Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Riot Games have announced the winners of the VALORANT Champions Tour Hackathon: Esports Manager Challenge during AWS re:Invent. The event saw participation from over 3,200 individuals who used AWS's generative AI services and Riot Games' esports data to create solutions aimed at aiding esports recruiters in scouting talent and developing game strategies.

Ashwin Raghuraman, senior solutions architect at AWS, who helped conceptualize the challenge, highlighted projects that demonstrated "end-to-end user experiences with well-justified reasoning and accurate data recall." He noted that standout entries included sophisticated team composition recommenders tailored for map-specific strategies in VALORANT.

The winning teams will share a prize pool worth $61,000. The top three winners are:

1. VCT Team Builder by Adrian Tan and Christina Chin

2. VCT Scout by Aravind Dasarathy, Dhruv Kamalesh Kumar, Rudra Sett, and Akshay Gunjur Surya Prakash

3. VCT Manager Assistant by Colin Hwang and Cameron Toy

Additional honorable mentions were given to Alm Assist by Akmar Chowdhury, Joe Hoang, Osmond Jian; Beat Buddy by Akshat Namdeo; Biot by Lim Bing Feng and Calvin Koay; TactiXpert by Kushagra Dixit as Best Mixed-Gender Team Submission; VCT Scout again for Best Cross-Regional Team Submission; and VCT Manager Assistant also recognized as Best Rising Star Selection.

Adrian Tan and Christina Chin's winning entry leveraged machine learning tools via Amazon Bedrock on AWS to offer insights into team compositions and player performance analytics. Their tool featured machine learning-driven recommendations for optimal teams based on various attributes.

Doug Stevenson from Riot Games encouraged future participants to adopt a player-first mentality when creating their submissions. He stated that such an approach not only helps win competitions but also benefits players through valuable insights gained from these projects.

This hackathon follows last year's League of Legends Esports Global Power Rankings Hackathon. More opportunities are expected in 2025 for those interested in developing generative AI tools for esports.

For more details about AWS's cloud services since its inception in 2006 or upcoming hackathons with Riot Games, visit aws.amazon.com.