Welcome to DDenied's 2024: China 10, a countdown of the top 10 players in the China region for 2024. Today, I'm unveiling my honourable mentions, and starting tomorrow, I'll be revealing the next player on the list, counting down from 10th place to 1st. For fans of other regions, don’t worry—each International League has its own list, and there’s also a combined Global 20 for the year.

Disclaimer: All stats are sourced from VLR.gg, and any rating mentioned refers to VLR Rating 2.0. It's important to note that events held in China were not fully tracked by VLR, leading to missing statistics. As a result, the average ratings for each player are calculated only from events where VLR data is available, which excludes all events in China. This skews the yearly averages, particularly for players in the China league.

Honourable Mentions

S1mon: The player who turned EDG’s year around, arguably a top 20 talent at Champions. He only misses this list due to the limited time he played, but during that brief period, he made a significant impact.

AAAAY: A rock-solid presence for FPX throughout the year, especially during their standout performance in the 'group of death' at Champions. AAAAY might fly under the radar as FPX’s third-best player, but his consistency has been crucial.

stew: After the hype following Ascension, when the Rare Atom core was picked up by JDG after losing in the final, JDG struggled this year. However, in their late-season resurgence, we finally saw stew return to his impressive 2023 form.

Biank: While Biank's lack of fragging power kept him out of the top 10, his in-game leadership (IGL) skills after joining a new team was key to Trace’s qualification for Champions. For Biank, this marks back-to-back top 8 finishes at Champions.

BerLIN: FPX’s strategy and gameplay have improved significantly this year, and while credit can go to the coaching staff, there’s no doubt that BerLIN’s improvement in IGL skills from last year have enabled FPX to truly challenge EDG this season.

PS
I will be adding links to the bottom of this and all susequent articles linking them to the articles either side of them in the order and the articles parrelel to them in other lists. e.g. this article will end up linked to China Number 10, Americas Honourable Mentions, EMEA Honourable Mentions and Pacific Honourable Mentions.

PSS
The Honourable Mentions for the other regions will be released through out today with a subsequent article for each region released each day until the players start making it onto the Global 20.

I can't tell did you want him to be in the top 10 or not mentioned at all?

Welcome to DDenied's 2024: Pacific 10, a countdown of the top 10 players in the Pacific region for 2024. Today, I'm unveiling my honourable mentions, and starting tomorrow, I'll be revealing the next player on the list, counting down from 10th place to 1st. For fans of other regions, don’t worry—each International League has its own list, and there’s also a combined Global 20 for the year.

Disclaimer: All stats are sourced from VLR.gg, and any rating mentioned refers to VLR Rating 2.0. It's important to note that events held in China were not fully tracked by VLR, leading to missing statistics. As a result, the average ratings for each player are calculated only from events where VLR data is available, which excludes all events in China. This skews the yearly averages, particularly for players in the China league.

Honourable Mentions

Sayaplayer: Although T1 had a strong start to the year, they struggled as the season progressed, frequently shuffling their roster. Amid these changes, Sayaplayer remained a standout, delivering consistently excellent performances, including being the joint 2nd highest-rated player in Pacific Stage 2.

Jremy: As the duelist for Team Secret, Jremy has posted impressive numbers this year. However, he misses out on the top 10 due to being overshadowed by Invy and the team's difficulties in qualifying for an international event.

Meiy: DFM managed only two series wins this year, but Meiy was the driving force behind both victories. He also pushed several matches to a third map, despite ultimately losing them, showcasing his ability to carry the team.

primmie: Another example of a ranked demon making a smooth transition to the VCT, primmie delivered exceptional performances. His exclusion from the list is solely due to a lack of games, though his impact was significant enough that I strongly considered including him anyway.

Lakia: While Lakia has often been viewed as the weakest link on Gen.G, he significantly stepped up his game during Masters Shanghai, contributing to their victory. This effort earns him an honourable mention.

PS
I will be adding links to the bottom of this and all susequent articles linking them to the articles either side of them in the order and the articles parrelel to them in other lists. e.g. this article will end up linked to Pacific Number 10, Americas Honourable Mentions, China Honourable Mentions and EMEA Honourable Mentions.

PSS
The Honourable Mentions for the other regions will be released through out today with a subsequent article for each region released each day until the players start making it onto the Global 20.

thanks man

👍

thx

Region Comparison
With an overview of how each team performed in the year there is only one question left: which region was the best in VCT 2024. The answer to this question cannot simply lie in which region won Champions or the most international trophies as the strength of a region must also measure its depth. Therefore to answer this question I added up the points of all the teams in each region to create a region score.

In fourth place despite winning Champions we have China clocking in with a score of 186. No doubt let down by its depth this was still a great year for China though, with Edward Gaming lifting the regions first trophy and a second year of two teams making top 8 at Champions and never forget that FPX only lost to the two finalists at Masters Shanghai.

In third place with 198 points we have EMEA, a region that had a disappointing year after winning two of the international trophies last year. EMEA had better depth than last year with more teams making it deep in tournaments however like last year they only had one team who seemed to be in any danger of winning and sadly for the region despite two attempts they could not get it across the line.

In second place we have Pacific, with 204 points, and much like for China this was a monumental year as the region took home its first international trophy and doubled the number of finals the region has made in its history. What sets Pacific apart from China and equally what sets Americas apart from Pacific is the improved depth as you look at each region as they each won a trophy.

In first place we have the Americas with a massive 232 making them the clear best region. And this pains me to say as an EMEA fan but you can see why as with an early international trophy in Madrid the Americas region always had two teams in the top four at every international event and the only thing stopping the region running away with this further was their struggle to reach finals finishing both third and fourth at the later two international events.

Overall I think this year has proved just how international an esport valorant is and I look forward to seeing what happens in the offseason and the 2025 VCT.

Valorant 2024 Review: Battle of the Regions

Introduction
With the Final of Valorant Champions behind us, let's look back on the year to find out which region had the best performance in the fourth iteration of the VCT. We have had many highs and lows for each region with Sentinels winning Masters Madrid, becoming the first ever organisation to win two masters titles, whilst China and EMEA never saw playoffs. But then at Masters Shanghai we saw GenG get to back to back masters finals and most importantly convert this second one to bring home Pacific’s first international trophy, meanwhile for Americas the Master Madrid winners could only watch helplessly from home having failed to qualify for the event.

We then have Champions Seoul very much still fresh in our mind with Edward Gaming and Team Heretic’s epic five map grand final which saw heartbreak for Heretics as they lost back to back international finals, their fourth grand final loss of the year. However the prize went deservedly to the Edward Gaming helping continue a year of firsts to have China win its first international trophy.

However before I dive further into discussing which region had a better year overall it is worth discussing how I intended to measure this. I used an F1 style points system to provide points for every single event that happened this year, domestic and international. This has helped discover the top teams of the year as well as adding up all the points from teams in the same region to find the best performing region of 2024. Another quick disclaimer: I have valued Champions significantly over Masters events with the winner of Masters events getting roughly the same number of points as coming second in Champions, as for me Champions will always be the ultimate goal of every team.

The Top Teams
The top teams in the year can really be split into tiers by seeing where the massive point drop offs appear throughout the rankings so this is how I will be treating the teams in this section.

Starting off we have the “Gasping for Air” tier of teams; this is for every team that got less than 5 points across the whole year, with a point being roughly equal to a match win for teams down this end of the order and the common trend is that almost all of them never saw playoffs. This tier consists of 16 of the teams in VCT ranging from the objective poorest performers of the year Bleed Esports who won only one match to All Gamers the only team in this tier to make a playoff appearance. The full list of teams in this tier are: All Gamers, BBL, Bleed Esports, DetonatioN FocusMe, Furia, Gentle Mates, GIANTX, Global Esports, KOI, MIBR, Nova Esports, Team Liquid, Titan Esports Club, TYLOO, Wolves Esports and Zeta Divizion

The next tier is “Treading Water”: these teams may have made domestic playoffs regularly but most of them were never in any danger of troubling international event qualification and for those that made it they went home winless. The point range for this tier is 6-11 points and includes teams ranging from Evil Geniuses who made it deep at Americas Kickoff but only needed a record of 1-1 to achieve the feat to Talon Esports who managed to qualify for Champions at the end of the year. The full list of teams in this tier are: Bilibili Gaming, Cloud9, Dragon Ranger Gaming, Evil Geniuses, JD Gaming, Natus Vincere, NRG, Rex Regum Qeon, T1, Talon Esports and Team Secret.

With the next tier we move onto our top four tiers which sees a fall in the number of teams included but a larger range of points between each tier. This tier is the “One Hit Wonder” tier for teams that made only one international appearance but unlike the teams in the previous tier they won games whilst there, earning themselves more points. The points range for this tier is 13-18 and includes only four teams with Loud and Karmine Corp peaking early in the year, only appearing at Masters Madrid. Along with KRU and Team Vitality who only appeared at Champions.

This next tier is “Went on a Run” and includes teams with 22 to 29 points. The name is slightly misleading as this tier includes five teams of which DRX, 100 Thieves and Trace Esports meet the description of only appearing at one international event but going on a deep run. Whilst FUT Esports and FunPlus Phoenix made multiple international events never going particularly deep but consistently being there.

The “Contender” tier consists of teams with 40-48 points and these teams mostly made at least two international events and went deep at both of them and won a domestic title. There are only four teams in this tier and one major exception to the rule with G2 being the only team in this tier that didn’t win a domestic title. Meanwhile Paper Rex and Leviatan both won one domestic title each and peaked at third place finishes in international tournaments although Leviatan’s third at Champions is undoubtedly more impressive. The last team in this tier is Fnatic who managed to win two domestic titles along with attending two international tournaments even if Shanghai was a poor performance the 5th-6th in Seoul was respectable enough grab them enough points to reach this tier.

Lastly we have the “Titan” tier which again consists of only four teams ranging from 62 points all the way to 86 points. This tier should solely be made up of teams with international titles if it wasn’t for Team Heretic’s proclivity for losing finals or Edward Gaming’s dominance over China as regardless of which of them won Champions both would have made it into this tier based on my points system. Now of course Edward Gaming did win champions making them the team with the most points this year thanks to a clean sweep of China domestic titles to go with the ultimate prize. Next on the list is Gen.G Esports who made the finals of both Masters events winning the second one and also hold two domestic titles for the year. Following that up is Team Heretics who despite attending four finals including two at international events never managed to win one this year but their consistency in getting there no doubt places them among the teams of this calibre. Last but certainly not least we have Sentinels who won Americas Kickoff and Masters Madrid to cement their spot in this tier.

Disclaimer
Sadly it turns out everything i wanted to write couldn't fit in the text so I will add the section conlcuding the strengths of the regions in my first reply.

PS
If you liked this I will be releasing my top players of the year consisting of a Global 20, Americas 10, China 10, EMEA 10 and Pacific 10 so keep an i out for that and I will also link it here.

PSS
aint reading all that happy for you though or sad it happened

honestly playoffs outside of trace all the matchs were really good, with really good valorant so 8/10 but 9/10 if the final is a real banger (which it should be)

vlr goldfish memory earlier this year loads of hate for boaster for putting up these numbers. Only fell off after stage 1 playoffs and now com getting hate for masters peformance

I agree not china again for a while personally would love a masters or champs in London next year

thinks it can only be held in US or China

the org gets the slot the core is not needed

Cender has been the igl the whole time

grass?

Enzo better pickup than keiko imo

ur second option is the reality

Got this over a year ago barely post now

a) no
b) u mean round differential not map

solid takes

+rep me

D3

UK, Germany and Italy are well represented in tier 2 so whilst we might lack many big names rn we have good pathways to hopefully have some in the future

Favorite agent : Cypher
Favorite map : Pearl
Favorite Players: Keiko, L1nk
Hobby : Tennis

If duelists then no

Tbh urs but I wanted to build one with chiwawa- and guardy so sacrifices had to be made. If I knew more igl's from other regions that played sova then there could be a better option than Br0die

Juseu- Duelist
Kicks- Flex
Bonkar- Initiator
Seider- Controller
Chiwawa- Sentinel

Duelist: elllement
Flex: Guardy
Initiator: Br0die (IGL)
Smokes: Burzzy
Sentinel: Chiwawa

bonk only win if an org picks them up

Last year vct rules said min immortal other than that no idea

Polaris

Can AslaN speak turkish?

I think the issue is they signed 5 flex/duelist/chamber players

The one where the name makes sense was first

Leviatan and KRU have both been announced

I imagine it is because NAVI is ukraniana dn they won't sign russains associating with Russia so they had to become nuetral

lol didn't say Jamppi is bad just sayf better

Personally I think sayf is better at duelist and chamber than Jamppi but Jamppi is miles better on chamber than duelist so sayf duelist Jamppi chamber

Favorite Sport : Tennis
Favorite Music Genre : Pop
Favorite Music Artist : None
Favorite Youtuber : Vikkstar123
Favorite School Subject : Maths
Favorite Valorant Team Currently : Fnatic
Favorite Valorant Team OF ALL TIME : OG Fish123
Favorite VLR User : PrTsy

100T
Fnatic
?

boom

it definitely hurts superteams for ascension but I mean case could have kept hearthbeat and dropped others for spanish players, but ultimately if he is good enough he can play for a team not in italy vcl

they got there in league so i guess they can get there in val too hopefully

1

Sounds good

don't need 6th not in franchising

imo NRG most overated team rn

Fnatic

100T

my guy if there are no thai teams and no indonesian teams then there are 3 Philipines teams if u r gunna cry please be correct