TOP 5 VALORANT Teams of 2022

After many incredible memories and hundreds of tournaments, we have come to the end of 2022. Many records, and many successes have been achieved in the VALORANT esports arena this year. Among the biggest tournaments of the year, there are 2 Masters tournaments, Reykjavík and Copenhagen, and also VALORANT Champions 2022, which was held in Istanbul, Turkey in October. So which are the most successful teams of this year? Let's take a look at our list together.

LOUD

LOUD entered 2022 as one of the less competitive teams. But with a lineup that placed second place in the VCT 2022: Stage 1 Masters - Reykjavík, they became a phenomenon. Then they lost lots of points in VCT 2022: Stage 2 Masters - Copenhagen finishing the stage Masters in 11-12 place. But in VALORANT Champions they improved their skills and they became champions unexpectedly. After this success, LOUD outperformed every other team, including FNATIC, FunPlus Phoenix, DRX, and Optic Gaming in the professional VALORANT arena. You may claim that LOUD is the number 1 team of 2022, that won the esports team of the year award at The Game Awards 2022.

Optic Gaming

Another highly regarded VALORANT squad that has excelled in 2022 is OpTic Gaming. Together with the Jaccob “yay” Whitaker that won the esports player of the year award at The Game Awrs 2022, Optic Gaming performed very well at VCT 2022: Stage 1 Masters - Reykjavík and was the team to lift the trophy by beating LOUD in the final. Optic could not show this success at VCT 2022: Stage 2 Masters - Copenhagen, finishing the tournament in 3rd place. In VALORANT Champions 2022, Optic did well played but lost to LOUD in the grand finals and finished the tournament in 2nd place. Even though they placed 2nd in Champions, we can say that Optic really left a good mark in the VALORANT arena in 2022

FunPlus Phoenix

For FunPlus Phoenix, this year actually didn't start off well. Because FPX has Russian-Ukranien mixed team, they could not participate in VCT 2022: Stage 1 Masters - Reykjavík due to travel restrictions. But they managed to advance to the grand finals with only 2 losses at VCT 2022: Stage 2 Masters - Copenhagen, which was held 3 months after Reykjavík. In the grand finals, FPX won the title by defeating Paper Rex 3-2 in the match, which took place in bo5 format, albeit with difficulty. They also have excelled in various tournaments, particularly like the EMEA Challengers, where they won both first place and second place. And finally, in the last and biggest tournament of the year, they won matches against strong opponents like Fnatic, Paper Rex, and Optic Gaming but they placed 4th in the VALORANT Champions 2022, behind LOUD, Optic Gaming, and DRX.

DRX

The Korean squad first swept the stages of the VCT 2022: Korea Challengers, and gained attention from millions of VALORANT fans. After that in VCT 2022: Stage 1 Masters - Reykjavík, DRX came out with a 2-0 winning streak in the group stage, they losing first to Optic Gaming in the playoffs and then to ZETA DIVISION in the lower bracket stage and they placed 5-6. Similar to LOUD, the squad struggled during VCT 2022: Stage 2 Masters - Copenhagen and finished the tournament again in 5-6 place, but they still excelled throughout the competition. Korea representative came out of the groups undefeated in VALORANT Champions also, but in the lower bracket finals, they surrendered to his strong rival OpTic Gaming and finished the tournament in 3rd place. With all these results, DRX managed to be among the best teams of 2022 and made a name for itself, with came out of its group undefeated in all 3 major tournaments they participated in, and with its performance in VCT 2022: Korea Challengers.

Paper Rex

Singapore-based team Paper Rex kicked off the year 2022 by placing first in the APAC Challengers Stage 1. Then they struggle at VCT 2022: Stage 1 Masters - Reykjavík, and finished in 4th place after losing to ZETA DIVISION at lower bracket. After the Masters, Paper Rex finished first again in APAC Challengers Stage 2. The team performed really well at VCT 2022: Stage 2 Masters - Copenhagen and defeated their tough opponents one by one and reach the grand final. But unfortunately they lose to FPX in the grand final and finished the tournament in 2nd place. Paper Rex's VALORANT Champions Adventure was short lived. Having won 1 win and 2 losses in the group stages, the team said goodbye to the tournament in the group stages. However, this unexpected performance from Paper Rex managed to put them on the list of the best teams of 2022.

We finished 2022 with the excellent games and tactics of the 5 teams here and many other teams, the top talents of the special players and the impressive passion of us, the esports fans. We are so excited for the new tournaments and great moments to come in 2023.