Five Upcoming NA Pros to Watch Part 2
Tags: Esports, Valorant, North America

Since I last covered a few rising stars in North American Valorant around a month ago, more players have caught my attention that I believe to deserve some recognition for their recent play. Here are five more names that you should keep an eye on in the NA scene. Once again thanks to VLR for the stats used in the article.

Benchmark Stats

Before I get into the player’s individual performance, here are two stat benchmarks to give a scale of what good stats on different roles look like in this game. For the average, I averaged the stats of all players for the listed roles from Champions. The peak stats are from the player on VLR with the highest stats for a role. Please note that the peak stats do not represent the best player or an achievable average, but rather the maximum level per agent, and anything around the average stats are realistic. For the player stats, I am looking at the past 60 days.

(ADR is Average Damage Per Round, KPR is Kills Per Round, APR is Assists Per Round, FKPR is First Kills Per Round, and FDPR is First Deaths Per Round.)

Peak Stats Per Role

Peak stats per role

Average Stats Per Role

And here’s what an “average” tier 1 player in each role looks like for comparison:

Average stats per role

James “Aiko” Sandberg

Aiko is a Sova player and in-game-leader for ex-Serenity Black. Aiko first started competing in April of this year under the DNADIFF banner, playing alongside Akrew player Neon and his current ex-SRN teammate Nick. During his time on DNADIFF, the roster managed to find moderate success in lower-tier events, such as winning a VSS weekly and making the finals of a GLG Radiant Arena Series. Eventually, these results from the mix team caught the attention of Serenity, who signed the team in August. After the signing, the team started to see an uptick in results, making quarterfinals in the $20,000 NSG Summer finals and winning matches against top tier 2 teams such as SoaR and Knights.

After two months with the organization, the roster opted to leave to pursue other opportunities, sticking together as Ex-Serenity Black. While playing as Ex-Serenity, Aiko and the roster as a whole has seen an enormous level of improvement in matchups against top t2 squads, and even winning tournaments like the Boom Proving Grounds S3, Rival 1, and most recently the Frag Major — Fullerton.

Individually, Aiko has been putting up fantastic numbers across the last two months, especially considering that he is IGL as well. Aiko is a relatively passive player as shown by his FKPR and FDPR stats, but this doesn't mean he lacks impact, reaffirmed by his .4 APR. He often will support his team from the backlines using his utility rather than charge head-on, like in this example. This also lets him focus on calling and getting value out of his kit instead of on his crosshair.

Team: Ex-Serenity Black (Ranked 33rd in NA)

Roles/Agent(s): Sova IGL

Stats:

Drew “ApeX” Caban

ApeX is a duelist that currently plays for ex-Limit. ApeX’s first notable team was in one of the earlier iterations of YFP Gaming, where he played stage 1 VCT Open qualifiers to little success. After this ApeX spent the next few months playing short stints with a number of teams, such as Reformed and Illuzion Black. In November, he went started playing with ex-Limit and started to show better performances against better opponents, on both a team and individual level. ApeX’s also topped the player stats at the Frag Major — Philadelphia LAN playing with Jays Finest in the event.

On the stats front ApeX has been on a tear, with the Reyna main’s stats being a considerable amount above the average for the agent and even topping the #1 benchmark in ADR. In-game, he plays a secondary entry role that sees him support a teammate (most commonly a Jett player ) initially running into a site with flashes or another piece of utility before fighting the distracted defenders. I also want to mention that one of the areas ApeX impressed me in was how well he can trade and play off his main entry player.

Team: ex-Limit (Ranked 44th in NA)

Roles/Agent(s): Duelist

Stats:

Erik “d1msumboi” Almhjell

d1msumboi is a sentinel player currently on The Mafia. d1msumboi has been competing in Valorant since all the way back in October 2020, starting off playing with DREAMLAND in two NSG monthlies and First Strike qualifiers. After his 2 month stint with the team, he went to Resonate to finish the year, competing in the first VCT Stage 1 qualifiers. In February, d1msumboi joined the free-agent roster Kooky Koalas. Going into the Stage 1 challengers 3, the team went on one of the most impressive runs for a free agent team at the time, beating beastcoast and Built By Gamers in open qualifiers to qualify for the main event. While KK got knocked out due to losing two 0–2 matches against Luminosity Gaming and Gen.G, making it to the event was enough of an achievement to make the team fan favorites overnight.

After this cinderella run, d1msumboi and KK were expected by many to repeat this previous success going into the second stage of VCT. However, the team failed to make it out of opens in both challenger events in the stage, sending them back to the drawing board. In the lead-up to the 3rd VCT stage, Kooky Koalas attempted to stay in form by consistently playing lower-tier events and were linked to a move to DarkZero Esports. Unfortunately, due to external circumstances, d1msumboi was unable to join the rest of the roster in joining DZ, leaving him teamless.

d1msumboi’s next long-term project was The Mafia, joining in August and playing with them to this day. The free-agent team has been a recurring face in the tier 2 scene, consistently competing in events such as NSG Opens and taking wins against other top t2 squads.

While d1msumboi has been putting up decent stats for his role, he’s a player that I would personally say brings more value than what could be seen on the scoreboard. In a previous article about his team The Mafia (here) I noted how good his lurks were for opening and closing rounds for the team, and I still hold the same sentiment currently. Going by the games I’ve watched from him, I noted that d1msumboi is great at playing off his utility while defending from a site hit, and also how smart he positions himself around his teammates when taking engagements.

Team: The Mafia (Ranked 25th in NA)

Roles/Agent(s): Sentinel (lurker and anchor)

Stats:

Mark “mehzy” Olaes

mehzy is a duelist player that is currently a free agent. mehzy first popped up in the scene in January, with a VSS weekly appearance with a mix team. After this, he wouldn’t make a return to competitive play until July, playing with TLP Monkies in NSG, Knights, and GLG Radiant Arena events throughout the month. mehzy and TLP Monkies’ breakout moment came during the NSG Summer LCQ in August, where the young team managed to take a map off of Cloud9 in the playoffs of the event. Unfortunately, mehzy would once again take a break from tournaments, this time until November. After this 3 month hiatus, the 14-year-old was back in action, this time under the Ex-Serenity Black banner for the NSG Winter Open 3 and the Valorant Elite Showdown. Next, mehzy played with Betrayed’s Fantasy Team for the Rival 1 event, and with Froggers in the Frag Major — Fullerton, making the quarterfinals.

mehzy is an undeniable talent, and that is reflected in his high stats across the board, putting up numbers far above average in seemingly every match he plays. His FKPR and FDPR on Jett are almost on par with the #1 Jett benchmark as well. In the matches I’ve watched of his, mehzy seems to just take over a game almost effortlessly and won aim duel after aim duel. While we still have to wait two years from now to see him compete in the highest caliber of events, mehzy has already shown high potential that I hope he can realize in the future.

Team: Free Agent

Roles/Agent(s): Jett (entry)

Stats:

Vincent “Apoth” Le

Apoth is a controller who currently plays for Renegades. His first appearance in competitive play was with Last Round Save in the First Strike open qualifiers. The team had quite unfortunate luck here considering they played XSET, Gen. G, and even the eventual event winners 100 Thieves in all 3 opening matches of their brackets. A short while after this, Apoth found himself on VIRTUOSO, where he would stay for close to 7 months. With VIRTUOSO, Apoth and the rest of the roster would cement themselves as one of the stronger tier 2 teams in the region, peaking in the top 20 of NA. In September, Apoth and his teammate Lin departed from the team to trial with Renegades. During the duo’s trial period, RNG managed to place well in a multitude of events and even win the Rival 1 in a 2–1 series against Soniqs. Following this successful trial, Apoth and Lin joined Renegades officially in December.

Stats-wise, Apoth has been putting up good numbers for a controller, especially when it comes to his openings. Not only has he been playing a more active style on Astra and Viper compared to the average, but he has also rarely died while doing this, as shown in his FKPR and FDPR stats. Now, this is purely anecdotal, but in the matches I’ve seen of him, Apoth also seems to be great in clutch situations, such as this 1v3 .

Team: Renegades (Ranked 23rd in NA)

Roles/Agent(s): Controller

Stats: