VCT 2024 Teams Power Rankings Part I: Americas

The VCT 2024 season is only two short weeks away. Starting February 16th, 44 teams across the four Riot-crafted zones will battle it out for the eight VCT Madrid Masters spots.

In the anticipation of the new season, Strafe writers Ganesh, KC and Zen sat together to discuss the 33 teams across Americas, EMEA and Pacific, collaborating on a ‘subjective’ tier list for the upcoming season.

The ‘Power Rankings’ will be a three-article series, divided as per the regions, released alphabetically starting today.

These rankings or tiers represent the ability of the teams to win regional and international tournaments.

With S+ tier representing teams that have the highest chance of winning one or multiple tournaments, and C with the lower chances.

With the little information on the VCT CN teams, we have released a list of teams and their rosters but steered away from ranking them for now. 

VCT 2024: Americas

Americas is not only the first region alphabetically, co-incidentally is also the strongest region in VCT 2024.

In the past three years of professional Valorant, Americas has produced some of the strongest teams and players in Valorant.

Starting with the first international champions in Sentinels to the 2023 Valorant Champions in Evil Geniuses, Americas has two Valorant Champions trophy, two Masters Trophy.

Moreover, on an average, the level of competition in the Americas is certainly higher than that of EMEA and Pacific. Let’s look at these teams and understand the power rankings for them.

Edit

Teams	Roster	Coach	Status
100 Thieves	Asuna, Bang, Boostio (IGL), Cryocells, eeiu	Zikz (Head Coach), Mikes (Asst. Coach)	Partner
Cloud9	jakee, Oxy, Vanity (IGL), Wippie, Xeppa	Immi	Partner
Evil Geniuses	Apoth, Derrek, jawgemo, NaturE (IGL), supamen	Potter	Partner
FURIA	havoc, Khalil, kon4n, liazzi, mwzera	Koy	Partner
KRU Esports	keznit, Klaus, Melser, mta, Shyy	Atom (Head Coach), ddx (Asst. Coach)	Partner
Leviatan	aspas, C0M, kiNgg (IGL), nzr (sub), Mazino, tex	goked (Head Coach), Itopata (Asst. Coach)	Partner
LOUD	cauanzin, Less, saadhak (IGL), tuyz, Quick	peu (Head Coach), stkJ (Asst. Coach)	Partner
MIBR	artzin, frz, jzz, mazin, RgLMeister	fRoD (Head Coach), bzkA (Asst. Coach)	Partner
NRG	Crashies, demon1, Ethan (IGL), Marved, Victor	Chet	Partner
Sentinels	JohnQT (IGL), pANcada, Sacy, TenZ, zekken, Zellsis (sub),	Kaplan (Head Coach), Drewspark (Asst. Coach)	Partner
G2 Esports	JonahP, leaf, neT, trent, Valyn (IGL)	JoshRT	Guest (2024-26)

C Tier:

• KRU Esports: 

In 2023, KRU Esports made the unbelievable run to qualify for the Valorant Champions. Their run followed a disappointing winless regular season.

At the final event of the year, KRU lost both their games and exited the tournament without a map win.

The latest addition to the team, mta and Shyy don’t necessarily count as upgrades. Shyy is coming off of a quiet and disappointing season on Leviatan and mta is a rookie that would need to prove himself once he sets foot in LA.

Keznit will still be the focal point of the group, but his support staff might fall short once again.

• Made in Brazil: 

Compared to KRU, MIBR had a ‘better’ regular season, but failed to secure a single international tournament qualification. MIBR was also the first team out of the LCQs in 2023.

While track record does not determine the future of the team, it certainly affects our perception of the players. For 2024, MIBR brought in artzin from 00Nation and Mazin from FURIA. They also bolstered their coaching squad with fRoD.

A big problem with MIBR in 2023, was their mental aptitude, as mentioned by their coach bzkA. With a few member changes but the same core, it’d be hard to think of them as a reinvigorated team for 2024.

The coaching staff definitely is upgraded, without a ‘star player’ as a centerpiece, especially as artzin, will be making his big stage debut, MIBR might spend another year without a significant result.

B Tier:

• FURIA:

One of the strongest Brazilian squads of 2023, FURIA displayed some amazing games throughout the year. Unfortunately, they failed to secure strong results, losing early in the playoffs, and the LCQ.

Following their disappointing season, Carloa, dgzin, Qck and mazin left the team. As replacements, FURIA brought in Liazzi and Koy from Keyd Stars and havoc from the Union.

While the new pieces do lack the experience of playing on biggest stages, the team still has some of the better talents of the Brazilian Valorant.

While they definitely struggled to secure a strong start in the off-season, the mix of talent has likely the best chance to finish the season strong.

• Evil Geniuses:

The Valorant Champions 2023, Evil Geniuses should have been higher or likely highest on the list, had they retained their complete roster. But with the organization in the driving seat, it isn’t a surprise that they did not.

The current EG roster is filled with some of the best players available in North America and Valorant Champion Jawgemo.

Despite the current squad’s dexterity, it’d be hard to justify putting them any higher than B Tier, as the players haven’t been part of the top echelon of NA Valorant in a while.

It’d be once again Potter’s job to rally the troops and create magic with the ingredients provided. Unfortunately, it’d be much tougher compared to last year, as every squad has received an upgrade and NRG stole demon1.

• 100 Thieves:

100 Thieves have to be the most disappointing NA squad of 2023. Despite their amazing off-season and were the top NA team for many. But it all came crashing down as soon as the league started.

The squad failed to find consistency in performance and struggled in every way possible. There were good days but they were heavily outnumbered by the bad days.

The constant struggle led to 100 Thieves missing out on the VCT Americas playoffs after losing to MIBR that played with a substitute. Their LCQ run fell flat too, losing their opening game.

They replaced stellar and Derrek with Valorant Champion Boostio and M80’s Eeiu. Zikz joined in as the head coach as Mikes goes back to being the Assistant coach for the team.

The changes are ‘stellar’, but the team still has the same core. Boostio is a champion IGL but a big part of EG’s success was teamwork, which cannot be said for the 100T core, atleast not from their last season together.

If they wish to win, the squad has to work harder than the previous season.

A Tier:

• G2 Esports: 

If VCT Ascension Winners  + 1 leaf isn’t a recipe to win, we don’t know what is. The opportunistic G2 Esports secured the partnership after the original organization of valyn, trent, JonahP and neT - The Guard - messed up securing the partnership.

The new G2 Esports brought in leaf from Cloud9 as the fifth and duelist for the new team. The Old ‘Guard’ was the breakout NA roster of 2022. Unfortunately, after missing out on partnership, they clawed back to Tier 1 via the Ascension.

The core’s amazing synergy definitely makes them a strong contender for the season. Additionally, leaf has been one of the strongest duelist in NA and delivers on the biggest stages. The only reason G2 esports cannot be higher is the lack of experience competing in VCT compared to the teams higher on the list.

• Cloud9:

Cloud9 is back with another strong squad for 2024. In 2023, Cloud9’s initial roster was likely the strongest roster on Paper in North America.

Even after dropping Yay and Vanity, they still played some of the best Valorant for NA. But the unfortunate playoff games ended their win streak and they lost their chance for an international appearance.

Starting 2024, Cloud9 dropped majority of its roster, retaining Xeppaa and jakee, the stars of 2023 Cloud9 and bringing in Immi, Oxy, Vanity and Wippie.

If Cloud9 decides to keep Vanity around for longer, the roster might just be the dark horse to win multiple tournaments in 2024.

The combination of Immi and Vanity has worked wonders in the past, Vanity’s dexterity as an IGL in NA is only eclipsed by FNS. Wippie and Xeppaa make for amazing support staff and rounding it out with a mechanical clutch talent in jakee puts Cloud9 on the map.

The only problem with Cloud9 will be their inability to handle big stages. As observed with V1, Cloud9 of 2021 - 22 and G2 Esports in 2023.

S Tier:

• Sentinels:

A new season, and fresh Sentinels copium served up; there is no better pairing. Similar to the start of 2023, the Sentinels squad looks dangerous.

In 2023, the squad was on the road to be a top 8 team in VCT. Unfortunately, they weren’t even close. They struggled to piece together a win, Sacy and pancada couldn’t do enough. The team just did not work.

Mid-season changes with Marved and Kaplan did bring out the best Sentinels might offer but it wasn’t enough.

For VCT 2024, the team retained their biggest stars in Sacy, pancada, zekken and TenZ, bringing in JohnQT, the M80 IGL and Zellsis, the Cloud9 flex.

Initially, Zellsis was supposed to be the sixth man for the squad but in pancada’s absence, the squad clicked together and Zellsis became the primary fifth.

The squad played and won two off-season events and looked great. TenZ is looking like the best player in the world and everything seems right. It won’t be a surprise if Sentinels secures Madrid, despite being in the group of death.

• Leviatan:

One of the strongest LATAM squads of the past two years had a disappointing 2023. While they were still considered as one of the best teams in the Americas, they could not secure significant results.

They also lost to KRU at the LCQ, missing out on Valorant Champions. A big reason for the team’s struggle was the inconsistency in performance. The stars in the team had sometimes struggled to put out their best foot forward when everything was on the line.

But for VCT 2024, Leviatan has secured some heavy hitters, securing Aspas, tex and c0m. Two Valorant Champions, an Ascended winner; Leviatan is ready to win multiple tournaments.

Unfortunately, the internal strife over nzr might spoil the team synergy. It might be a bottlenecking factor for the team and eventually lead to their demise. But, if they can work it out, Leviatan will definitely qualify for multiple International tournaments.

• LOUD:

The Primary Brazilian representatives, LOUD, had a somewhat weird 2023. They started the year really strong, setting the bar really high.

They dominated the Americas, struggled in Japan, struggled internally, but came back to finish 3rd at Valorant Champions 2023. While the season was good for multiple other teams, LOUD has been known to be a top-tier team and these results were mediocre at best.

For VCT 2024, Aspas stepped down from the roster and they brought in peu as a replacement for fRoD. The roster still retains Saadhak, tuyz, cauanzin and Less, they brought in quick from FURIA as the fifth.

With the core retained, LOUD still stays as the top Americas team but losing Aspas will definitely take a toll on them. It is the only reason why LOUD isn’t the best team in the Americas.

S+ Tier

• NRG:

2023 NRG definitely had a good roster, while they weren’t the best roster on paper, it was still a Optic Core + s0m and ardiis. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out great.

While they did secure a second place in Americas playoffs and a fourth in Tokyo, they were also on the receiving end of the biggest upsets of 2023. The loss concluded their Champions run in the group stage itself.

For 2024, NRG dropped ardiis, FNS and s0m and added the biggest pieces in North America. They are the only team that can actually eclipse Leviatan’s VCT 2024 off-season pickups.

They added Ethan and demon1 and reunited the Marved, Crashies and victor trio. While Ethan is a new, inexperienced IGL, the synergy of the squad will likely carry them out of any sticky situation.

On paper, the mix of the five players can win all the upcoming tournaments, challenge Fnatic on an equal footing.

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This concludes our list for the VCT 2024: Americas. The list will be followed by EMEA tomorrow and Pacific the day after. So make sure to follow Strafe for the rest of the regions and a final conclusive tier list.

Follow Strafe for VCT 2024 updates. 

Feature Image Credits: Riot Games

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