Under-the-radar EG player is Valorant Champions 2023 MVP candidate

One player on EG is quietly having an MVP-level tournament run at Valorant Champions 2023.

Evil Geniuses have been on a tear so far at Valorant Champions 2023. The North American squad has only dropped one map so far, and is set to take on Paper Rex in the upper-bracket finals.

Almost every player on EG has had some kind of standout map or play so far. However, one squad member has put together a quiet showcase of how to support his teammates at an extremely high level.

While he doesn’t show up in the kill feed as often as other players, or put together multi-kill rounds, Ethan ‘Ethan’ Arnold has put on a master-class supportive performance for EG. The former Counter-Strike pro has an outside shot at an MVP award at Valorant Champions, depending on how far the team can go at the event.

EG Ethan’s MVP resume at Valorant Champions

Ethan is EG’s Initiator player and is often responsible for the team’s flashes and other supportive utility for fights and site hits. Gameplay-wise, he doesn’t stand out amongst a group of young aimers on Evil Geniuses, but he does have many intangibles that have led to the squad’s success.

He's definitely in the running right now. Alfajer is still behaving wildly and Less is putting up some insane numbers — especially that Split today.

Regarding Ethan tho, it's sad that APR is the only way to measure his impact but it doesn't translate the true impact he has. pic.twitter.com/GKtt7Jb3D9

— Diogo Santos (@ds_santos_) August 20, 2023

Ethan has done a great job this tournament of understanding enemy rotations and is often ahead of EG’s opponents on site hits or timings. Statistically, Ethan’s MVP case shows up best in assists and aggregate numbers.

He has the highest Kill/ Assist/ Survive/ Trade rate at the tournament at 83% and has the highest Assists Per Round numbers by a wide margin at 0.62, according to VLR. The next highest is 0.54 APR and the next highest that is still in the tournament at this stage is Fnatic’s Timofey ‘Chronicle’ Khromov at 0.48

4 in the round for @ethanarnold! #VALORANTChampions pic.twitter.com/xbWTf9pO7w

— VALORANT Champions Tour (@ValorantEsports) August 19, 2023

Ethan also got a chance to show off his fragging ability, and just how much he can out-think the enemy team, in his sole Yoru game of the tournament against EDward Gaming. He finished the map, Pearl, with 20 kills and helped his team win 13-5 in the deciding game.

Fans should keep their eyes on Ethan as EG continues their run at Valorant Champions on August 24.