The Valorant Conquerors Championship culminated into a Global Esports win after a five-map barnburner against Velocity Gaming in the Grand Finale. The entire event provided us cut-throat action among the best that the South Asian region has on offer.
A lot of new talents propped up, some found their groove and some reinvented themselves. Let us take a look at five talents that emerged from the VCC Main Event.
Agneya “Marzil” Koushik
Marzil chose the best event to find his form and footing in the world of Valorant. He announced himself on the big stage with an ace on his Raze to end Split in style against Global Esports in the Upper-Bracket Semi-Finals and showed his class on Breeze as Velocity Gaming produced a comeback on the map. His performance against Team Exploit proved his previous one wasn’t a fluke and that he had indeed found his place.
His form meant he played each and every map in the Grand Finale and was poignant as ever, losing after coming excruciatingly close to bagging the VCC title and the slot in APAC Last Chance Qualifiers.
For Marzil, it was about not only shutting down the critics but also repaying the faith shown in him by VLT, team owner Manoj “Sentinel” Kasyap and all his teammates. Marzil’s rise bodes well for VLT 2.0 that has been teased and it will be intriguing to see how the whole team shapes up after the roster shuffle.
Akram “rawfiul” Virani
Rawfiul has exploded onto the scene and how. A find of the VLT Academy process, rawfiul has taken over from Prabhdeep “Ghost” Bhatia at Enigma Gaming, even surpassing him to an extent in terms of being the squad’s duelist.
With Shakir “hikka” Razak transitioning into more of a support role in Enigma’s tactical setup, rawfiul has shouldered the burden of being the duelist with aplomb, finishing the VCC Main Event as one of the best players at the tournament.
rawfiul also showed he can go toe-to-toe with the very best and it will be interesting to see how he and Enigma develop as a team post-VCC.
Mohammed Usman “soulM8” Arain
Team Exploit showed they meant business after their win over Velocity Gaming and soulM8 had a big hand to play in it. His performance with the Viper on Icebox was sublime, prying open opportunities and sites with his aim.
His command over Viper and Killjoy is commendable and his tenacity has helped Exploit a lot at VCC. soulM8 would have not been satisfied with his performance against Global Esports but it just goes to show how important he is to the team.
Mustafa “shooterR” Kamal
If there is one player who received press, negative or otherwise, in the chat, it was shooterR. soulM8 aided Exploit’s cause against VLT on Icebox but it was shooterR who took over the server in Breeze, bagging 30 kills on the map, including a quad-kill on the B rush to close it out.
shooterR’s versatility came to the fore at VCC, with the player donning five different agents. Aggression is at the core of Exploit’s gameplay and shooterR fuels it with his own brand of gung-ho Valorant. A treat to watch, we can’t wait to see what shooterR and Exploit can muster up ahead.
Tahsin “M1SYL” Ashrafee
Exceeli Esports came close to upsetting VLT in the Group A decider and knocking them out. M1SYL was at the heart of the attempt, bagging 8 first kills on Bind alone.
The XLE duelist ended the event with bright figures boasting a cumulative Kill/Death score of 114/96 and 28 first kills at the rate of 0.22 per round, which is the joint-highest alongside Ganesh “SkRossi” Gangadhar.
XLE will go back to the drawing board with a positive mind, especially after securing the signature of Sami Ar “SSSami” Rahman, who alongside M1SYL, can truly elevate the team to new heights.
Notable Mentions: Shreyas “Moonlight” Shrestha gave a good account of his own self, establishing himself as a duelist to watch in the coming months. XLE’s Sova, Tasawf “Hermione” Zami showed his own skill, ending the event with the second-highest Kill/Death Ratio of 1.19, tied with teammate M1SYL. Abdul Sami “k1Ng” Khero displayed his tenacity, filling in various roles throughout VCC while also maintaining a healthy statistical relevance when judged from an individual standpoint.