The Valorant Champions Tour Game Changers Series’ Top Eight Tournament starts on March 25, featuring signed squads and amateur teams alike. The $50,000 prize pool event is a community-driven effort by Riot Games. Their aim is to create professional opportunities for marginalized genders and underrepresented communities to compete in Valorant.
The current field of teams battled their way through open qualifiers from March 19 to 21. And, some teams have already been clashing, before the main event, in their effort to make it to the double elimination bracket.
Amateur teams at Game Changers
The field of teams at VCT Game Changers are half unsigned and they are looking to make some waves at the tournament to gain organizational interest. Of that field, the most prominent may be Moon Raccoons Black. The team breezed their way to the main event, beating both of their opponents 2-0. The two duelist players, Lorri and dianaa, racked up over 30 kills in each series. The team is also helmed by former Mamba Gaming and Zoomer Academy coach, Kevin “Lelicious” Le.
Then, there is OWA OWA, an amateur team that has some slight organizational backing since three of their players, Madison “Maddiesuun” Mann, Carlee “carlee” Gress and Hannah “Hannah” Reyes are pros and streamers for Gen.G. The yet-to-be-signed squad made it to the event via the lower bracket, losing out 0-2 to Cloud9 White. But, they swept their way to the tournament over UNLUCKY and Infinity Val.
The final two unsigned squads, Watch This and Man I Love Fwogs, both came into the tournament from the lower bracket. Man I Love Fwogs fought through both Team Quacked and Elysium Rose 2-1, playing a triple duelist setup. Watch This had a more dominant run, losing to CLG Red early and dispatching both lower bracket opponents 2-0.
Signed teams at Game Changers
The teams with organizational backing include veteran squads like Cloud9 and Dignitas Female, as well as newer teams like TSM Female and CLG Red. Cloud9 is probably the most notable squad in the main event field. The six-person team has been together since the Summer Showdown and has wins against eUnited and Renegades. Cloud9 White beat both TSM Female and OWA OWA on their way to qualification.
CLG Red and Dignitas Female had a similar route to the tournament. Both teams qualified through the upper bracket 2-0 over their opponents. CLG Red even beat out both Man I Love Fwogs and Watch This 2-0 to qualify.
Lastly, TSM Female, despite their recent scandal, qualified over Saturn Rose 2-0 to make it into the tournament. The team is led by Counter Strike veteran, Catherine “CAth” Leroux, and has looked dominant over teams not named Cloud9 White.
The Top Eight Tournament starts March 25 and culminates with the Grand Finals on March 28.
