Top 5 players to watch at Valorant Champions 2023
Christian Betancourt/Riot GamesValorant Champions is set to start on August 6 with the top teams and players from the three VCT international leagues and China fighting for the world championship trophy. Out of the 16 teams qualified for the tournament, here are five players that fans should keep their eyes on throughout Valorant Champions.
Valorant Champions is the culmination of the VCT season and will crown the best team of 2023. At VCT LOCK//IN and VCT Masters Tokyo, fans saw some of the best Valorant players shine on the international stage. This time, however, these players will be fighting for the last time in the VCT 2023 circuit as there are no other international tournaments to look forward to.
Here are five players from the 16 teams at the event that fans should keep an eye on at the competition. This selection includes rookies looking to showcase their skills on a stage this size for the first time, returning veterans with a chip on their shoulder and in-form players that should tear up Valorant Champions.
Paper Rex something
Riot GamesFans have been waiting for Ilya ‘something’ Petrov to make his VCT international tournament debut for a while. The Russian star was unable to secure his visa in time to join Paper Rex on stage at VCT Masters Tokyo, but he will be able to compete at the world championships.
The Paper Rex ace started for the team in the third week of VCT Pacific competition and has been a menace in the league ever since. something had the highest kills per round in VCT Pacific and has enough confidence to pull out picks like Reyna, which rely heavily on kills to be useful, during the playoff Grand Final.
Fans should keep an eye on the Paper Rex star to see if he is able to keep up his incredible fragging against the best teams in the world.
EDward Gaming ZmjjKK
Colin Young-Wolff/Riot GamesZheng ‘ZmjjKK’ Yongkang became a certified Valorant superstar at VCT Masters Tokyo thanks to his incredible Operator play and on-stage celebrations. Thanks to ZmjjKK leading the charge and having the highest average kills per map in Masters Tokyo at 21.9, EDward Gaming placed top six at Masters. It’s no surprise he’s hungry to take the title this time around.
At that Champions China Qualifier, EDG and ZmjjKK ran through the competition to earn the No. 1 seed at the event. The team only dropped one map in the playoff stage as Bilibili Gaming managed to take one off of them in the Grand Final.
Fans will get to see the Chinese side and ZmjjKK be tested at Champions almost immediately as the squad is in the same group as Paper Rex, who eliminated EDG in Tokyo.
Fnatic Leo
Lance Skundrich/Riot GamesLeo ‘Leo’ Jannesson is considered by many to be the best Valorant player in the world at the moment. Many of the players on Fnatic’s roster could vie for the title, thanks to their VCT LOCK//IN and Masters Tokyo wins, but Leo’s incredible consistency makes it hard to choose anyone else.
While he doesn’t always put up incredible fragging numbers, the Swedish Initiator always has some kind of impact on the game round to round. At Tokyo, Leo was top 10 in assists and tied for first in Kill/Assist/ Survive/Trade rate.
For Valorant Champions, fans should watch the Fnatic player to see if he can maintain this level of play for yet another international tournament and cement himself into the esport’s history with three international tournament wins in one year.
Bilibili Gaming whzy
Riot GamesAnother Chinese sniper sensation is set to make their debut on the international stage. Wang ‘whzy’ Haozhe has the potential one of the best Jett players in the world, but he hasn’t been able to prove it quite yet seeing as this is his first time playing internationally.
In the China Qualifier, he tied for the most amount of kills in a single map at 35 and was top 10 in Average Combat Score. While not overall impressive, the way he moves around the map as Jett with a sniper rifle is uncanny and is similar to other top Jett players like Nikita ‘Derke’ Sirmitev and ZmjjKK.
Fans should keep an eye on BLG and whzy as they try to qualify for the playoff stage of Valorant Champions in a group with Fnatic, ZETA DIVISION and NRG Esports.
KRÜ Esports keznit
Tina Jo/Riot GamesKRÜ Esports’ Cinderella run to Valorant Champions through the VCT Americas LCQ was possible in no small part due to Angelo ‘keznit’ Mori. The Chilean Duelist was statistically the best player in the tournament, leading the field in VLR rating, Kill/Death ratio, KAST and was second in Kills per Round.
In an interview after winning the LCQ tournament, keznit said rage is what fueled him and his team to qualify for Champions after going 0-9 in regular season play. Fans should watch KRÜ Esports, and keznit specifically, closely at Valorant Champions to see if anger can carry them out of a group with Paper Rex, EDward Gaming and Giants Gaming.
