The Valorant Champions Tour is serious business. Doubly so for the Masters phase, as players from all over the world descend on Reykjavik to represent their country in the world’s biggest upcoming esport. This clash of titans carried with it intense gravity. Not only were the reputations of individual players on the line, but entire teams and their regions as well.

Which is why it is our solemn duty as Valorant historians to… add some levity to the situation. When you play video games for a living, you got to have a little fun, are we right?

So we here at Run it Back have come up with a more light-hearted equivalent of our awards for Masters Reykjavik. The following awards were determined using Runitback’s analytical platform. Many people don’t expect our analytical platform to be this powerful, but it is! At any rate, enjoy, and of course don’t take this too seriously.

Most Judgmental

Shotguns have been notoriously hard to balance for competitive multiplayer games. Unless you’re playing Doom, shotguns are alternately seen as either “cowards’ weapons” or extremely weak, depending on how they’re balanced. Nobody in a game the style of Valorant likes turning a corner only to get a face full of buckshot and die instantly. That’s probably why Riot Games have struggled to balance their shotguns.

Sometimes, however, you need to use the weapon you want to use, and forget the haters. That’s why the first of our nonsense awards goes to Anthony “vanity” Malaspina, who bucked the trend of frowning upon shotguns in competitive play to become a Judge wielder in Masters Reykjavik. This personally paid off for him as he got 20 kills with the Judge shotgun. Sadly, his team fell to Fnatic, but we’re pretty sure it’s not because of his judgmental plays.

Big Spender

In Valorant, you need skills to pay the bills. Your performance directly impacts how much in-game money you earn. The better you do, the bigger and better guns you can afford. Sometimes, however, you need to strategically save your money. One Operator shot to the head and you could lose everything you earned.

No one told that to Nikita “Derke” Sirmitev, however. He flaunted his in-game money like some five-star rappers, spending almost a million credits over the course of the tournament. Showing off his fat stacks has earned him the second of our Masters Reykjavik nonsense awards, Big Spender. What good is all that money if you don’t spend it, right?

Watched This Too Closely

Martin “Magnum” Peňkov previously won our Headhunter award for most headshots at Masters Reykjavik. However, maybe he needs to protect his own head against Jett. Magnum was caught 10 times staring at Jett’s… knives, resulting in his demise.

Look, we get Jett is an… impressive combatant. She can hypnotize you with her… lightning quick manoeuvres and ninja-like combat proficiency. But when she’s not on your team, she’s as deadly as the rest of Valorant’s cast. So maybe keep that in mind?

Balls of Steel

“I’ve got balls of steel!”

-Duke Nukem

Sorry, Duke, but we just found someone who’s got more durable balls than you. Jake “Boaster” Howlett took an overwhelming 79 shots below the belt during Masters Reykjavik and lived to tell the tale. Can you brag about that, Mr. Nukem? Didn’t think so. Congratulations to Boaster for outshining Duke Nukem.

Most Toxic

What’s harder to balance than shotguns in Valorant? That would have to be the agent Viper. From being considered the weakest agent in Valorant to becoming a must-pick for some competitive teams, Viper has undergone a roller coaster of changes. Perhaps one indicator of her becoming meta in Valorant, however, is that her abilities have been buffed to the point where they can sometimes kill by themselves. It’s hard to do, but not impossible.

That’s why we’re giving our final nonsense award to James “Mistic” Orfila. Mistic got a whopping six kills with Viper’s abilities thanks to his expertise with the agent. Taking into account how much Viper has been changed, getting killed by her abilities can be considered one of the ultimate forms of BM towards Mistic‘s opponents.

That concludes Runitback’s Awards for Masters Reykjavik, the Nonsense Edition. Again, please don’t take these awards too seriously, they’re all in good fun. (And they show off the power of our analytical platform.) Looking back, we see that most of these awards are going to Fnatic players, but this is not a hit piece towards Fnatic. They are fantastic players. The fact that most of their players won these awards can be attributed to them having the most playtime at Masters Reykjavik.

Stay tuned to Run it Back for all your further competitive Valorant coverage, guides, interviews, and more!