Cover-Credits:
Cloud9 White secured its fourth North American (NA) Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) Game Changers championship after securing a 3-0 win against Shopify Rebellion (SR) at the grand final. The team has cemented itself as NA’s best women’s Valorant team and it will be heading with a sizeable chunk of points to the first-ever Game Changers LAN event.
VCT Game Changers NA recap
Despite losing 0-3 to Cloud9 White, Shopify Rebellion had a successful run at the event. The team made its way to the lower bracket finals and took out Dignitas Female to set up the grand final matchup against Cloud9 White. But SR could not match up to the four-time champions. After the matchup, SR coach Rob “robwiz” Kennedy said that the pressure leading up to the grand finals was too high and the team could have performed better as it did not live up to its potential.
Cloud9 White put on a terrific performance at the event with Katja “katsumi” Pfahnl diversifying her lineup of agents to suit the current meta. Katsumi has adapted to agents like Omen and Brimstone. The team will now focus on the VCT Challengers Open Qualifiers, which will be the gateway to the LAN event later this year.
This year’s VCT Game Changers circuit is looking a lot more promising with a lot more teams signing up for the competition. Dart Monkeys is an unsigned team that made it to the recent NA Championship and its performance may inspire even more amateur teams to give the Game Changers circuit a shot. The top women’s teams from all regions will compete at the first-ever Valorant LAN world championship for women which will be hosted alongside the VCT Champions event.
Riot Games is also launching a Game Changers Academy Program. This mentorship program is a VCT exclusive, an on-the-ground training program that provides coaching and development to aspiring pros and talent. This year, there will be two mentorship programs covering player and talent mentorship.
