2022 has been a pivotal year for Valorant as fans were let back into the most important events on the calendar and the esport continued to grow worldwide. With fans in attendance, and the ever-changing meta, top Valorant players were minted on the biggest stage the esport has seen so far.
The year included many great storylines, like the dominance of OpTic Gaming, the underdog run of ZETA DIVISION, and the rise of FunPlus Phoenix.
Some players rose out of those storylines to put on performances that cemented them in Valorant history and propelled them into top player status.
Here are our top five Valorant players of the year.
Best Valorant players – 2022
5 — Jing Jie ‘Jinggg’ Wang
Paper Rex finished top four at Valorant Champions Tour Stage 1 Masters and Stage 2 Masters largely off the back of Jinggg’s performance. The teenager did have some help thanks to his player-in-crime Jason ‘f0rsakeN’ Susanto always complimenting his aggressive plays and the team’s head coach Alexandre ‘alecks’ Sallé drawing up set plays to let both players shine.
But, the young Singaporean player had to execute those plays and he almost always did while finishing events in the top bracket statistically. He was in the top three statistically of players in average damage per round, average combat score, and kills per round at Stage 2 Masters Copenhagen, according to VRL.gg. He was in the top five of players across those same statistics at Stage 1 Masters and even broke into the top 10 at Valorant Champions 2022 despite his team not making it past the group stage.
Paper Rex became a team to watch out for internationally in 2022 and based on the ages of Jinggg and f0rsaken, potentially many years to come.
4 — Kim ‘MaKo’ Myeong-kwan
DRX are a consistent threat internationally and continued their dynasty regionally in 2022 by breezing their way to every international event. MaKo, the team’s smokes player, was a consistent competitor for DRX and made his way to the top of many statistical categories throughout the year.
Arguably his best tournament of the year was Masters Copenhagen where he had the highest number of assists per round at 0.5 and the second-highest kill, assist, survive, or trade percentage, according to VLR. While not always showing up on the stats sheet, or making flashy plays, MaKo was the rock DRX needed to make it out of tough games.
He was rarely the team’s bottom fragger and was one of the biggest reasons DRX broke into the top three at Valorant Champions, the team’s first top-three showings internationally, by top fragging in a 2-0 win over FPX.
3 — Gustavo ‘Sacy’ Rossi
No top-five list of the year in Valorant would be complete with a representative from the Valorant Champions winners LOUD. The Brazilian squad was one of the best teams of the year in the esport and also dominated their home region as no domestic team was able to take a series off of them in 2022. One of the leaders of the squad, Sacy, was an integral part of the team as he helped captain LOUD and caused problems for enemy teams with his utility usage.
LOUD was billed as a top team in Brazil and internationally because of their understanding of the meta, utility usage, and raw mechanics. While having players on the team that are great at shooting heads, having players like Sacy that can read the game and mentor younger teammates is also important.
While not one of the top statistical players of the year, Sacy could always hold his own as a site anchor and was never a liability for his team unlike other team captains and IGLs at the top level.
2 — Dmitry ‘SUYGETSU’ Ilyushin
The rise of FPX was a fun ride for fans as the team qualified for every international event in 2022, won Masters Copenhagen, and finished top four at Valorant Champions. All five team members from the squad could round out a top-five Valorant players of the year list, but the youngest of the team made Dexerto’s list for his consistent fragging power.
SUYGETSU was named MVP of the grand final series between FPX and PRX at Masters Copenhagen after the team lifted the trophy. The 20-year-old player secured the final kills for his team to win the series and also dominated the third map of the series, Fracture, with 22 kills on Viper.
While not a flashy playmaker, or the crafty IGL of the squad, SUYGETSU showcased his talent in a more supportive role and still had breakout games throughout the year to show fans he is more than a Cypher main.
1 — Jaccob ‘yay’ Whiteaker
OpTic Gaming were the best Valorant team of 2022 by a mile as the squad placed top three across all three international VCT events and won Masters 1. While the team had one of the better IGL and coaching duos in the world, and some of the best players from North America on the squad, it’s hard to overlook yay’s importance to OpTic’s year competitively.
yay was in the top three across all three VCT major 2022 events in average combat score, average damage per round, and kills per round, according to VLR. With the rise of Chamber and his abilities that give the Agent a sniper rifle and a one-shot headshot kill sidearm, yay became almost unstoppable. He also averaged 0.18 first kills per round across the year at international events.
Don’t just take Dexerto’s word for it as the player also won the best esports athlete of the year from The Game Awards on Dec 8.
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