VALORANT Champions Power Rankings

We’ve already seen two international VALORANT tournaments where Sentinels won Masters: Reykajvík and Gambit Esports came out on top at Masters: Berlin. They both can claim to be international champions, but the Champions tournament is the culmination of this year’s VALORANT Champions Tour and the winner will be able to definitively claim to be best VALORANT team in 2021.

Part of the fun of these big international events is all the pre-tournament debates about who is the best team in the world. We know you have opinions, and so do we, which is why we’ve put together these Power Rankings. The rankings are based on the average ranking for each team from our editorial team and the Press 4 to Defuse crew. We also have broken up the teams into tiers with teams that achieved similar rankings being grouped together.

Let the debate begin!

D-tier

The three teams at the bottom of our rankings either have not appeared on the international stage or have done very little when they have. None ranked higher than 13-16 on any of our experts’ rankings except in one case.

16. FURIA Esports

FURIA ranked 15th or 16th on all of our analysts’ lists. They have not qualified for any of the previous Masters tournaments and are going to Champions after winning the South America Last Chance Qualifier involving teams from Brazil and Latin America. They were actually on the cusp of reaching both Reykjavík and Berlin. Two Brazilian teams qualified for both, but FURIA finished third in both Brazil’s Stage 2 and Stage 3 qualifying tournaments. Brazil has been arguably the weakest region at international VALORANT competitions, so there’s very little reason to believe they’re any better than the other two Brazilian teams at Champions.

15. Team Vikings

Team Vikings were one of those two teams that beat out FURIA to qualify for Masters: Reykajvík. They beat Southeast Asia’s X10 CRIT -- who also qualified for Champions -- but then lost to Sentinels and Team Liquid in Iceland. Those aren’t bad losses, but then they failed to qualify for Masters: Berlin. Given Brazil’s 2-8 record against teams from other regions, expectations are fairly low for Team Vikings this time around.

14. Crazy Raccoon

Photo credit: Riot Games

Crazy Raccoon are one of three teams to have qualified for both international Masters tournaments and now Champions. Sentinels and KRÜ are the other two. They’ve gone 1-4 at Masters with their lone win coming against Brazilian team Havan Liberty. It’s not a promising track record, which is why they’re 14th on our list. It’s not like their roster isn’t promising. Byeon "Munchkin" Sang-beom and Park "Bazzi" Jun-ki were both on the Cloud9 Korea team that lost to Vision Strikers in the First Strike Korea tournament last year. Unfortunately for them, they are once again in the same group as Gambit Esports.

C-tier

The next set of teams have a bit more potential. This group of four teams are very close according to our experts, as all of them had an average ranking of between 11.25 and 11.75 and a median ranking of between 10.5 and 11.5.

13. X10 CRIT

X10’s Patiphan “Patiphan” Chaiwong was one of the breakout stars at Masters: Reykjavík. Not only was his 246.6 ACS fourth-best among all players in the tournament, but he was quite the showman on stage. A wrist injury kept him away from the team for a couple months this summer and the team failed to qualify for Masters: Berlin. Now, he’s back and so is X10. They might not win many games at Champions, but they’ll certainly be entertaining to watch.

12. Vivo Keyd

This is the highest ranked Brazilian team in our rankings. There are a couple of reasons for this. They have looked the best out of all the Brazilian teams we’ve seen at Masters. They beat ZETA DIVISION, played a close map with Envy and almost beat KRÜ to advance to the bracket stage of Masters: Berlin. They also have added another superstar in Leonardo "mwzera" Serrati to play alongside Olavo "heat" Marcelo. Heat was one of the best Jetts in Berlin, and he was nearly as good as Jaccob “yay” Whiteaker in their match against Envy. Mwzera has long been considered one of the best VALORANT players in Brazil, and now on loan from Gamelanders Blue, he’ll finally take the international stage to help Vivo Keyd make some noise at Champions.

11. FULL SENSE

Southeast Asian teams have not performed that well at Masters, and FULL SENSE didn’t qualify for either Masters, but there is some enthusiasm for them. Korean teams have been generally considered better than SEA teams, but FULL SENSE beat two Korean teams at the Asia-Pacific LCQ. And they weren’t just any Korean teams; they were NUTURN Gaming and DAMWON GAMING. NUTURN finished third in Reykajvík and were widely expected to win the APAC LCQ. The top two players at the APAC LCQ in terms of ACS were FULL SENSE’s Kititkawin “PTC” Rattanasukol and Chanawin “JohnOlsen” Nakchain. PTC actually played 10 different agents at the LCQ with a significant number of rounds as KAY/O, so it might be challenging for teams to anti-strat against PTC and FULL SENSE.

10. KRÜ

Photo credit: Riot Games

Like Sentinels and Crazy Raccoon, KRÜ have appeared at both international Masters. They have amassed a respectable 3-4 record across both tournaments with wins against teams from Brazil and Japan but losses to North American and European teams. With that track record, it’s fitting that they’re a middle-of-the-pack team in our rankings alongside the teams from Southeast Asia. They appeared to improve in Berlin compared to Reykjavík and may look even better at Champions, but they’re in a group with Sentinels and Team Liquid, so realistically it would take a monumental improvement for them to make it to the bracket stage.

9. Team Secret

This is the only team in the C-tier that hasn’t appeared at Masters. They did qualify for Masters: Berlin but couldn’t travel due to visa issues. We’re giving them the benefit of the doubt for that, and given the perception of Southeast Asian teams after the APAC LCQ, that’s why they belong in this tier. But without any international experience it’s difficult to say how they will perform at Champions. The team formerly known as Bren Esports actually beat Paper Rex at the SEA Stage 3 Challengers Playoffs, so they would have been SEA’s No. 1 seed at Masters: Berlin. Outside of Gambit Esports, they’ll be in a group that includes Crazy Raccoon and Team Vikings, so it’s very possible that they finish second and move on to the bracket stage.

B-tier

This is the first group that includes teams that could realistically win Champions. All three of these teams are very good, but there are questions about their ceiling. The jump from No. 8 to No. 9 in our rankings is deceptive because the teams in this tier all had average rankings between 6.5 and 7, hence the value in putting these teams in a higher tier.

8. Acend

Photo credit: Riot Games

The first European team in our rankings, Acend are a very strong team, but the big question mark for them is whether the rest of the team can rise to Mehmet Yağız "cNed" İpek’s level of play. They beat fellow EMEA team SuperMassive Blaze to advance out of their group in Berlin but lost to Vision Strikers and then blew a big lead and lost to 100 Thieves in the quarterfinals. In that match against 100T, only cNed had an ACS over 200 and a positive plus/minus. Earlier this month they participated in the Red Bull Home Ground #2 tournament and had some promising results. They beat Gambit 2-0, including a 13-0 map, and they reached the final where they lost 3-1 to Team Liquid.

7. Vision Strikers

The only team not from NA or EMEA in our top eight is Vision Strikers. After missing out on Masters: Reykjavík, they qualified for Masters: Berlin and made it out of their group, beating Acend and Paper Rex. In the quarterfinals, they lost to eventual champions Gambit Esports. There has been so much hype around Vision Strikers ever since winning over 100 matches in a row from late last year through early this year, and their performance at Berlin did validate their standing on the international level for the most part. They (and NUTURN early in the year) have been the only teams outside NA and EMEA that have proven to be competitive with teams from those regions. They will once again be in a tough group at Champions alongside Fnatic, Cloud9 Blue and FULL SENSE.

6. Fnatic

The last time we saw Fnatic on the international stage was in the Masters: Berlin grand final against Sentinels. Led by their charismatic IGL Jake "Boaster" Howlett, their roster has remained unchanged since then. They really haven’t done much since then and finished a disappointing 5th-8th at the recent Red Bull Home Ground. They lost to Team Liquid at that tournament. Liquid is a team they have struggled against since beating them in Reykajvík. Liquid also beat Fnatic during Europe’s Stage 3 Challengers 2 to knock them out of contention for Masters: Berlin. Fnatic were one of the best teams in the world earlier this year, but they haven’t done enough since then to make us think they belong any higher on this list.

A-tier

Our experts think the next two teams in this ranking are a cut above the last three teams but just below the top teams at this tournament. Our ranking of these two teams was nearly a tie, and it wouldn’t be surprising if either team gets some momentum going and makes a deep run in the tournament.

5. Envy

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To be honest, Envy might feel a little slighted being this low considering they were in the Masters: Berlin grand final. And they have now had even more time to practice together with El Diablo -- star Jett player yay. They were considered the third-best NA team in Berlin but clearly defied the expectations with wins over Sentinels and 100 Thieves in the bracket stage, so it wouldn’t be surprising if they ran it back at Champions. With a playmaker like yay and an IGL like Pujan “FNS” Mehta, this is a team that is capable of winning Champions.

4. Cloud9 Blue

For a team that hasn’t appeared at Masters before, this is admittedly a very high ranking, but that’s what happens when you have an IGL like Anthony “vanity” Malaspina. C9 have been tinkering with their roster all year, and when they signed vanity away from Version1 they got a steal. Vanity and Version1 looked very impressive at Masters: Reykjavík, and he’ll be eager for some revenge when they face Fnatic in their opening match. C9 are in a tough group that includes Fnatic as well as Vision Strikers and FULL SENSE, so their tournament run could easily be cut short. But if they can make it out of the group of death, they’ll be poised to make a run in the bracket stage. They are one of the few teams that is using KAY/O fairly frequently, so that’ll present a different look for their opponents.

S-tier

The three teams at the top of our rankings are teams that could easily win Champions when playing at their peak. They all had an average ranking between 1.75 and 2.5. Two of these teams have won international championships and another sure looks ready to follow suit.

3. Sentinels

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After winning Masters: Reykjavík they were considered the best team in the world. They had razed through NA Masters and then didn’t lose a single map in Iceland. They continued to play well throughout the summer, but then they didn’t quite look the same in Berlin. First they lost a map to G2 Esports, then they lost a match to them and then they lost in the quarterfinals to fellow NA team Envy. Sentinels’ fall was shocking, but we’ve seen them bounce back before, and that’s the expectation for Champions. With a star-studded team featuring Tyson “TenZ” Ngo and Shahzeb "ShahZaM" Khan, the sky’s the limit for this team. And now they have a coach! It’ll be interesting to see what kind of an impact Shane "Rawkus" Flaherty will have on the team.

2. Team Liquid

Team Liquid are back on the international stage for the first time since Reykjavík. In late September, Nabil "Nivera" Benrlitom joined his brother Adil "ScreaM" Benrlitom on Liquid, and the team has looked better than ever. Since being knocked out of contention for Masters: Berlin by Gambit Esports at the EMEA Challengers Playoffs, Liquid have not lost a match. They won four straight matches to qualify for Champions through the EMEA LCQ, and then they went 6-0 at the Red Bull Home Ground #2. It’s an impressive run that includes victories over G2, Fnatic and Acend. They’re likely to face Sentinels in their second match at Champions in what will be one of the most highly anticipated group stage matches. It should be noted these rankings were determined before news broke Monday that Nivera had tested positive for COVID, but it has been reported by Upcomer that he is still likely to play. If he is out for any matches that would obviously affect Liquid's prospects at Champions.

1. Gambit Esports

While Team Liquid and Sentinels each were ranked first by some of our experts, the Masters: Berlin champions edged them out for first in our rankings. Like Sentinels heading into Berlin, Gambit enter Champions as the favorites, and will be until somebody beats them. They haven’t looked quite as impressive as Liquid since Champions, but realistically they had nothing to prove. They likely won’t be challenged until the bracket stage as they’re in a group with Team Vikings, Team Secret and Crazy Raccoon.

Lead photo credit: Riot Games