Riot Games has introduced a power rankings system for its VALORANT Champions Tour (VCT) teams ahead of the game’s season-ending event in Paris.
For VALORANT’s inaugural Global Power Rankings (GPR), VCT Americas representative G2 Esports has been named the team to beat so far in 2025.
How the Global Power Rankings Work
Powered by Amazon Web Services, the Global Power Rankings project was first introduced in 2024 with Riot Games’ other competitive title, League of Legends. According to the company, the GPR utilises an Elo system that consists of an individual team’s Elo as well as a ‘league-specific’ Elo.
As a result, the system takes into account regional strength when calculating scores. According to Riot Games, “each region’s aggregate performance at global events accounts for 20% of teams’ power score.”
Moreover, beating a team with a higher power score will have a greater positive impact on a team’s rating. The team that loses the match will also gain a greater negative impact.
Other factors that go into calculating a fair Elo score include prioritising recent match-ups and increasing the Elo impact of wins at international events (whilst decreasing the loss impact). As expected, playoff matches, whether it is for International Leagues or global events, will have a bigger impact on Elo compared to the Regular Season and Swiss Stage.
Based on discussion with VALORANT casters and ‘experts’, additional factors such as map round score during a series, performance on Attack/Defence and performance during eco/buy rounds will have an impact on the GPR model. However, these factors will have less of an impact compared to the previously mentioned points.
Which Are the Highest-Ranked Teams?
With the Global Power Rankings system now explained, Riot Games’ system has crowned G2 Esports as the best team in the world heading into VALORANT Champions 2025.
Here is a complete list of the top 10 and the organisation’s ‘power score’ and region:
- G2 Esports – 1521 (VCT Americas)
- Paper Rex – 1514 (VCT Pacific)
- RRQ – 1486 (VCT Pacific)
- Bilibili Gaming – 1467 (VCT China)
- NRG -1437 (VCT Americas)
- Team Liquid – 1436 (VCT EMEA)
- FNATIC – 1427 (VCT EMEA)
- T1 – 1421 (VCT Pacific)
- Dragon Ranger Gaming – 1416 (VCT China)
- Sentinels – 1412 (VCT Americas)
In terms of slurping results, the lowest-ranked team currently heading to VALORANT Champions 2025 on September 12th is VCT Americas representative MIBR in 27th.
As a result, the likes of Gen.G (14th), Nongshim Redforce (12th), Talon Esports (11th) and fellow Americas team Cloud9 are above the Brazilian side despite not qualifying for VALORANT Champions 2025.
On the other side of the table, the bottom-ranked team also hails from VCT Americas, with fellow Brazilian organisation FURIA placing 48th with a score of 1172.
According to Riot Games, the GPR is ‘the first step’ in creating an objective measurement of team strength. Looking ahead to 2026, the aim is to explore how to incorporate more granular data, provide player-based power rankings, and create systemic factors for team stakes that take into account if a team has already qualified for a major event.
Tom Daniels
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