The 2024 Valorant esports season has ended as Valorant Champions has concluded. These are the best players in professional Valorant across the season.
The 2024 Valorant esports season followed after Evil Geniuses and Fnatic dominated the previous year’s international circuit. New teams like Gen.G, Team Heretics, and Sentinels have vaulted to the top of the professional Valorant totem pole.
This list ranks these players primarily on international tournament performance, statistics, placement, and domestic dominance. While some of the best players in the world might miss out on a tournament or two, the cream of the crop in professional Valorant should be able to attend a major international LAN and play their way into this list.
VCT Masters Madrid set the benchmark for how high the professional level has become, Masters Shanghai has raised it even higher, and Valorant Champions 2024 showcased which players have evolved past their limits on the high stage of play.
This list fluctuated heavily over the season as teams and players rose, fell, or made deep one-off runs thanks to how often Valorant changes.
5 — Zachary ‘zekken’ Patrone
Zekken has graced this list once before after Sentinels won Masters Madrid. The North American Duelist missed Masters Shanghai but rebounded in time to make Valorant Champions 2024 and put together a deep run.
Across the entire field of players at the 2024 World Championship, zekken was top five in Average Combat Score, Average Damage Per Round, and Kills Per Round. He also finished top three in first kills to first deaths in the event at 0.20 to 0.18 respectively.
On top of putting his team ahead most of the time after winning the first fight of the round, zekken also had a 27% clutch rate meaning he also helped Sentinels win rounds across multiple stages.
4 — Nikita ‘Derke’ Sirmitev
Fnatic and Derke won both EMEA Stages in 2024 and placed in the top eight at Masters Shanghai and Valorant Champions 2024. However, the Swedish sniper’s statistical dominance at the World Championship put him on this list.
Derke was the top player in ACS, Kill/ Death ratio, and Kills Per Round. He averaged almost a kill a round and tied zekken in clutch rate at 27%.
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Despite Derke’s incredible play on stage, Fnatic failed to advance deep in the playoff stage at either tournament, making it hard to put him higher up on this list.
3 — Wan ‘CHICHOO’ Shunzhi
CHICHOO has climbed into the top five players in the world largely off of his incredible form at Champions. The Chinese player averaged 217.9 ACS across the event, which is higher than some Duelists that competed, playing Controllers and Sentinels.
The Chinese player also had a 73% success rate in first duels on attack, despite playing agents that don’t give him much to work with in terms of fragging or escaping fights. CHICHOO is the anchor of EDG and has been one of the team’s strongest players when it mattered most during the end of the season.
2 — Enes ‘RieNs’ Ecirli
Team Heretics have the most exciting five-man squad in the world and multiple players from the team could qualify for this list. However, RieNs set himself apart from the rest of his team thanks to his fragging ability in a role that doesn’t usually get that many kills.
Playing mostly Sova, Gekko, and Viper, the Turkish talent has claimed over 20% of his team’s kills across the event. In the playoff stage, he was top 10 in ACS, K/D, and ADR.
At every event one player on Heretics steps up and take the reigns to lead them deep into the bracket, and at Champions it was RieNs’ turn to dominate the competition.
1 — Zheng ‘ZmjjKK’ Yongkang
ZmjjKK has always been a top player, but he showed out at Valorant Champions 2024 after putting together some decent runs at Masters Madrid and Shanghai. The Chinese Duelist finished top five at the World Championship in terms of ACS, ADR, and KPR.
But what really sets ZmjjKK ahead of everyone on this list is his first-kill success rate of 0.24, which is 0.2 above the next-best player. The Duelist player also takes more fights than almost anyone at the tournament, meaning he is No. 1 in volume and efficiency.
EDG has other stellar players to back him up, but ZmjjKK is the clear best player on the best team in the world.
