Photo via Riot Games
Coming into the biggest VALORANT tournament of the year, most people are ready to see 100 Thieves, Fnatic, and Masters One winners OpTic Gaming face each other again, this time for the ultimate prize.
But several VALORANT players and teams are returning to the big stage as underdogs or making an international appearance for the first time.
For VCT fans who want to go deeper and learn more about some players who don’t often get the spotlight (especially in English coverage), we’ve compiled a list of a few of the best players we think could have the tournament of their lives at Champions 2022.
Here are the top five players who have been kept secret in their regions and could emerge as worldwide stars in Istanbul.
Famouz
Famouz is the star of one of the teams making their international debut at Champions, BOOM Esports. Though he has technically been a sub for the squad since July, he has proven himself as one of the most consistent players on the team.
Even when Famouz isn’t playing agents with a high kill potential, he still gets the job done every time. BOOM’s other standout player, BerserX, usually plays duelist, but Famouz still has out-fragged him on several occasions.
The only thing standing in Famouz’s way of having a guaranteed huge impact in this VALORANT tournament is the overall international experience of BOOM. Standing in the shadow of Paper Rex and XERXIA, the team is used to coming in second and third place in their region and has narrowly missed out on international events several times in the past.
Though the players on BOOM obviously have the skills to compete in Istanbul at Champions, Famouz will need to have strong mental to carry himself through his first international LAN tournament.
ZmjjKK
The entire Chinese VALORANT region has been a secret to every team outside of Asia—until now. While some teams within APAC warned that Chinese VALORANT was evolving fast and could give some established teams a run for their money, no one really took the teams in China seriously until EDward Gaming had a perfect record in the East Asia LCQ. They didn’t drop a single map to some of the best teams from Korea and Japan, and even overcame NORTHEPTION, the popular VALORANT team from Japan that previously attended Masters Copenhagen.
The winning moment for @EDG_Edward 🙌 pic.twitter.com/ufyQWkHRuK
— VALORANT Champions Tour 🇹🇷 (@ValorantEsports) August 14, 2022
ZmjjKK is EDward Gaming’s Chamber player. At only 18 years old, he has the potential to rival some of the best players in the world if he brings his A-game.
He started off with the reputation of a young, up-and-coming Jett player in China. Then, as the meta shifted and he officially joined EDG, he found himself playing mostly Chamber.
With an average ACS of 291 on the agent, ZmjjKK is definitely a VALORANT player to watch as Champions gets going this week.
Tacolilla
Leviatán, one of the teams representing Latin America at Champions, might have the most chaotic style of any team in the tournament. They thrive in chaos and unpredictable action, and no one capitalizes on it quite like their Chamber player, Tacolilla.
Like many of the other big names in this upcoming VALORANT tournament, Tacolilla specializes in Chamber, and he goes all out.
Leviatán’s most recent international match went the distance with EMEA’s Fnatic but resulted in the LATAM squad’s elimination. After their huge success in getting the LATAM title over KRÜ Esports earlier this year, and their dominance over North America’s top seed XSET, Leviatán are ready to step it up for Champions, where you’ll see Tacolilla sniping headshots out of thin air.
SugarZ3ro
ZETA Division’s SugarZ3ro should be a household name for VALORANT fans by now. But just in case he isn’t, we want to put him on your radar.
One of the strongest players from Japan, SugarZ3ro plays the smokes role to perfection. He reads the plays of his opposition to perfection and is calm and collected in clutch scenarios. Players on controller agents aren’t usually the top fraggers on their team, but SugarZ3ro has changed this narrative with his team. His signature agent is Viper and he is undoubtedly one of the best in the world on the agent.
His team hit a rough patch during Stage Two of the 2022 VCT when they failed to qualify for Masters Copenhagen and the Japanese spot went to NORTHEPTION. This was surprising because of how well ZETA played during Masters One, where they were eliminated by OpTic, the eventual winners of that tournament.
Dimasick
Though most fans of professional VALORANT are familiar with Team Liquid and are likely also familiar with this player, dimasick has floated along in the shadows since he joined to fill L1NK’s vacancy left on the European powerhouse.
BATTLE SAGE ACTIVATED @dimasickCSGO pic.twitter.com/fHT4C4dGDT
— VALORANT Champions Tour EMEA (@valesports_emea) August 13, 2022
Dimasick has a stacked résumé. Coming from CS:GO originally then finding his way onto FPX’s 2021 roster, he spent some time with regional and tier-two teams before Liquid picked him up after parting ways with L1NK earlier this year.
Dimasick is a quiet player. You won’t see him top-fragging or playing flashy agents. And in a meta that rewards Chamber, Jett, and Raze players, sometimes the supporting teammates fly under the radar. But Liquid’s push to beat M3C in the EMEA LCQ showed dimasick is working in their lineup.
The Kazhakstani player plays a variety of VALORANT agents, but you’ll most likely see him at Champions on Sage, Omen, Brimstone, and maybe Sova. His consistency could certainly be a big factor if Liquid goes far this year.