A new year and a new franchised league have changed the VALORANT ecosystem wildly, introducing some new brands and new teams into the top tier of the esport. The off-season entering 2023 provided some unique storylines, some super-teams, and a new champion to start off the year at LOCK//IN.
Here are the top five VALORANT teams of 2023, starting from the debut tournament LOCK//IN and stretching into the regular season. As major tournaments come to an end, this post will be updated to match, but as of writing, this list applies as of April 30, 2023. The league has not only concluded its opening LAN tournament, but teams across the world are already well underway for qualifying for Masters Tokyo.
In descending order, here are the best five starting rosters for VCT 2023 so far.
The best VALORANT teams in 2023, from five to one
5. Cloud9
Despite roster changes in-between LOCK//IN and the regular season, Cloud9 has surprised everyone and has risen to the top as one of the favorites in the Americas League. Their LOCK//IN run had moments, specifically with Erick “Xeppaa” Bach’s Pearl performance against Paper Rex, but ultimately fell to another team on this list, DRX. It was a close 2-1 loss, and even with the departure of both star player Jaccob “yay” Whiteaker and former captain Anthony “vanity” Malaspina, they looked to be on the downturn for the regular season.
Yet, with the pickups of Jake “jakee” Anderson and Dylan “runi” Cade, Cloud9 had little to no rebuilding phase, instantly finding success. Cloud9 have the best record of all North American organizations and their only loss is to the LOCK//IN finalists in LOUD. The two new pickups, scouted by Matthew “mCe” Elmore, have fit in near-perfectly—especially since runi has taken over the in-game leader role.
While the changes came out of seemingly nowhere, they are still proving they are one of the favorites in the region.
4. NAVI
The former FunPlus Phoenix team is back, now in yellow and black at Ukranian organization NAVI. The team is four-fifths of their whole from FPX, with big free agent pickup Mehmet “cNed” İpek joining in Nov. 2022. For a single-elimination tournament, NAVI looked like one of the strongest teams that Fnatic eliminated. They swept every opponent they faced until they lost to the eventual champions.
Regionally, they’ve started well in the regular season despite the fact that the team is clearly experimenting with their compositions, using agents like Gekko frequently. They’re only sitting beneath Fnatic in the standings at this stage, and considering their understanding of the game and how they step up internationally, NAVI is certainly a top-four VALORANT team.
3. LOUD
A bit of a drop from the LOCK//IN finalists, though not due to anything they’ve done. LOUD surprised everyone in the off-season, making some roster moves after winning a championship and sending two of their players to regional rivals Sentinels. Even after bringing in some fresh Brazilian talent, the team looked like the LOUD of 2022, going on a great run to the LOCK//IN finals. They almost won too, losing a banger of a five-map series 3-2.
They’ve also been great regionally, undefeated but losing some surprising maps along the way. So why the drop to third place? Because the team that almost beat them in the semi-finals at LOCK//IN seems to be only getting better.
2. DRX
DRX in 2021 and 2022 were known as a dominant regional team who crumbled when faced with international competition. Yet, towards the end of 2022, the curse was broken and DRX finished in third at Champions. They continued to improve into 2023, stepping up to the challenge in a big way with their semi-final finish at LOCK//IN.
But what makes DRX the second-best team of 2023 so far has been their regional play. The team hasn’t lost a map in four matches against powerful foes in the Pacific region like Paper Rex and ZETA DIVISION. Now, they’re 10-1 in total maps, and It seems the team is keeping its moniker of an amazing regional team, even after a move to the tougher Pacific competitive region. It remains to be seen whether DRX can hold their spot, but right now, they’re a well-deserved second.
1. Fnatic
This is no surprise; a team that managed one of the best single-map comebacks of all time to win their first international title in VALORANT remains the best team in 2023 so far. From a near-perfect tournament where they finally got their trophy, the team has kept the form into the EMEA region regular season.
Related: Fnatic VALORANT’s young phenom is our choice for VCT LOCK//IN MVP
Despite the fact that one of their key players Emir “Alfajer” Beder wasn’t able to play to start the season, their sixth man Maks “kamyk” Rychlewski has exceeded all expectations. Fnatic is also near-perfect in their region, currently at 5-0 in series wins with only one map lost so far. They have the crown as the best team in VALORANT for the start of the year—it’s up to them to keep it up.
