VCT International Leagues rankings update following VALORANT Masters Tokyo

VCT 2023 - Masters Tokyo has wrapped up with Fnatic taking yet another VALORANT trophy home. Before Masters Tokyo began and after the VCT International Leagues have finished, we released an update to our VCT International Leagues teams rankings.

Masters Tokyo saw a bunch of upsets, with some of the favorite teams taking an early exit at the event or failed to perform up to the fans' desires. Here is our updated ranking following VCT Masters Tokyo and a breakdown of the changes regarding the top 10 along with the main takeaways following the conclusion of the VALORANT Masters event in Japan.

Check out our Rankings page for the full 30-team VCT International Teams Rankings.

Fnatic maintain #1 spot following Masters Tokyo

Fnatic have been almost flawless this VALORANT season. With just one loss to Team Liquid in the final of VCT EMEA League playoffs, Jake "Boaster" Howlett's men bounced right back in Japan. Fnatic are also the first team to win back-to-back VALORANT international events on the grand stage following their VCT LOCK//IN victory and now Masters. We have never seen such a dominant run from a single team during a VALORANT season since the game's inception in 2020. Fnatic is surely now looking to top that and win the treble by emerging as the victors at the upcoming VALORANT Champions in Los Angeles.

Evil Geniuses break into top 10; take #3 spot

To say that Evil Geniuses had a good run at VALORANT Masters Tokyo is an understatement. Still, it's fair to state that nobody expected the North American team to do so well and reach the grand final against Fnatic.

Despite a last-second miracle entry to the VCT Americas playoffs after MIBR's win against 100 Thieves, Evil Geniuses have done a great job of using that bit of luck and turning it into gold. A 3rd-seed in the playoffs saw the NA team go to Tokyo where they began their conquest from the group stage. The NA side stunned FUT Esports and DRX to get themselves into the playoffs of Masters Tokyo where they rode their wave of momentum. LOUD, Team Liquid, and Paper Rex, were teams that came into the event as the #1 seed from their respective leagues. All of them were defeated by the Geniuses. The only bane of EG? Fnatic. A loss in the Upper Bracket Final and eventually the Grand Final in Tokyo were both at the hand of Boaster and company.

Despite that, EG showed that they are no laughing matter. Now, they may be NA's favorites with Head Coach Christine "Potter" Chi steering the ship come VALORANT Champions. Deservedly, they rise to spot #3 in our ranking.

LOUD takes a big hit

Masters Tokyo will likely be the event to forget for the Brazilian powerhouse LOUD. At the Americas League, LOUD was the team to beat and they even proved that following a blowout 3-0 victory over NRG in the grand final of the event's playoffs. However, Masters Tokyo saw a very poor performance from Matias "Saadhak" Delipetro-led team.

Starting off straight from the final stage of Masters Tokyo due to their seeding, LOUD failed to even snag a map. A 2-0 loss versus EDward Gaming, was then met with a 2-0 outclass at the hand of Evil Geniuses in the lower bracket, effectively eliminating the Brazilian formation from the event. LOUD's performance was simply dismal and not many could have predicted such outcome given the team's run this year thus far.

After the poor performance, LOUD drops to #5 on THESPIKE.GG ranking.

Natus Vincere, DRX VS, and Team Liquid fall

LOUD was not the only team that failed to meet expectations at the event. Perhaps an even bigger flop was Natus Vincere. Starting out in the group stage, NAVI lost a close encounter against NRG Esports. They were then unlucky enough to get matched-up against EDward Gaming in the elimination match. As we now know, EDG started shifting their machine into fifth gear then and there. Despite being a match with two overtimes, EDG eliminated NAVI from the event. Truly one of the biggest upsets at the event. NAVI have fallen to spot #9 on our ranking.

DRX VS' performance was nowhere near as poor as that of NAVI or LOUD. Still, Korea's VALORANT superteam did bomb out from the event rather early on. A successful group stage run saw them trail to Paper Rex in the upper bracket before getting dismantled by NRG in the win-or-die lower bracket of the event. We've become accustomed to Kim "stax" Gu-taek and co. have deeper event runs than what DRX showed this time. Due to their placement, they have fallen to spot #7.

Lastly, Team Liquid is the only team this year to beat Fnatic. They've shown what they are capable of in the VCT EMEA playoffs. Unfortunately, Liquid fell short where it mattered most.

Liquid's run started off well by defeating EDG in the opener of the playoffs of Masters Tokyo. Unfortunately, it was all downhill from there on out. A swift loss to the raging EG machine was met with a nail-biting series against NRG. Liquid ended up losing that match and making an exit to the Masters Tokyo event. By no means a tragic result. Still, fans were expecting a bit more following that victory over Fnatic in the EMEA League. Their result in Japan slots them at place #6 on our ranking.

Make sure to check out our full THESPIKE.GG rankings for the whole list of 30 VCT International Leagues teams.

Featured image photo credit: Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games