Riot Games has unveiled the winners of the 2025 VCT Awards, acknowledging competitive excellence throughout this year’s VALORANT Champions Tour (VCT).
The awards honour individual achievements across nine categories, such as Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year, for every VCT region (EMEA, Americas, Pacific, China).
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Like in previous years, winners were selected based on votes from each region’s broadcast team, media representatives, as well as one player, coach and streamer from each regional team.
Every voter proposed a first, second and third place for each category, which counted as three, two or one point towards an individual. However, teams were not allowed to vote for their own members.
VCT EMEA Awards Winners
Fnatic’s Kajetan ‘kaajak’ Haremski dominated EMEA’s VCT Awards, winning Player of the Year, Rookie of the Year, Duelist of the Year and Most Improved Player of the Year. The duelist prodigy joined Fnatic ahead of the 2025 season after having won VCT EMEA Ascension 2024 with his previous team Apeks.
Despite the challenge of replacing VALORANT legend Nikita ‘Derke’ Sirmitev, kaajak showed steady improvements throughout the year, helping his team reach second place at Masters Toronto and VALORANT Champions Paris.
Considering Fnatic’s international performance this year, it is unsurprising that kaajak is not the only member of the roster to receive a VCT Award.
Fnatic veterans Emir ‘Alfajer’ Bederand and Jake ‘Boaster’ Howlett won in the categories Sentinel of the Year and In-Game Leader of the Year, respectively. Moreover, the team’s Head Coach, Milan ‘Milan’ de Meij, was awarded Coach of the Year.
The remaining two categories were won by NAVI’s Uğur ‘Ruxic’ Güç and Team Heretics’ Enes ‘RieNs’ Ecirli. Although NAVI did not make any global events this season, Ruxic was named Controller of the Year for his consistent regional performance.
RieNs became the region’s back-to-back Initiator of the Year thanks to his proficiency with scan-initiators Sova and Fade and reliably fragging out for his team.
VCT Americas Awards Winners
In Americas, 2022 VALORANT Champion, Erick ‘aspas’ Santos was awarded Player of the Year and Duelist of the Year.
During his first season with MIBR, the duelist attended both Masters Toronto and VALORANT Champions. In Paris, aspas also broke the record for the most kills at a VCT global event with a kill-death ratio (KDA) of 80/42/6 against NRG.
Aspas’ teammate Gabriel ‘cortezia’ Cortez was also recognised by the Americas community, receiving the award for Most Improved Player of the Year.
All other VCT Americas Awards went to NRG and G2 Esports. While NRG gained momentum towards the end of the season to win Champions 2025, G2 secured all three regional titles (Kickoff, Stage 1 and Stage 2).
NRG player and notorious Odin user Brock ‘brawk’ Somerhalder received two awards, Rookie of the Year and Initiator of the Year. Ethan ‘Ethan’ Arnold won In-Game Leader of the Year after becoming the first player to lift two Champions trophies (2023 and 2025).
Ethan’s successful transition to the IGL role this year can be attributed in part to the strategic insight and guidance provided by NRG’s Head Coach, Malkolm ‘bonkar’ Rench. This could have been a contributing factor to Bonkar’s award as Coach of the Year.
Meanwhile, G2’s Nathan ‘leaf’ Orf and Jacob ‘valyn’ Batio won Sentinel of the Year and Controller of the Year, respectively. As a high-fragging IGL, valyn combines intelligent calling and utility usage with reliable aim. Similarly, leaf is known for his game sense and consistent fragging potential.
VCT Pacific Awards Winners
The team with the most VCT Pacific 2025 Awards is Paper Rex (PRX), by far, as every member except Jinggg received individual recognition.
The award for Player of the Year went to Jason ‘f0rsakeN’ Susanto, who established himself as a multi-talented flex player this season. He also became the Masters Toronto MVP after helping his team secure its first international trophy.
Fellow veteran PRX members Ilia ‘something’ Petrov and Khalish ‘d4v41’ Rusyaidee were honoured in the categories Duelist of the Year and Sentinel of the Year, respectively. Moreover, Head Coach Alexandre ‘alecks’ Sallé won the award for Coach of the Year.
The team’s youngest member, Patrick ‘PatMen’ Mendoza, won both Rookie of the Year and Initiator of the Year.
PatMen joined PRX during VCT Pacific Stage 1, when the organisation was still struggling at the regional level. However, PatMen helped his new roster make a miraculous bounce-back to qualify for Masters Toronto and VALORANT Champions later in the year.
The VCT Pacific Awards also recognised two players from DRX. Similar to PRX, the Korean team made a surprising run at Champions Paris to finish third. DRX’s longest-standing member, Kim ‘MaKo’ Myeong-kwan, was crowned Controller of the Year, while rookie Song ‘HYUNMIN’ Hyun-mi was awarded Most Improved Player of the Year.
The final Pacific award was given to Ngô ‘crazyguy’ Công Anh from Rex Regum Qeon (RRQ). Leading his squad towards Masters Toronto and VALORANT Champions qualifications, crazyguy received the award for In-Game Leader of the Year.
VCT China Awards Winners
The VCT Awards for the circuit’s youngest region, China, have yet to be announced. The article will be updated accordingly once all Chinese winners have been revealed.
Source: https://esportsinsider.com/
