Players:
- SEN TenZ (2021)
- LOUD Aspas (2022)
- EG Demon1 (2023)
- OPTC yay (2022)
- FNC Alfajer (2023)
Teams:
- Fnatic (2023)
- LOUD (2022)
- Evil Geniuses (2023)
- Optic Gaming (2022)
- Gambit (2021)
Thoughts?
i feel like LOUD should be higher because they prime never ended. Theyre still quite dominant qualifying to every event since 2022 and making deep runs in most of them. LOUD has won champions (2022), made two finals (lockin, reykjavik) were #1 in americas in 2023 ended top 3 once more in champs 2023, got #4 in madrid and are still seeming like a very strong force
this makes this list even worse bro
yay was literally that guy
tenz was REALLY GOOD in his peak but yay was literally him
yay was statistically the best player itw the ENTIRE YEAR
he was legit the most dominant player in the game so far
you can argue other players were BETTER, sure, but if this is ranked off of dominance, then #1 is easily yay and you cant really argue otherwise
so wrong player wise tenz is not in the discussion his prime was 2024.
aspas is arguably in the best form hes ever been in right now.
demon1 is fair but imo jawgemo was a bigger reason as to why they won champs and is massively overlooked.
yay too low but good hes on the list.
same with alfa too low.
and team wise jesus christ we need a mental asylum for u
fnatic 2023 is definatly the highest peak of a team we have seen so far at least u got that right.
loud 2022 is not even close and loud 2023 is better in every single way even player wise
EG should be second.
optic gets cleared by any top tier 2023 team maybe theyd be better if they stuck together but we will never know
gambit has to be a joke.
More than consistency, we are talking about how dominant they were at their peak. I agree that TenZ improved a lot as a player, but no team had a chance against him on his Masters 1 2021 form. Aspas' prime is hard to decide, but I put 2022 mostly because he won champs (but he was probably the 2nd worst player in the LOUD roster at that time). Demon1 had the best performance by far at champs, and completely transformed EG as a team. Yay was more dominant than Demon1 but I think that EG Demon1 was a much better and flexible player. Alfajer is just there because he's not a duelist, at his prime prime he could probably even be Top 3
LOUD 2023 was a big downgrade from LOUD 2022, they developed a dangerous weapon named cauanzin, but tuyz was a mid table smoker for most of 2022 (even though he's Top 5 controller players right now in 2024). Only notorious thing they did in 2023 was the LOCK//IN grand final, which they fumbled. LOUD was not a team that I expected to win trophies in 2023
EG is fair, but they were a lot more sloppy and lost or suffered against worse teams more than LOUD did (LOUD only lost against KRÜ and OpTic in all of 2022. And post-Demon1 EG lost to: 100T, FURIA, LOUD, NRG, FNATIC, and PRX), I think is safe to say that LOUD was far more dominant than prime EG was, but they are a contender for second place, for sure
OpTic is a core that has adapted to any metas that were given to them in any given moment, they invented most of the map metas in 2022. I think that their prime form would be a top contender to win any throphy in 2024, but they were sloppy and choked for no reason at times (Example: RISE, V1, GUARD, XERXIA, XSET, GUILD, PRX...)
The OpTic core would actually be much better than current NRG, I have no doubts
And I don't know what's wrong with my Gambit pick, I didn't put Acend because they fumbled immediatly after champs. Gambit was probably the first team in VCT history to play the game tactically. You'd put PRX instead? In any given day they'd probably destroy prime Gambit, but if it's a grand final, forget about winning a title
the paper rex stray lmao and i mean i agree with everything you said about the teams besides loud 2023 they were the only team besides liquid to beat prime fnatic and they did it twice and i disagree with tuyz hes literally the only great harbor player in the world everyone is meh or bad at him he cant be a mid table smoker but ill admit his rifling was kinda weak in 2023 hes a lot better now and tenz was dominant cuz everybody else was shit bro penny and d3ffo were tier 1 duelists in 2021 wasnt a particularly fierce competition and my take gambit is 2021 was the caveman era of valorant and they played better then they did in 2021 in 2022 but still failed to qualify for any event i just dont think 2021 prime takes are good because nobody was that great.
You could argue that with many teams. People were great then and they're great now, Chronicle, Magnum, crashies, keznit, Xeppaa, leaf, derke, Vision Strikers, Team Envy, Team Secret, etc. 2024's playstyle is closer to 2021 than 22-23, we are going back to those matches favored by the teams with most firepower, obviously the gameplay is much better now tactically, but 2021 best teams had a shit ton of firepower, I think they'd do really decent in today's VCT
putting yay at FOURTH below demon1 aspas and TENZ out of all people just shows you dont know any ball
statistically the best player the ENTIRE YEAR OF 2022, while aspas hadnt even reached his prime yet in 2022 with 2023 being more of his year to shine due to pancada + less fragging just as good in 2022
demon1 was INSANELY good + was a star rookie, but still is not close to yay's dominance
tenz is self explanatory, yes he has the highest acs throughout an entire tournament but that was for ONE singular tournament. if you wanna put tenz, you have to put cned there too
also absolute insanity that fnatic is number 1 and not loud, prime loud is probably the best team valorant has ever seen, with prime eg and prime optic following close behind.
hope this helps!