After EMEA's poor showing at masters reykjavik compared to expectations, it is pretty obvious that EMEA needs to bring out a new talent to shake the world, who do you think its gonna be? Which team could utilize him well enough?

In my opinion the next big player is going to be FOKUS's superstar JuGi, he's an ex CS player that was well known at the start of his career as an extremely flashy and mechanically gifted AWPer, but as the years went on he clearly started to struggle with confidence and was never able to replicate the amount of confidence and flashyness that he had on Heroic(his breakout team), but in Valorant he seems reborn, the numbers he's putting up with fokus are out of this world (really reminds me of Yay when he used to play for ANDBOX) aand the eye test tells me that the switch to valorant gave him back that confidence he lost, I cant wait to see him in the future and im sure he's definetely gonna be picked up by a top team in need of a strong Operator player(G2 maybe?)

geographically not APAC but i imagine they would play on APAC teams(unless riot makes a Central Asian region that includes Korea/China/Mongolia/Vietnam/Pakistan) and theres some history of mongolian/APAC lineups(Erkast in renegades who competed in Asia qualifiers for a lot of time, NKT and theres probably more)

In Dota 2 the SEA scene has a lot fo crossover between the philippines, indonesia, singapore and malaysia, i think that valorant can also head in that direction no problem, also dont underestimate Moingolia, its a country with a strong CS tradition and if some of their good players start switching to valorant we may see even more good players in APAC

BaddyG is polish my friend

+1 for vo0kashu, insane mechanics for an IGL and good calls, i feel like vakk is better than mushashi tough, he has been lights out for vitality and desrves a callup for tier 1 play

Agree in some part, but I think the main problem is that NA valorant is still filled by ex-cs semipros that dont have the same drive as younger players that are hungrier(The Guard is the only team in NA that has shown that kind of hunger that might drive them to get great results, but I still fear that pressure might to them on LAN) some ex-cs players bloomed in valorant cause they now have the chance to win for real(im thinking mostly about yay and Asuna) but a lot of them seem to be there just because it pays better than CS, NA either needs to invest more heavily in youngsters like The guard or fix their mentality and stop chasing names instead of actual talent(Im looking at you 100T) or else they are going to end up recycling the same players over and over and never get out of the hole they dug themselves into, kinda like NA league of legends

looks like JuGi found his confidence back, never seen him play so ballsy since the heroic days

he was one of the most promising prospects in OWL, only reason he wasnt playing is caus ehe just turned 18, everyone wanted a piece of him, kinda like Sp9rkle, Kevster and Pelican, hes definetely good enough for OWL

they qualified for challengers and have won 2 NSG winter opens with good competition, it's fair to say they are doing good , I didn't say cryocells is the best player on the team, just that the team has been objectively doing good, not the best team in NA but I doubt it was XSET's intention to be the number 1

Italian world cup team
bipo - Jett/Raze
Mass3r - Sova IGL
Morphiwow - Flex
Giuden - Sentinel/Secondary operator
xazyy - Controller
easy world cup win

atm
Chronicle
Nukkye
ScreaM
cNed
Leo

but if I had to say who are th ebest considering how they played on LAN and how consistent they are
cNed
ScreaM
Chronicle
Derke
zeek

kyno is a brazilian ex-Rainbow Six Siege player, he recently played in the North American League for Oxygen Esports, reaching Six Invitational, R6 most prestigious event, he recently retired from R6 esports looking for new opportunities and stated multiple times he wanted to switch to VALORANT.

XSET signed kyno as a VALORANT player, announced on their twitter an hour ago.
kyno is a brazilian ex-Rainbow Six Siege player, he recently played in the North American League for Oxygen Esports, reaching Six Invitational, R6 most prestigious event, he recently retired from R6 esports looking for new opportunities and stated multiple times he wanted to switch to VALORANT.

XSET posted this tweet (https://twitter.com/XSET/status/1501241520233537545) and kyno updated his bio saying he's a professional valorant player for XSET now.

We dont know if kyno is actually going to be playing for the men's valorant team, especially considering how well they have been doing since adding cryocells, my theory is that he will occupy a substitute role (very useful considering COVID cases are always a possibility and stand-ins are very common at LANs, looking at CSGO mainly) but mainly focus on streaming.

It's definetely going to be fun to theorize about what role he would play in the lineup though, in R6 he was known for his supportive play, strong aim and clutching, maybe he'll play Sova roles, whats your take on the situation? Real addition or just a trolly way to introduce a streamer?

hoping i get a response, writing esports articles always was my dream!

insane player

cause Leo is the next number 1 player in the world

go look at his games in CIS qualifiers, guy is real good mechanically

one of the players of Dsyre(i dont remember which one, i think either bipo or magik) has german citizienship

BIG look very impressive thanks to a certified JoYnt product(twisten) but LDN can definetely take them down, dont underestimate just how hard molsi and feqew can frag when the gears start turning and boo calls well around them

LDNU will kick navi and BIG asses easily, they have best coach of the event, MOLSI is cracked and the lineup is extremely well balanced

ez4bipo greatest italian talent ever

If this is true then this explains a lot about how Giants were able to find such big success even if DavidP was always lurking he gave perfect calls all the time, way easier when theres another man that looks at minimap and has all player cams since he can spectate legally, also explains the odd decision of wanting to pick up Meddo and Hoody even though it would have caused role problems, those 2 are probably Pipson most trusted guys that wouldnt rat him out.
And despite this, they still got absolutely clapped by Vakk and Cender, Lithuania supremacy beats MrMethods

Alliance wins these, LuckeRRR has to take revenge on BIG

i put him in my personal top 20 list of the year at number 8, at champions he showed to be an insanely talented fragger, cant wait to see more of him and i hope he can ispire young players in LATAM to pursue a career and grow the region

not really, At the moment its understandable that he's making stupid decisions and acting unprofessionally, afterall hes a kid that still hasn't finished high school, I think getting benched from G2 will be a humbling lesson and an opportunity to grow as a person for him, Dembelè problem was that he acted like a child and didnt train when he was well into his 20s, unacceptable behaviour, i cross fingers and hope keloqz doesnt end up like him playing playstation all day instead of showing up to physio rehabilitation

I talked to some people in the scene during the Red Bull Home Ground period and they explained to me the reason why keloqz was getting kicked despite his performance, cause at the time I couldn't believe it too, like the kid is clearly talented, something must have happened to lead to a bench

keloqz very bad attitude, doesnt practice, prefers to buy iphone and cars instead of getting a good pc setup to scrim every day, even if he has insane aim he wont go far in the future with that attitude and the fact he isnt playing in a big team right now is demonstration that he has to grow up if he wants to play comp, id rather have mature professionals like MEddo and Hoody than a kid like him, maybe in 1 or 2 years

they changed the core roster so they lost the VCT points, same reason why Giants have to play open qual too

sadly italy doesnt have the history in tac shooters the likes of france, germany, hell even the adria region have, so our player pool is really small. atleast we have an amazing coach that works in a strong team(LDNUTD)

let me dream, Megastitut is actually the most likely upset team in the early matchups tho and they are a very real threat, italian memes asided

Dsyre has 2 of the best italian players(bipo being probably the biggest talent italy ever produced in tac shooters) but the team is on the newer side and Mkers has shown in the past they have a core that can punch way above their weight and a pretty exciting youngster in giuden, I think that thery are still the best in italy until dsyre glue togheter(once they do they are clearly better)

Im expecting heretics to not make it far ngl, they will face the best team in italy most likely which is actually performing well in scrims vs T2 opponents and then most likewly the MEgastitut, both teams that can send them out early and when they start facing the real teams i cant see em winning out against LDN, Guild and the likes

Tenzki didnt look very good recently in CS, but hes a very experienced player that is familiar with big stages, Mertz very talente AWPer that didnt pan out in CS, but i can see him being very good in Valorant, lowel is a good IGL and we all know it, al0rante has very good aim, bromas feels like a budget pickup so they can compete in the regional league.
Mertz and al0rante can be good, not feeling too good about tenzki and bromas tho

Juliano will take back her crown as the queen of FPS as soon as international GC starts, she will school those NA fools like she did 1 millions times already in CS

hes an 18 year old that spent most of his life grinding video games, no surprise hes awkward and has a lot to learn and people are putting him on blast for having "no game", this is honestly so sad to watch, I feel really bad for him and must be so embarassing, hope he learns from this and keeps his personal stuff off twitter, he probably saw TenZ and the other pros bagging egirls on Twitter and tought he could do the same, being so young is one hell of a drug afterall

shanks and his brother are known matchfioxers, ardiis too, in the asian CS scene there was rampant matchfixing for years so a lot of asian players probably involved

if your curious i already made a post about my top 20 some time ago (https://www.vlr.gg/60094/top-20-players-of-2021) I would like to hear more about your reasoning on placing the players in their positions

NA pros prefer to stream ranked games insteadf of grinding scrims, also too many egos, this is the reason NA CS had so many failures, players that sacrificed themselves were rare but they were always in top teams(RUSH, Stewie2k to a certain extent, Daps, fUgly), just like in CS na needs more supportive players and a better work ethic, less hours on twitch and more in scrims versus top tier opposition, there's a reason why top pros in eu arent in ranked leaderboard, its because they are too busy scrimming all day, leaving the ladder to t2 players like Kadavra, AslanMashadow, Cender and other players that grind the ladder to prove themselves.
In NA I always see Asuna and other pros online streaming, no hate towards him but shouldnt he be praccing with his full team against other full teams instead of pugging?

thanks man, glad you enjoyed it

i know for real man, I freakin love Leo and I wish I could have been able to place him but sadly 0 results to show, but I'm sure next year he will shine like he deserves to

I really wanted to place SceaM at 5, but I think Chronicle tournament results and the fact he gets such good stats while playing a non-traditionally heavy-frag role, put him over the edge, also as I said Liquid sadly never reached even a final on LAN, Gambit got 2 finals, one them won and the other narrowly losing to Acend, I feel like it would be a bit of a disservice to Chronicle and Gambit to not give him top 5, thats my opinion, honeslty id say that ScreaM could be anywhere from 1 to 6 and he wouldnt feel too out of place

watch more regions other than NA brother, itll open your eyes :)

ask Enigma to hire me ill do it for free

5 - Timofey "Chronicle" Khromov (https://www.vlr.gg/player/458/chronicle)
The Berlin finals MVP, without a doubt the best flex player in the world, Chronicle is a swiss army knife of playstyles, topped up by insane mechanics and great gamesense.
Chronicle has shown to be an excellent Sova player, a Competent Viper, a great Killjoy, probably the best Brimstone in the world and a strong Skye player, playing such a variety of Agents at this level of play is rare, even rarer is being able to perform to the levels Chronicle does, a 222 ACS at Masters Berlin(#2 in Gambit, above both duelist players and the highest rated Sova with more than 100 rounds played) 236 at Champions(Best in Gambit) show that Gambit's best performances always come when Chronicle finds room to show off his ability and indicates how vital he is to their success.

4 - Jacob "yay" Whiteaker (https://www.vlr.gg/player/881/yay)
From ANDBOX solo carry to best player from the USA, yay was destined for greatness, his stats were always ridicoulous(313 ACs at S3:Challengers 2) but he was stuck in a team that despite his heroics just couldnt make it far into tournaments, this changed when he was signed by Envy.
Envy always lacked a superstar fragger, it was a solid team with solid strats, with discpline and amazing utility usage, led by an expert like FNS it managed to fill the gap left by skill with strats, signing yay was the way to add the firepower that they needed to excel and they did.
Challengers stage 3 playoffs, his first tournament with Envy was a success for yay with a 243 ACS he quickly proved he was the right fit for the team, but Envy truly blossomed in Berlin and yay was finally free to show the world what El Diable was capable of, a 280 ACS over 248 rounds, numbers that seem almost impossible, despite falling short in the finals to a superior Gambit team, Yay had proved to the world that he was an absolute demon on the server.
Champions was a disappointment for Envy, let down by uncharacteristic performances by Victor(who was under the effects of Covid-19 unluckily) and FNS, but Yay still reminded everyone that even on an off-tournament for the team, he was a force to be reckoned with a 242 ACS.
While the year ended on a disappointment, Yay is not going to be fazed by it, afterall he solo-carried ANDBOX into relevancy, carrying Envy to a big win next year is definetely something El Diablo would do to shock the world again.

3 - Tyson "TenZ" Ngo (https://www.vlr.gg/player/9/tenz)
TenZ is definetely the best pure aimer in the world, his records and the amount of advertising done with him are a sure fire way to prove it, the canadian player was and still is NA's bona fide superstar, the spearhead of Sentinels, probably the most popular team in the world.
The canadian aimer has been obviously impressive every time he stepped into the server, since the start of the year he always fragged out under the sentinels banner, 231 ACS at Challengers playoffs 2, an historic 289 in Iceland that earned him tournament and finals MVP, 240 at the stage 3 playoffs, 269 in Berlin(despite falling to Envy) and 225 at champions.
The last event of the year is probably the only stain on TenZ's otherwise otherworldy year of events, in this event many people felt like TenZ choked, his performance wasnt as good as it used to and they were right to a certain extent, TenZ underperformed, but his underperformance still manages to put up an excellent rating, this is why TenZ is such a force, even when he looks at his weakest, he's still an incredible player.
Sentinels look in sort of a crisis, with a very disappointing placement, but they can sleep sound, knowing they can always rely on their superstar to destroy the domestic competition.

2 - Ayaz "nAts" Akmethshin(https://www.vlr.gg/player/457/nats)
By far the most interesting player in the valorant scene, nAts is a player that in a certain way revolutionized the whole scene, he showed the whole world that the sentinel role could be played in a way that cna carry the whole team, he showed how potent lurking is in valorant and above all he showed that game sense can and will beat even the most impressive of aimers.
A player that is found on roles that no one would identify as heavy frag roles, nAts thrives on the chyper and the Viper, playing them in a way that has been perfected to fit his characteristics and is utilized in such a beautiful way by gambit that he is often found fragging way mopre than the duelists in his team, he was Berlin's tournament MVP posting a 265 ACS, unheard of by a Sentinel player and he showed to be strong even online with a 236 ACS performance at the stage 3 challenger playoffs.
Champions was a testament to nAts resilience, after MAsters Berlin, the eyes of all the world were on him and most importantly how to shut him down and in fact he was heavily anti-stratted by teams, often running setups tailor made to stop him, explaining his modest(but still impressive considering hes supposed to be in a sacrificial role) 210 ACS but the pressure he still had on team was immense, during the playoffs he started to warm up more and more until the grand finals where in a epic clash he gave it all to defeat Acend with a 245 ACS but it wasnt enough and the russians still fell.
nAts might not be the most impressive player if you look at the numbers purely, but in context he is by far the most unique player in valorant tier 1 scene, a Lurker that forces teams to play to contain him, a psychological effect taht always lingers in the back of the mind of the opponents and a player that when unchecked can take over games.

1 - Mehmet Yagiz "cNed" Ipek (https://www.vlr.gg/player/573/cned)
It's not easy to choose the number 1 player, but cNed excellence throughout the year was impossible to ignore, when a team that would go on to win Champions is known for most of the year as just "cNed and friends" it tells you a lot about the quality of the titular cNed.
I can talk a lot about how strong cNed Operator is, his knives usage, his utility but i will let the numbers do the talking for me
281 at Masters 1, 254 at Challengers playoffs 3, 267 at masters Berlin, 230 at Champions.
A consistently amazing player during the whole year, the best OPer in EMEA and many more things, for me he's the best in the world right now.

Now i will clean this up and fit it all in the first post, maybe add in some more stuff so it looks professional, idk

i get bonus bumps if i post them in replies :^)

9 - Nikita "Derke" Sirminev (https://www.vlr.gg/player/5022/derke)
Fnatic's superstar player, probably one of the most mechanically skilled players in the world, he has excelled on LAN(278 ACS at Champions, #1 of the event and 260 in Iceland) which is impressive considering he's only 18 years old, his gameplay really shows the makings of a world class player, cold, collected and mechanically flawless.
Boaster managed to put the Finn-Russian into solid positions to frag ever since he joined the team and while Derke never failed to deliver, the rest of the team hasnt enjoyed as much success as Derke's ability would suggest, with Iceland's 2nd place finish being their best result of the year, the middle of the year has seen Fnatic absent from the higher tiers of competition, which led many people to doubt their chances at Champions and while they had a great performance at Champions(with Derke especially performing in huge ways) they still got upset by a red-hot KRU, which paired with their ghost-like performance during the 3rd stage of challengers, blocks Derke from climbing higher

8 - Angelo "KeznitDeus" Mori (https://www.vlr.gg/player/2462/keznit)
The hero of LATAM, Keznit is probably one of the most gifted entry fraggers in the world, starting the year in wygers he shown impressive numbers domestically that lended him a spot in KRU in may, after the team had finished very low in Iceland, Keznit immediately turned KRU into a true dominant force in the region, with 252 ACS at Challengers 3 LATAM crowning him as the best player in the region, in Berlin KRU was still not ready for international competition, but Keznit still shined with 227 ACS and being instrumental in bringing the chilean team to the quarterfinals.
But it was during champions that Keznit truly awakened, a 246 ACS performance that led KRU to one of the most impressive runs from a team in a minor region, First upsetting Sentinels(222 ACS with help from Mazino's 238 ACS) then going on to beat a Fnatic side that could boast about having the best player at the tournament in Derke, Keznit put on a Show with an heroic 304 ACS deadlift that sent KRU to the Semifinals, where they fought Gambit to 5 overtimes on Bind before falling to the russians, in whats probably the best valorant match to date, once again Keznit was leading the way with a 249 ACS.
Keznit has shown that despite being from a region that is often ignored, real talent can still blossom and for a short time he was the main character of Valorant.

7 - Aleksander "Zeek" Zygmunt (https://www.vlr.gg/player/562/zeek)
The ex-Fortnite player has been instrumental in Acend's rise to the top, being nominated the Champions Tournament MVP from his team, Zeek career has been a rollercoaster, going from Nolpenki to G2 at the start of the year, he showed some very intense mechanical skill during his time with the spanish organization but the lineup failed, brought down by internal issues and players that sadly werent at a tier 1 level anymore, Zeek was traded to Acend in exchange for Koldamenta in June and this was the turnaround for his career.
Zeek felt at home in Acend, playing often the Sova along with his usual duelists and swiftly taking revenge on G2 at S3:challengers 1 and posting a solid 219 ACS at Challengers 3 playoffs despite Acend 3rd place finish, in Berlin he was still on the Sova most of the time, the role didnt fit his playstile but he still impressed with a 225 ACS, with Acend's early exit in the QF against 100T being to this day considered a choke by the european side.
At Champions Zeek showed a new face, off the sova role and more often on frag heavy roles that could entry frag more comfortably, this role swap unlocked Zeek, finally able to show off his skills on Kay/0, Reyna and Raze, his 230 ACS speaking volumes about how great of a rifling performance he had.
With Acend's champions win, Zeek finally showed what he was capable of and the new-look Acend can only improve from this point on.

6 - Adil "ScreaM" Benrlitom (https://www.vlr.gg/player/92/scream)
The path of the CSGO veteran seemed paved towards greatness since the start, His performances in the early days of Valorant were always incredible, posting numbers worthy of the gloroious "Edshot Machine" title, but something always seemed to escape Liquid's grasp, that something that could put them over the line and turn them into the world beaters they could have been, but Scream always made sure to remind everyone he was a beast in a cage.
291 ACS in Stage 2 playoffs(#2 in the event), 265 ACS in Iceland #2, beaten only by TenZ), 278 at Stage 3 playoffs(#1 of the event), 272 at the LCQ(again #1) and 251 at Champions, ScreaM performed to incredible degrees at every event Liquid attended, he was not only consistent but consistently amazing.
The only thing holding back the Machine from top 5 is sadly, the lack of success Liquid enjoyed internationally, not even reaching the finals of a LAN event, despite this, ScreaM is a name that instills as much fear into the server as it did years ago during his heyday in CS.

Get ready, next post is the top 5

14 - Nikita "d3ffo" Sudakov (https://www.vlr.gg/player/252/d3ffo)
One of the best players in the LAN environment, posting a 220+ ACS at both LAN events that Gambit attended, a very Flashy Jett player that often impresses with great utility usage and one of the main cogs in the Gambit machine.
While extremely impressive at LAN events, curiously d3ffo has seemed less explosive online, posting the worst rating on his team at Challengers 3(187 ACS) and in general being a streaky player even in his most comfortable environment leave him unable to break higher on the list.

13 - Nathan "Leaf" Orf (https://www.vlr.gg/player/7873/leaf)
One of the hottest prospects in NA, he has been the main driving force behind Cloud 9's recent succes, posting monstrous numbers at the LCQ(253 ACS, the highest at the event) and Champions(263 ACS, with an heroic performance versus Liquid that earned him a 317 ACS) but Leaf has been on for the whole year, always being the most impressive player in Cloud 9, despite their early exits from Challengers 1 and 2, Leaf still impressed and put up great numbers.
Sadly Cloud 9 lack of success during the year leaves Leaf lower on the list than he could be, but the new look C9 led by Vanity will certainly look to impress even more next year and fullfill Leaf's potential.

12 - Peter "Asuna" Mazuryk (https://www.vlr.gg/player/601/asuna)
The other top prospect in NA, Asuna is the main reason why 100 Thieves managed to enjoy great success domestically and a great run at Masters 2.
Despite not attending champions, Asuna stats are in a league of their own considering he isnt playing the OPerator, even more impressively he's the entry fragger, a role that usually gets traded and thus has lower stats, Asuna flips the script and shows that his aim and entry fragging are so impressive he can accrue OPer-like stats on Reyna and Raze(252 ACS at LCQ, 236 at Challengers 3, 247 at Masters Berlin, 269 at Challengers 1) these insane stats, kept up all year long, in what is probably the most competitive and cutthroat region in Valorant are deserving of a high placement.
100 Thieves collapsed at the end of they year, with Asuna trying to keep the team togheter and carrying them almost to Champions, sadly he fell just short to Cloud 9, but Asuna efforts wont be in vain as next year 100 thieves is looking to rebuild around him

11 - Austin "Crashies" Roberts (https://www.vlr.gg/player/4/crashies)
Crashies has been the best Sova player in NA basically all year long, his consistency on the Sova role is impressive and crashies has shown he can hang with the best in the world at Masters Berlin, where he impressed greatly especially in clutch situations.
He also played at a very high level domestically all year long, being the best player in Envy without a doubt before yay joined the team and he's the hand behind most of Envy's early success(along with FNS igling).
A solid player all year, deserves a Solid placement, even though Envy disappointed at Challengers.

10 - Shahzeb "Shahzam" Khan (https://www.vlr.gg/player/46/shahzam)
Shahzam has been one of the most influential figures in the Valorant community, the Sentinels IGL has shown to be a great caller that early in the life of the game helped build the meta of the game, but Shahz is also an impressive figure on the server, while calling he also fragged impressively all year long, even on the Sova, a role he had to adapt into to accomodate TenZ, his OPing early in the year earned Sentinels great positions at the start of the year but once TenZ joined, Shahzam turned into a fearsome rifler, posting a 240 ACS in Iceland, 219 ACS at Challengers 3, 212 at MAsters Berlin and he was by far the best performer for SEN at the disappointing Champions event, where despite a 226 ACS, Sentinels lost to a strong TL and a KRU side that upset them in historical fashion, a win that powered KRU to a semifinals finish.
Despite the disappointing end of the year, Sentinels have been a force to be reckoned with all year long, thanks in large part to Shahzam calls and great gameplay.

Part 3 to follow

I decided to make a ranking of who I think were the best players in this first full year of Valorant Esports, to guide my decisions i decided to use stats at big tournaments(VCT Masters Reykjavik, Berlin and all the Online masters events, LCQ and Champions), accolades and a bit of eye test, naturally my word isnt the truth of god so Feel free to flame me :P
I dont care if we just copying HLTV at this point i cant cars, I lost too much time looking at stats to not post this.
Also this post is going to be extremely long so im gonna post it gradually throughout the day cause I have nothing better to do with my time.

Honorable mentions

Žygimantas "Nukkye" Chmieliauskas (291 ACS at Masters 1, 230 ACS in Berlin, 245 at LCQ Solid player all year long, sadly no accolades and no Champions leave him here)

Roberto "Mazino" Rivas (Consistently 2nd best player of KRU at most events, great eye test, crucial in their win vs Sentinels and the Champions run, sadly his stats arent good enoguh to make the break)

Gustavo "Sacy" Rossi (Monstrous Stats at every event he attended, but not enough results internationally to put him in top 20)

Yuu "Buzz" Byung-Chul (One of the key players for Vision Strikers, very good stats but Vision Strikers disappointing results and the fact he joined them midway through the year leave me hesitant to put him in top 20)

Anthony "Vanity" Malaspina (Attended Masters 2 posting a 197 ACS while IGLing and turned around Cloud 9 destiny completely letting them get through the LCQ, sadly stats made me prefer other Controller players in the list)

Hunter "Sick" Mims (Sadly I was left between having to put Sick and the player at 20, I consider both of them excellent but I wanted to award a player that plays harder roles, Sick is still great and he could have been in the list easily, just personal preference)

20 - Jimmy "Marved" Nguyen (https://www.vlr.gg/player/263/marved)
Probably the best controller in NA, his Astra and Viper play are what really changed Envy along with yay's addition, turned them from Solid, but crownless, into the most feared team from NA, his clutch abilities and utility usage were along with Yay's incredible form one of the main driving forces behind Envy's success at Masters 3 and posted respectable numbers even in their disappointing Champions finish.
In the domestic NA tournaments he was always extremely reliable, even when playing in a very unstable and swingy FaZe Clan.

19 - Patrick "Starxo" Kopczynski(https://www.vlr.gg/player/565/starxo)
The MVP of Champions finals is a player that while inconsistent, always made sure to showcase his talent, especially in the online domestic tournaments, not an easy task considering his main role is supporting cNed aggresive plays with his Skye and Sage, while occasionally showing a good understanding of Controller gameplay with Astra and Viper.
His stats aren't very impressive if taken out of context, but considering he's basically a support player they become more clear and adding in the eye test, especially from more recent events, I think he deserves the spot

18 - Patiphan "Patiphan" Chaiwong (https://www.vlr.gg/player/2452/patiphan)
The Thai youngster managed to impress the world not once but twice, his insane rating(237 ACS) in Champions was the main reason that X10 managed to get to playoffs, but most importantly he showed the world that SEA had potential even earlier at MAsters 2 in Iceland where his heroic 246 ACS made everyone realize that talent existed even in non-traditional FPS regions like thailand.
I wanted to put him higher, but the long break he took in the middle of the year makes some of his domestic numbers a bit foggy, I hope he doesnt leave for Overwatch so next year I can put him even higher.

17 - Kim "Stax" Gu-Taek (https://www.vlr.gg/player/485/stax)
The IGL for VS showed solid numbers for an IGL at every event VS attended and his calling and utility-focused style are what makes VS such an unique and exciting team to watch.
Having been with VS since the start he was part of their dominant streak(ended only by Nuturn) and he managed to integrate Buzz's talent into VS turning them into a real force, I wanted to award him for having been such a terrific IGL for a long time and managing to keep true to his style even through all the roster changes in VS.

16 - Elias "Jamppi" Olkonnen (https://www.vlr.gg/player/9780/jamppi)
The finnish OPer has been one of the most interesting players to look at in EMEA, evolving from streaky and aggressive solo-jett main, he evolved into a complete player, flexible in his agent choices while always bringing solid Operator to Liquid, his switch to the IGL position also revolutionized Liquid completely, turning them into one of the best teams in the world along with Nivera's addition, this shows in his 237 ACS at LCQ, Liquid's best tournament of the year, but Jamppi has been a force even in earlier tournaments with his 229 ACS at Masters Iceland.
Sadly some of Jamppi's performances earlier in the year(along with Liquid as a whole) deny him a higher placement(especially his 200 ACS at Challengers 3, insufficient for a OPer).

15 - Olavo "Heat" Marcelo (https://www.vlr.gg/player/8673/heat)
Despite saying earlier on that I value accolades a lot and sometimes even good stats dont mean much, with Heat, this would be wrong.
The numbers the 18-year old Brazilian has put up on the international stage are absurd, 280 ACS at Masters 3 Berlin, 264 at Champions and he keeps up the insane performances even domestically.
Heat has proven to be a world class Jett player, capable of going toe to toe with the greatest in the world and outfrag them, sadly this hasnt been translated into success, Internationally Vivo Keyd managed only a win versus Zeta Divison and a Controversial rematch against Acend ended the brazilians run at Champions, throughout all of this Heat always was excellent, but the lack of sample size in higher stakes games leaves me unable to put him higher on the List.

Part 2 coming soon in the replies brothers

South Built is definetely the future of filipino Valorant, maybe TS could look tot he to find replacements for some of the older players like Borkum and JessieVash and upgrade, or even better we could see like in DotA some superteams from SEA, imagine a combination of Full Sens, PRX and TS like T1 made in dota2, would definetely be a team that punch very high

1. Nats
2. Dapr
3. Suygetsu
4. Poised
5. Nivera