It has already been two years since Riot Games released their first person tactical shooter “VALORANT” on June 2nd, 2020. A lot of organizations began forming teams before the game’s release and competitions started rather quickly thereafter. The end of 2020 presented the first couple of major regional competitions with First Strike tournaments in regions around the world.
The VALORANT Champions Tour started around the beginning of 2021 and VCT 2022 is still ongoing. The question rises, who have been the best 10 teams over this time frame results wise? In order to create a list like this we focused not exactly on in-game performance, but instead on top results and placings over tournaments around the world.
Taking into account results from First Strike, VCT Masters/Champions 2021 and finally VCT Masters 2022, here are the 10 most successful VALORANT teams since the game was released. We’ve plenty of esports bets for you to consider.
1. Gambit Esports
Gambit’s prowess was rumored throughout the community for months before they got to face teams outside of Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). They aboslutely dominated Stage 1 Masters for the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) region and did decently well in EMEA Stage 2 qualifiers, however failed to qualify for Masters: Reykjavík. Nevertheless, they were able to qualify for Masters: Berlin fulfilling the prophecy and winning in it.
Then, they reached the grand finals at the VALORANT Champions, the first end of year championship event in VALORANT esports history. With a couple of regional titles, an international title and a second place finish at VALORANT’s world championship, Gambit have overall been the best VALORANT team through the game’s first two years of competitive gameplay.
Sadly due to Russia’s conflict with Ukraine, the team has not been able to compete as the Gambit name lately and it’s unclear when or if the players now known as M3C Esports will represent the Gambit brand again.
2. OpTic Gaming
OpTic Gaming, the team who was formerly known as Envy before the two organizations merged, are a close second to Gambit in terms of their place in VALORANT competitive and esports history since 2020. Similar to Gambit, OpTic won an international title and finished second at a different international event.
However, OpTic finished second to Gambit at the Masters: Berlin tournament. After a rather disappointing performance at Champions, they continued the North American soon to be tradition of winning Masters: Reykjavík. With Masters: Copenhagen qualifiers currently ongoing, OpTic looks well in place to continue their success at the next international VALORANT tournament.
3. Sentinels
When Sentinels managed to win Masters: Reykjavík 2021, it was the culmination of an impressive run of success by the North American team, and a breath of fresh air within the tactical FPS community. Sentinels were a strong team since finally taking shape around spring 2020 and finished the year as semifinalists at First Strike: North America.
Later, they won Stage 1 Masters for the North America region in early 2021. They followed that up by becoming the first ever international champions in Reykjavík, after locking up the best mechanical player in VALORANT at the time, Tyson “TenZ” Ngo, who was previously on loan from Cloud9.
They were able to qualify once more to the Masters: Berlin and Champions international events, but their performance definitely declined as the year continued, with what seems to be synergy or communication issues. Sentinels might have been the best team in VALORANT’s early history, but other teams have since surpassed them rather quickly due to lack of adaptation.
4. Acend
Acend finished the end of the 2021 circuit on top of the VALORANT esports scene. When it comes to esports betting, Acend are widely-recognized for being the winners of Champions 2021 international tournament, Acend can still talk about being the champions of VALORANT’s first ever world championship. Winning Champions carries a little more weight than winning a Masters event as most of the community confirms due to the amount of team quality, but that’s not the only reason they’re fourth on this section.
Acend were also the Stage 1 Masters champions for the Europe region. Like other Stage 1 Masters champions Gambit and Sentinels, Acend added an immediate international title on top of their regional championship back in 2021.
5. DRX
Outside of the usual suspects in Sentinels and Gambit, Vision Strikers (who have since been acquired and rebranded by DRX) were definitely the most hyped team in late 2020 and early 2021, where Valorant was at a really young age. With a massive 102 match winning streak, the team formerly known as Vision Strikers were considered by some one of the best teams in the world. They won First Strike Korea and Stage 1 Masters Korea with absolutely no competition in the region.
No other team in any region won their respective First Strike and Stage 1 Masters tournaments before. However, the big question over the community and team’s minds was how much their success was due to lack of competition in what some people thought was a weak region. Failing to qualify for Masters: Reykjavík 2021 was a huge blow to their reputation, but they were able to qualify for Masters: Berlin while also reaching the playoffs.
They started off 2022 strong as well. Now known as DRX, the team reached the playoffs at Masters: Reykjavík 2022 and currently is still categorized as the best Korean team internationally.
6. Team Liquid
Outside of Gambit and Acend, Team Liquid have been the most consistently strong team from Europe, sadly consistency was not as good as winning. They achieved the semi finals at Champions and qualified for Masters: Reykjavík in both 2021 and 2022, quite a feat while surrounded with the best teams in the world. At last year’s Masters: Reykjavík, Team Liquid finished in the top four, something the community was waiting for a long time.
In this year’s edition, they were no more than a playoff team. When Nabil “Nivera” Benrlitom joined his brother Adil “ScreaM” Benrlitom on this team in late 2021, the team was unstoppable until the Champions final, where sadly they were not able to deliver. It’s also important to highlight how the veterancy of a player like ScreaM coming from a previous long career within a tactical shooter (CSGO), helped Team Liquid to establish themselves in the VALORANT scene.
7. KRU
Thus far, KRÜ have been the only team that has qualified for all three international Masters tournaments and Champions through their own regional qualifiers, however it is important to keep in mind that similar to DRX the region was not as competitive as others.
Nevertheless, they were the best team outside of North America and Europe in 2021, but the valorant odds projected them as the underdogs until Champions happened.
Although they made the playoffs at Masters: Berlin, they were immediately eliminated without much thought. At Champions though, they absolutely came through and shocked the world when they beat favorite Sentinels to eliminate them in the group stage and eventually knocked another favorite in Fnatic out in the quarterfinals. Their run ended in the semifinals after an extremely close match against Gambit, which left the community disheartened.
They didn’t win any games at Masters: Reykjavík 2022, but given their history as the best team in Latin America, they’ll surely be back for Masters: Copenhagen to show their actual worth.
8. ZETA DIVISION
ZETA DIVISION are on here thanks to following a third place finish at this year’s Masters: Reykjavík. After going totally winless at Masters: Berlin last year, it was quite a shocking turn of events from their previous results. However, they were one of the best teams in Japan in the first few months of VALORANT esports history.
When they were known as Absolute JUPITER Esports, they won First Strike Japan easily and finished second at Japan’s Stage 1 Masters. Now that they have performed better than any Japanese team has performed on the international stage, they are looking to break from the pack in 2022. As usual it can end both ways, becoming just a good regional team or solidifying themselves as an international threat.
9. Fnatic
Lastly we wanted to include a potential team that is looking to invest further within the scene, to hopefully meet their true destiny and appease their own fan base.
Fnatic rounds out the list of the top VALORANT teams in the game’s first two years. They were runners up at the first ever VALORANT international tournament, Masters: Reykjavík 2021, setting a good tone for what was to come. After missing out on Masters: Berlin, they qualified for Champions and reached the playoffs.
Fnatic started off 2022 looking as one of the best teams in Europe with their dynamic fast paced gameplay, but being without two of their starting players at Masters: Reykjavík it absolutely became a disaster as Fnatic went win less within the tournament. Fnatic is a staple name in a lot of different esports scenes, thus their fan base is expecting the best from the European organization. We will have to wait and see how the team manages to follow through.
That’s it for our list, be sure to check the rest of our VALORANT content as we cover every tournament and share our esports odds weekly!
