It’s still far too early to say who the best VALORANT team is. At just two months old, the game hasn’t had enough competition to say one team is the undisputed best. Yet, over the past few weeks, two teams have emerged at the top of the European and North American scenes: G2 Esports and Sentinels.
G2 is on an absolute tear right now. After officially signing their fifth player, DavidP, G2 stormed through the Mandatory.gg cup this past weekend, not dropping a single map. In the finals, they defeated Swedish team Bonk 3-0, with three different players on top of the scoreboard on each map. In fact, they haven’t lost a series in their 18 official series.
The buck stops with Spanish player Mixwell. The former CS:GO pro is a monster with the operator and masterful with the agent Jett. Yet Patitek, Ardiis and Pyth are all ridiculous in their own right, often trading spots at the top of the scoreboard. Currently, the team still hasn’t lost a map on Ascent, going 12-0 through their tournaments.
Over in North America, another top team rarely loses on Ascent. Sentinels are 14-2 on the map and a perfect 9-0 on Split to boot. They also took in some money this weekend, defeating TSM 3-1 in the finals after beating them 2-0 in the Winner’s Bracket Final of the 30bomb Summer Cup. They also took down Immortals as well, and are now on a 15 series win streak.
Sentinels was an early team to make a splash, and a big one they did make. They picked up former Overwatch League MVP Sinatraa from the San Francisco Shock, along with former NA CS:GO pro ShahZaM. After failing to make the finals at the first few NA tournaments, there was an unnecessary amount of doubt placed on the squad. Now, they have stormed through the past two tournaments in dominant fashion.
Sinatraa and ShahZaM are the most notable names, but the team has no heroes in-game. SicK, zombs and dapr are all insane players. Dapr is perhaps the best Cypher player in North America right now. Zombs calls the shots for the team and helps orchestrate their aggressive and unique playstyle. SicK plays Sage in a versatile way.
These two teams are currently performing the best in their respective VALORANT regions. But there is not a best VALORANT team right now. It’s just ridiculous to say that a team can be the best when 1.) nobody has played on LAN, 2.) nobody has played cross-regional matches yet, and 3.) NOBODY HAS PLAYED ON LAN.
LAN will forever be the great equalizer in esports. Do it on LAN, do it in front of a crowd. This isn’t to discredit anybody, especially since LAN is impossible right now, and cross-regional LAN is definitely impossible. So maybe in 2021, well that’s wishful thinking, maybe by 2022, we can know who is actually the best VALORANT team.
