Like the majority of other professional Valorant players, Kianra “Milkyway” Makua has started from CSGO. However, Valorant was born and attracted Milkyway's attention. Riot Games is very careful and thoughtful to ensure the competitiveness for the players. Besides the male tournaments, Valorant also has a tournament with all the athletes participating in women.
Milkyway and his teammates at Just Breath were signed by the versionx, thereby eligible to attend Valorant Game Changers. Although it is impossible to win the North American championship, it is considered the beginning for a bright future for VersionX in particular and Valorant for women in general in the coming years.
Ideal plan
Riot Games has done what few publishers as well as other tournament operators can do – create favorable conditions for female players. Riot Games began to create highly competitive tournaments for women, in stark contrast to previous sex discrimination allegations. From the moment the problems appear, Riot Games began to make a change.
No longer a company and Toan Nam ecosystem, the manufacturer with a headquarters at Santa Monica has at least $ 10 million for employees who have worked for the company in the past 5. Therefore, when Valorant Game Changers was born, fans felt like the tournament was planned by another part. However, Riot Games is the highlight.
“We create this ecosystem, which helps female gamers not only become a professional player but also can become a coach, a producer or even an actor. The great thing is that, becoming a professional gamer is not the only way for them to choose,” the head of the Esports partnership, Matthew Repractit Gamebeat.
Promise, do it
Riot Games and Valorant Development team promised a lot. In the end, a series of female gamers from Call of Duty, CSGO, Overwatch and even League of Legends have switched to playing valorant due to great potential, along with competitive tournaments. In some other games, several organizations do not sign contracts and set up women's teams, but with Valorant is different.
“Look, the number of women's teams signed by large organizations is amazing. That's what we have expected and tried to get for a long time,” the captain of the female team Evil Geniuses, Emmalee “Emuhleet” Garrido shared with UPCOMER.
Compared to League of Legends, Valorant is considered a much more successful game in the aspect of creating opportunities for female gamers. There are many male gamers who reach greatness in League of Legends, but female gamers do not. League of Legends owns a very small percentage of organizations that create conditions for the women's team to develop. However, according to Matthew Archambault, that number in Valorant is up to 40%.
Community tournaments began to appear more and Riot Games relied on that platform to create leaps. Game Changers Series and Changers Academy game for women is gradually becoming more popular in areas such as Europe or North America. In addition, there are many employees of Riot Games who act as Valorant.
Before Valorant, League of Legends also had a Changers game event. However, League's Changers game only lasts for 1 week. In addition, there are other tournaments for women. However, League of Legends has never reached the same level as the game Changers in Valorant in terms of the number of tournaments, the ability to organize and the viewers on different platforms.
Valorant promotion campaign for women
“Valorant performs many events and tournaments to promote the game. You never have such tournaments in other games. Riot Games broadcast the Changers live on your official channels. It is a big highlight for professional female gamers,” Lynn “Lynn” Clarke of Gen.G Black shared.
Valorant Game Changers 3 ended on October 3, marking the interesting journey of Valorant's first tournament in 2021. The series of Changers game tournament along with the proving grounds showed that Riot Games was very serious in the plan to promote Valorant's comprehensive development. Many fans also realized that Riot Games often listened to the request of the audience and gamers.
From the tournament mechanism, the competition format to the number of teams attended, Riot Games is ready to change if it feels appropriate. That has created opportunities for some female teams to compete with male colleagues, typically Cloud9 White. Cloud9 White even moved to the 32th round of VCT: Na Stage 1 Challengers 1 and only gave up to XSET.
“This is not Valorant's rotating axis in the EMEA area. We still create a lot of women's tournaments. The development team has listened to many opinions, that professional female gamers who want to compete with the male teams. It is an opportunity for us to make more efforts,” the leader Felix J Morgan of Valorant said.
Despite only joining Valorant Game Changers in a short time, many gamers still show satisfied with the experience they have. A few other opinions suggest that Riot Games should continue to change the format into a circle or group stage. Witnessing Valorant for Nam exciting with Masters 2 and Masters 3, the audience is eagerly waiting for the Changers game to appear on the big stage.
Valorant for women is and will thrive in the future. However, first of all the teams need to find a way to defeat Cloud9 White, the name that won the game Changers North America for 3 consecutive seasons. According to Milkyway, the defeated Cloud9 White day is only a matter of time as more and more organizations invest in women's valorant.
