Top 10 Initiators So Far 2023

God Tier Players Tier

1. Leo
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   Step below god Leo
2. crashies
3. nzr
4. Zyppan
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   Smaller agent pools but elite on their agents Tier
5. Ethan
6. Jamppi
7. Cloud
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   All around great players
8. cauanzin
9. stax
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   More of a flex but is his team's main initiator and is elite on his agents
10. trexx

H.M
invy, MOLSI, Xeppaa

I've already done sentinel and duelist at this point so I think I'm just going to complete the series, next up being controller after this.

For this tier list, I put most of my value into their skye play, as well as breach and sova being very important. For me, the current meta for main initiator players (so not flex players like Chronicle) is being able to play Skye and Sova at a high level with breach on 1-2 maps, which is why Kayo and Fade isn't as important to my rankings. THEIR ABILITY ON NON INITIATORS HAS NO BEARING ON THESE RANKINGS.

Starting at the top it's undeniable that Leo is number one and I won't take any other answer. After him we get Crashies, NZR, and Zyppan who all feel like amazing players at their roles. Crashies is the consistency god and plays Sova and Skye so well, as well as being able to play Breach Kayo and Fade very well. NZR has quietly joined him in being a god tier support on the same two characters, but he's a step below because he brings less fragging. Zyppan has a weirder agent pool because NAVI doesn't play Breach and Shao as their flex is their sova player, but his flash initiators are some of if not the best in the world.

Ethan Jamppi and Cloud all fall into the next tier because I like one or two specific of their agents but they aren't on the level of the three above them. All three are extremely underrated and posses good qualities for different reasons. Ethan is great on flashes, Jamppi is a fantastic fragger on skye while Cloud is amazing on sova(both top 2 in each agent) while playing the other one fairly well. With Jamppi you just need to see more consistency and with Cloud he honestly just needs a better team supporting cast and I think he could be top 5.

Cauanzin and Stax round out the jack of all trades tier, playing a ton of different agents but I wouldn't say they're as high of level as the guys ahead. For stax in particular he would be much higher if his IGLing didn't hinder his playstyle, but he's still amazing and the second most consistent initiator of all time behind crashies. Cauanzin had a great start to the year but has fallen behind quite a few Americas initiators. Still a great player who plays the 3 most important initiators. As for Trexx, I saw it as needing one more guy in the top 10 and since he's technically KOI's initiator I wanted to add him. He may be the best Kayo in the world and plays both skye and sova very well, another story of put him on a top tier team and he looks like a god.

honorable mentions mostly come down to having too small of an initiator pool and being more flex players, but I think if all three transitioned to full time initiator they would be top 10 players.(in Invy's case he only plays breach and kayo well which sucks in this current meta when you'd want him on sova and playing better on skye)

Overall regional rankings:
EU: 5/10
Americas: 4/10
APAC: 1/10

EU and Americas dominate this role compared to APAC, who really only has stax and the argument for invy and Bazzi(or F0rsaken if he sticks with the role). Americas have 3 of the top 5, but EU has the best and 4 of the top 7 so you still probably lean there for initiator players. LMK if there's any guys I might've left out or if my ranking is just dogshit

Shao?

where is qraxs and shao?

cauanzin> ethan zyppan jammpi cloud

zekken'

i feel like xeta should be an honorable mention, he's pretty underrated