Who’ll be the next queens of professional Valorant esports?
VCT 2023: Game Changers championship is ready to kick off on November 28 at São Paulo, Brazil. Eight of the best professional female teams from around the world will gather to fight for the right to become Valorant champions.
The tournament is a straightforward double elimination bracket. All matches will be a best-of-three, save for the lower and grand finals, which will be a best-of-five. All teams will be taking a share of the $500,000 prize pool with the champion taking home big $180,000.
Game Changers is an initiative by developers Riot Games with a goal to increase opportunities and exposure for women in Valorant esports. Launched in February 2021, Game Changers aims to encourage more women to compete at the highest levels of esports. This involves not just tournaments but community events and training opportunities that will help both the players and scene grow.
This year will be the second VCT Game Changers championship.
Teams to Watchout For
G2 Gozen, last year’s champions, returns to defend their title although they’re not looking as fierce this year. They remained a force to be reckoned with in the EMEA league thanks to keeping three out of five of their championship lineup. However they stumbled towards the end of the season, getting knocked out at the lower bracket semifinals. Still, you can’t count these champions out as they’ll surely be fighting tooth and nail to keep their crown.
Coming in as real dark horses are Southeast Asia’s Team SMG. Domination is the only word to describe SMG’s run in the APAC region as they finished first place in every single tournament they participated in. They even went undefeated in APAC Elite, the final qualifying tournament for the Game Changers championships.
Powering the team are the three Filipina hotshots Alexandria “Alexy” Francisco, Camille “Kamiyu” Enriquez, and Kelly “shirazi” Jaudian. All three were in the top 5 KDA in APAC Elite. Alexy and shirazi were even counted as the third and fourth best Asia Game Changers players, respectively.
It’ll be exciting to see how they fare against the best female Valorant players in the world.
Banner photo by Michal Konkol/Riot Games.
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