The best Valorant players of 2023

This year was a wild ride for Valorant Esports as the season ended with a bang when Evil Geniuses claimed the Champions trophy and brought North America its first world championship title in the game. This was another seminole year for the Riot Games title as more viewers flocked to the esport, and more players either made names for themselves or cemented their position as top competitors.

2023 started with some incredible storylines like the reconstruction of LOUD and other rosters, the introduction of super teams like Fnatic and NAVI, and the drama of Cloud9 and yay’s departure from the squad.

Some players rose out of these storylines to put up performances that will cement them in Valorant history and propel them into top-player status.

Fnatic came out on top of the first international event of 2023, VCT LOCK//IN, with great individual performances from players like Nikita ‘Derke’ Sirmitev and Leo ‘Leo’ Jannesson. They then followed that up with an undefeated run during the VCT EMEA regular season and another international tournament victory at VCT Masters Tokyo.

The EMEA squad wasn’t able to complete the trifecta, bowing out of Valorant Champions in the top four. Evil Geniuses skyrocketed to international prominence at Masters Tokyo, facing Fnatic in the Grand Final, and then earned North America a trophy at the world championship tournament.

Here are our top five Valorant players of the year.

Best Valorant players 2023 so far

5 — Max ‘Demon1’ Mazanov

Evil Geniuses’ ace had an incredible run at Valorant Champions 2023 after a surprisingly quiet VCT Masters Tokyo showing. Demon1 ran through VCT Americas once he settled into playing on stage during his rookie season, toward the start of the Playoff Stage, but had not shown the same level of performance in his first international event.

At the Valorant World Championships, he finally got over whatever hump he needed to and went wild on the competition. He finished the event with the highest VLR rating, Kill/ Death ratio, Kills Per Round and headshot percentage. He was also top five in Average Combat Score and second in Average Damage Per Round. Demon1 also recorded the first over 100-kill series against LOUD, notching 101 kills across five maps.

While he took a while to ramp up to his current form, it would be disingenuous to not highlight Demon1 in this list for his performance at the final VCT tournament of the year. Even though he didn’t match up to expectations at Tokyo, EG still managed to place second at the event and take a map off of a surging Fnatic in the upper bracket finals.

4 — Emir ‘Alfajer’ Beder

The first of a few Fnatic players on this list, Alfajer was a consistent anchor for his team. The Turkish player may not have the flashiest playstyle, but he is constantly racking up multiple kills in a round or holding down an entire site for his team.

He showcased his skills domestically in VCT EMEA during the regular season, ranking in the top five across multiple statistical rankings, even in a most passive role like Sentinel.

He kept up that form internationally as well at VCT Masters Tokyo. Across the entire field of players at the event, Alfajer was top five statistically in VLR rating, Kill/Death ratio and Kills per Round. At Valorant Champions 2023, Alfajer continued to be the best Sentinel player in the world, ranking in the top five in terms of VRL rating, K/D and Average Damager Per Round.

Fnatic and Alfajer also kept this up through almost the entire year, faltering toward the end of the season at the world championship.

3 — Leo ‘Leo’ Jannesson

Leo joined Fnatic for the 2023 season and has become a monster surrounded by fellow young talents and a top-tier IGL. The Initiator player has taken up a more supportive role in Fnatic, playing mostly scan Initiators and sitting back during initial engagements, and his impact on the server has increased.

At VCT LOCK//IN, Leo ranked in the top three statistically in VLR rating and Kills/ Deaths ratio and had multiple impactful rounds across the tournament with multi-kills. His statistics at the event are especially impressive because many of the players near the top played only one or two series at the tournament.

Leo’s form remained steady across VCT Masters Tokyo and Valorant Champions. The Initiator player finished his year at the world championships ranked top five in VLR rating, K/D and Kill/Assist/ Trade/ Survive rate.

2 — Nikita ‘Derke’ Sirmitev

Fnatic had a decent 2022, making almost every international event and placing top six at Valorant Champions. In 2023, Fnatic added some better supportive talent and it unleashed its entry player in Derke.

Back on entry Duelists like Raze and Jett after a year of playing Chamber in 2022, Derke looked reinvigorated. He topped the kill score in almost every Fnatic matchup and didn’t seem to lose a step at international tournaments.

Derke was the third-best-rated Jett at VCT LOCK//IN and had by far the most rounds played on the Agent. He followed that up with a Masters Tokyo run that saw him exclusively play Raze while keep up that dominant streak. However, Derke seemed to tail off in form at Valorant Champions as his other teammates stepped up in terms of fragging and impact. The entry player dropped from a top-five rated player in most elimination-related statistics to the top 10 or lower.

1 — Erick ‘aspas’ Santos

aspas has continued his great form from Valorant Champions 2022 and is a big reason why LOUD made it to back-to-back VCT Grand Finals with their second-place showing at VCT LOCK//IN just a few months later. The young talent was a reliable space-taker throughout the year for LOUD in 2023 and had many teams calling when he hit the open market during the off-season.

The Duelist has been praised by analysts for his improvement in micro decision-making and was LOUD’s best player throughout the entire year, even winning the VCT Americas MVP honor. The only time the player didn’t seem like he had much of an impact in the server was at VCT Masters Tokyo, which saw LOUD be eliminated after two matches.

However, aspas and LOUD recovered at Valorant Champions 2023 largely off the back of individual performances from the entire team. aspas was no exception as he continued to put up impressive numbers at the event, ranking in the top five in terms of ACS, K/D, KAST, and First Kill Per Round.

Unlike most players in this list, aspas changed teams this off-season, taking his talents to Leviatán for the 2024 season.