There have been plenty of players that have led teams to victory across the course of the VALORANT Champions Tour’s short history, from Sentinels’ TenZ in the very early days to the recent rise and fall of yay. But one name stands above all: Timofey “Chronicle” Khromov of Fnatic, EMEA’s top team.
A player key to Fnatic’s success at VCT Masters Tokyo, Chronicle and his team similarly rolled through their opposition in 2023. Despite duelists usually leading statistical categories in VALORANT, thanks to their kits and ability to enter sites first, Chronicle is top six in all of the most important categories—as an initiator player. Plus, when he’s gone to international tournaments, his team always makes the finals, off of plays like this defense on Split to push Fnatic to the Masters Tokyo finals.
For the nerds out there, I have some of those tournament-leading stats. Heading into the grand finals against Fnatic, which was by far his worst series, Chronicle was third in match rating with 1.21, sixth in average combat score with 236.8, and third in kill/death ratio with 1.33. Lots of these stats are led with duelists like Zheng “ZmjjKK” Yongkang and Erick “aspas” Santos, but if you go to the VLR stats page for the event, Chronicle is going to be up there pretty high, even with the low sample size duelist players that have bloated stats. Heading into the finals, he was also second in KDA at 2.18, as shown on the broadcast.
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Outside of LOCK//IN, where his team won the trophy, Chronicle has always been a statistical darling for his team. From his time on Gambit Esports, he reached two international events, winning at Stage 3 Masters Berlin, and finishing second at Champions 2021, recording some great stats and some unbelievable moments, like his ace against KRÜ Esports.
He was crucial to both of his team’s success, and nowhere more than international competitions. Not only is he the sole player to have multiple international trophies in the VALORANT scene, but he’s helped lead two different rosters to become the best team in the world. Nobody else can say that, with all previous international champions unable to reach those same heights.
It might be a bit of a surprise, but Chronicle is the GOAT in VALORANT, and that won’t be changing anytime soon.
