are true or not, but 3rd place at the world championship is a good indicator that can strengthen the team during its discord.
In most matches, aspas prefers killer projectile characters, and his favorite characters over the last 90 days are: Jett - 13 matches, and Raze - 12 matches. Despite this, the Brazilian player can experiment and take Neon, on which he played only 3 matches.
5th place - Alexander "jawgemo" Mor
Fifth place is occupied by the first, but not the last participant of Evil Geniuses - Alexander "jawgemo" Mor, and he ended up here quite unexpectedly. The main feature of jawgemo is his inconspicuousness, in a good way, the professional has not been involved in any conflict, is not a star player of the team, but despite this, he shows great results. Playing the role of a smoker, he does his job well, sometimes even surpassing other tops of his team. It is not surprising that by the KD indicator, he is in the list of the best players of both tournaments. Most often Alexander performs on agent Omen, not only obstructing opponents with his smokes, but also destroying them thanks to his unexpected appearances behind the backs of opponents.
But not only in the role of a smoker does jawgemo often perform, at the world championship he became fond of Raze on which he played 21 matches. In addition, his favorite characters are Omen - 12 matches, Astra - 6 matches.
4th place - Wang "Jinggg" Jing Jie
In fourth place, thanks to his great individual results, we have Wang "Jinggg" Jing Jie, another participant from the Singaporean team Paper Rex. His team showed a good result during the current season, taking 3rd place at Masters Tokyo 2023, and Valorant Champions 2023, ended for Jinggg and the team in 2nd place. Interestingly, before the start of the tournament, Paper Rex were one of the main favorites and took 2nd place after Fnatic in the list of teams that can win the championship, but unfortunately for all fans of the team, they remained in 2nd place. Jinggg proved himself as one of the most stable players of the entire season, who even in losing matches turned out to be the best among all other participants. His favorite character is Raze, playing on which, Jinggg has repeatedly been a participant in interesting video clips, in which he takes the clutch against a predominance of opponents.
Unfortunately, the past world championship was the last for the player until 2025. It was recently announced that Jinggg will not be participating in the professional life of the team next year, as he will be going to serve in the army, which is mandatory in Singapore. Read more about this in our article.
As befits the role of a duelist, Jinggg most often performs on Raze, on which he played 23 matches in the last 90 days, and Phoenix also appeared in his pool with 7 matches played.
Jinggg from PaperRex showed himself very powerfully both at the masters in Tokyo and in Los Angeles and is quite deservedly in 4th place.Johnta's comment
3rd place – Emir "Alfajer" Beder
The third, bronze place is occupied by Turkish anchor Emir "Alfajer" Beder from the European top team Fnatic. It was clear even before the start of the championship that the player would be on the list of the best professionals of last summer. Together with his team, Alfajer had the most successful season in the history of the discipline, winning 2 major tournaments, including Masters Tokyo 2023. Moreover, the player also has a second place in the regular season of VCT 2023: EMEA League and a fourth place in the last world championship. Although, from another perspective, Valorant Champions 2023 was a disappointment for Fnatic, as the team was unanimously considered the favorite and planned to make history in Valorant as the most successful dynasty. Unfortunately for all the fans of the team, it did not happen.
Alfajer is remembered for his excellent play on Killjoy and Cypher, as well as his efficiency in kills. In many matches, he even outperformed his colleague and main fragger of the team - Derke, scoring more frags than him. It is not surprising that the Turkish player became the best participant of his EMEA region according to Riot Games and received the MVP title. We wrote about this in more detail in our article.
In the last two tournaments from which we collected statistics for our top, Alfajer played most of the confrontations on Killjoy - 15 matches, Cypher - 8 matches.
Alfajer, like his teammate Leo, played excellently in both tournaments, so he definitely deserves such a high position in the ranking.Comment by Johnta
2nd place – Zheng "ZmjjKK" Yongkang
In second place, we have Chinese duelist Zheng "ZmjjKK" Yongkang from EDward Gaming, also known as KangKang. Until 2023, the young player mostly competed in local Chinese tournaments, with the exception of the 2022 World Championship. Therefore, due to lack of experience, one cannot blame his team for the lack of results in international tournaments, although this does not apply to the player himself. Despite the fact that both major tournaments, Masters Tokyo 2023 and Valorant Champions 2023, ended for EDward Gaming in 5-6 place, ZmjjKK surpassed the team's performance with his own. Throughout both events, he showed some of the best results in terms of kills and damage dealt and currently rightfully occupies the top-1 in the Chinese region ranking.
There were also negative moments for ZmjjKK, everyone knows well his conflict with the captain of Evil Geniuses - Boostio, which we wrote about in our material. Despite the fact that EDward Gaming did not make it into the top three of the championship, ZmjjKK proved to everyone that he is not a "disappointment" and with his play made opponents worry about what will happen in future confrontations with the Chinese player.
Like most players of his position, ZmjjKK prefers only two duelists, Jett, on which he played 30 matches in the last 90 days, and Raze with 9 matches.
One can argue a bit about the position of ZmjKK, who ended up in second place. Because he was not the best player of his team at Champions, but in Tokyo he showed incredibly bright play.Comment by Johnta
Players who almost made it into the ranking
Before you find out who became the best of the best, we suggest you pay attention to three professionals who, after calculations, took 11th, 12th, and 13th places. Although they did not make it into our top, but by their indicators were close to the top ten best, so they are worth your attention.
- 11th place – Mehmet "cNed" İpek - the Turkish player did not have enough maps to show all his skills because NAVI left the championship during the group stage.
- 12th place – Kelden "Boostio" Pupello - the captain of EG, was close to entering the top 10, but compared to the champion title, it is a small loss.
- 13th place – Corbin "C0M" Lee - another participant of EG, who did not make it into our top due to his experiments with agents at the past Masters Tokyo 2023.
1st Place – Max "Demon1" Mazanov
Although we tried to keep the intrigue of the first place, it was probably revealed a week ago, after the end of the world championship. The best of the best was obviously Max "Demon1" Mazanov, a young 20-year-old player from America who, as part of Evil Geniuses, won the world championship title and received the MVP award of the tournament. Throughout the championship, the attitude of the viewers towards Demon1 was rather negative. The player did not refrain from using "dirty" words towards the audience and also mocked his opponents during the matches. The last loud statement of the EG star after receiving the championship title were the words "I am the best player in Valorant," which you can read about in our material. Despite the gaming community's attitude towards the winner, one cannot deny that he is indeed the best player in the world today.
Interestingly, Demon1 is a bright example of what is called "born for the game." At the time of winning the championship, he was one of the least experienced participants. He started his career in Valorant only in 2022 and spent most of his time on the tier-3 scene. Despite the lack of experience playing against professionals, 2023 can be called a career ladder for Demon1, which he climbed throughout the year. The first major tournament - VCT 2023: Americas League regional competition ended for him in 3rd place. The second international event - Masters Tokyo 2023 ended with a silver championship and 2nd place. And the last world championship, Valorant Champions 2023, which became the culmination for Demon1 and the team, ended with a victory in 1st place, after which the team ascended to the Olympus of glory.
Demon1's favorite characters for the last 90 days are: Jett - 24 matches, Brimstone - 6 matches, Chamber - 5 matches.
Demon1 is currently the best and most confident player in the world, and his rapid rise surprised everyone. He is distinguished not only by powerful individual micro but also by incredible faith in his game and in the duels he chooses during the matches. Plus, his team understands well how to use it.Comment by Johnta
We remind you that our editorial staff analyzed the results of all players in two major tournaments, Masters Tokyo 2023 and Valorant Champions 2023, to present you with a list of the 10 best players. Continue to follow our portal to learn more interesting tops and selections of professionals and their teams in Valorant.
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