Riot lists interesting stats from 2023 VALORANT season, including top pistol K/Ds, best ult usage

Statistics aren’t the end-all-be-all of game analysis, but they can help us understand what we’re seeing on our screens better.

Riot Games shared some interesting stats from their Insights team in a blog post. The highlights include some teams and players that were stellar on pistol rounds, the players who used their ults the best, and which players were the most impactful on each weapon.

The pistol round stats are mostly a who’s-who of great VALORANT teams. Three of the five best teams on pistol round made VALORANT Champions, with Evil Geniuses winning it all. LOUD and Fnatic made the list and placed third and fourth at Champions, respectively, while Global Esports, the number one pistol round team, didn’t make the world championship. Neither did FURIA, who is also on the top pistol teams list. Ironically, only one of the top five players in pistol rounds played for on one of the top five pistol teams: Ayrin.

Rifle rounds and force buy rounds are essential as well. According to the Insight team’s stats, Evil Genius’s Ethan was the best player by K/D on the Ares, which has become one of the most popular LMGs in the game.

NRG’s s0m posted a ridiculous 4.67 K/D with the Operator, and DRX’s MaKo notched a 6.0 K/D on the Judge. The most impressive one on the list was FURIA’s dgzi on the Marshall, a hard gun to use well, with a 5.0 K/D.

Ultimate ability use is crucial to success in VALORANT, as great ults can hold or take a site with ease. Cloud9’s Leaf was the most impactful on the speedy duelist Jett, while LOUD’s Saadhak was the best with the Killjoy Lockdown, both two very impactful ults. It won’t be a shock to most that DRX’s Foxy9 did the most damage per use with Raze’s ult, and Sentinels’ Marved did the most damage per use with Brimstone.