With the upcoming Masters Madrid only days away, now is a good time to look back at the VCT Kick-off tournaments across the world and what better than to start with Americas where Sentinels took the crown this year.
There were so many changes in this league with no teams staying the same over the off-season leading to the creation of 4 superteams and 3 of them were seeded into group B leaving 100Thieves in a sticky spot to make it out, getting double eliminated.
Looking at stats, the best players in the tournament were similar to what American fans are used to. In this top 5 list, only players that have played over 125 rounds will be counted into the rankings, and for players that have the same rating off of vlr.gg, it will be ranked off who has the more rounds played as keeping a higher rating with more rounds is more impressive.
5. LOUD tuyz
Being one of the only teams to make 1 change this year, LOUD went into kick-off losing their star player and main firepower in aspas which meant that their rankings have changed dramatically from last years ratings.
Despite this, they made it to Madrid by defeating aspas and his new team Leviatan, with tuyz being a crucial part of their success and at times became the backbone of their CT side on maps running the controller role.
He was brought into the team to replace the MVP of Champions 2022, pANcada, and he hasn’t disappointed despite not winning an international trophy since that, they have shown consistent performances and did win the VCT Americas last year in quite comfortable fashion whilst being the only team to defeat FNATIC at all last year.
4. SEN TenZ
As many are already aware, TenZ is the face of VALORANT and has been that since the start of VALORANT. His record high performance at Masters Reykjavik with his ACS still holds the top spot to this day however, his play style has changed from Reyna and Jett to now playing the Omen and KAY/0.
However, despite dropping down from the main entry role on the team, his stats are still through the roof on the Omen where he is seeming to reinvent how Omen is played with picking up the AWP and taking fights that he can afford to take with the Teleport ability that Omen has.
His performance was very important to Sentinels success in the last season of VCT with the crucial game against NRG where he dropped 30 kills on the Omen on Sunset and showed what his Omen can do on the AWP on the Split.
3. LEV aspas
This is the first of the same rating where the top three players all have a rating of 1.15 across this tournament however, aspas, is the lowest of the three since Leviatan wasnt able to make it out of the group of death and only played 186 rounds on the Raze, Jett and Reyna.
He left LOUD in 2023 and moved to Leviatan for this VCT season and he ended up being taken down by his former team and left for April for the normal VCT season where he can try and get his revenge against his former team in LOUD and his replacement qck.
This will be the first LAN tournament that aspas has missed since Berlin 2020 Champions where he wasn’t there since he was in Brazil Challengers fighting to make a name for himself which he has done by being named one of the GOATs of VALORANT in its short history.
2. LOUD Less
Once again, Less had a 1.15 rating also but he made it to the Grand Final of the Kick-Off tournament and therefore played 271 rounds and showed why he deserves the respect that other players show him.
He has been the core of LOUD’s success for many years now with playing the Sentinel role on the side and still putting up numbers for ACS and kills alongside the superstars in aspas and now qck.
It has been very impressive to see the Brazilian take over and show his technique and aim that is admired across the VALORANT world, with ex-CSGO pro, Tarik, saying that Less has ‘ the best aim in the world‘.
1. SEN Zekken
The number one spot goes to Zekken of Sentinels with a 1.15 rating but a HUGE 432 rounds nearly doubling the second place, Less’, rounds with a very impressive play-in run to face off against NRG and then make it to Masters Madrid with himself topping the server that has Demon1, TenZ and Marved in there.
Zekken’s Raze has been admired by the world as the best Raze in the world since the retirement of Jinggg has left room for a new best Raze in the world. Sentinels have found the key to their success and it is Zekken on the Raze instead of TenZ on the duelist.
Zekken also plays the Jett at a very high level despite TenZ taking up the AWP role with Zekken being a top 5 rifler in the world.
Coming into Masters Madrid, SEN are looking like favourites to make it very far and Zekken’s performance is very important to their success with his entries making space for the team more than TenZ did last season, allowing the players to flood on site and the aim and game sense from their team, can carry them to a possible 2nd Masters trophy.
An honorable mention, goes to mwzera of FURIA, who actually topped the tournament as of rating with a 1.19 rating but he did get double eliminated from the tournament after losing 2-0 to both NRG and MIBR with FURIA not taking a map from any team. This being the truth, it didn’t feel correct to put him at the top of the ratings with this side not taking anything from the tournament.
Power Pitches 