Now that the dust has settled on Valorant first big lan of 2022 I think its fair to say who in my opinion was the events MVP and i will add in 5 other players that were really impressive and deserve a mention in my opinion, starting from the EVPs, in no particular order.
Kim "MaKo" Myeong-gwan(DragonX) - The player from DRX that impressed by far the most, this tournament was in my opinion, a showcase of how strong and impactful the Smokes role can be and MaKo was a prime example, a player of incredible consistency, with a strong gamesense and in my opinion the best aiming skill in DRX, he had no bad games and produced quality performances all tournament long until DRX were eliminated by not fault of his own and impacting all rounds(79% KAST, best in event)
Wang "Jinggg" Jing Jie(Paper Rex) - An incredibly entertaining entry fragger, Jinggg reminded me a lot of Asuna in the way that he's so incredibly cofident in his skills that he can turn seemingly bad peeks into kills, paired with incredible movement and reaction times, he was certainly the highlight of Paper rex along with f0rsaken, what impressed me the most was just how well he could play into his team's set plays and frag out(3rd best KPR in the event and the best KPR among pure riflers)
Shota "SugarZ3ro" Watanabe(ZETA Division) - I had an hard time deciding which Zeta player deserved the EVP the most, but I knew that one out of SugarZ3ro, TENNN and Laz had to be here, Laz had an absolute heroic showing during the group stage, but cooled off during the playoffs, TENN came alive during the playoffs and was always a consistent fragger, but SugarZ3ro was the player that consistenyl performed for ZETA, while also playing a Smoke role that showed just how insane of a player he is, his reads through smokes, his spams, the judge plays, the fact that he can play Astra at the highest level after the nerf really shows his gamesense and ability on the role.
Erick "Aspas" Santos(LOUD) - The final boss of brazil's ranked ladder was a player with many doubts around him, will he be able to keep up the same level on LAN? Can he do what he does to brazil's best team against the best of the best in the world? And the answer was a resounding yes, aspas has shown to be an insanely mechanically gifted Jett man, both on and off the operator, Loud's playbook often hinged on him being the main fragger and dumping resources into making him succeed and aspas always delivered, contributing in some way to basically every round(76%KAST, 2nd best in event) and even in Loud's 3-0 loss to Optic, he still managed to get more frags than yay, proof that even the most dire of circumstances wont stop Aspas.
Jacob "yay" Whiteaker(Optic) - El Diablo delivered once again for NA, bringing his usual superstar level to the competition, especially on Chamber, an agent that highlights his insane operator skills more than any other, FNS rock solid IGLing is perfect for yay, he is always given the best positions to frag out and he unsurpisingly delivers again and again.
But my MVP of the even was without any doubt
Jimmy "Marved" Nguyen(Optic) - As I said earlier, this tournament was the demonstration that the Smokes role can be extremely impactful in the fragging department and it only seemed logic to give the award to who in my opinion has been the best smokes player at the tournament and likely in the world, Marved performance was truly something else, especially considering that unlike yay, Marved isn't playing the best positions, He is often solo anchoring sites or providing utility for the team, despite this, he frags out consistently showing off impressive aim(31% HS%) and great versatility, his consistency and ability to provide strong smokes gameplay is in my opinion what gave Optic the push to win the tournament, even more than yay's insane clips imo
Thanks for reading this long post
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