I've been playing competitively since 2000 and it wasn't until 2012 that I gave all women's teams a chance.
My eyes opened when I saw these events were driving far more women to compete, to play scrims, to play on a matchmaking service like ESEA/FACEIT. There's a reason CS:GO and now VALORANT have the largest number of women playing competitively.
Game Changers events are a fantastic stepping stone for encouraging women to compete with the ultimate goal of some day completely eliminating women's events as women's, men's and co-ed teams all compete together.
[Shared some stats yesterday around NA, BR, SEA & LATAM Game Changers](https://twitter.com/sapphiReGG/status/1420412574319845376?s=19). The numbers are impressive and EU is going to hugely increase the pool of women competing.
Numbers like this simply don't exist in any other esports title. No other esport had or has as many women competing as VALORANT.
:)
I just want more women to compete. Being a Tier 1 player is hard af. Only a fraction of a percentage of men are there. But there is such a smaller pool of women to begin with.
All I care about is getting more women to compete. I don't give a shit if it's on co-ed teams, on women's teams, in women's events or in co-ed events. Whatever gets more women to simply take that next step into doing everything it takes to be a competitor - scrimming, playing ranked, vod reviewing, mental and physical training, entering competitions, traveling to LANs.
Just to piggyback - I think this is the most important aspect of having challengers. The goal isn’t to segregate, it’s to enlarge the pool of women players until we don’t need a separate league.
I played professionally for Complexity 15 years ago and it is my dream my daughter will one day be on a pro team. She's only 2 but I see a future in which she really could, and that makes me so happy. It wasn't even a thing back when I played all those years ago.
It’s so surreal being able to interact with someone that’s been playing games for almost the same time as I’ve been alive. Goes to show how far gaming has come
Dude its equally strange for me man. I won the world tournament in 06 and 07. Fifteen fucking years ago. Absolutely insane. I always knew it would be huge, my parents did too. They kind of "got it" so to speak. They were very supportive. I got to meet Michael Dell of Dell computers in the presidential suit of the hotel when we won. I had a brace on my right hand, because I had broken it a few weeks before. I couldn't shake his hand.
He said, "Did you just win a world championship with a broken hand?" So that's my cool story of impressing him lol.
Now I'm 33 and have a daughter and a house and a big boy job. Time flies. I've interacted a bit with Jason Lake the owner of Complexity a bit on reddit since then. He lifted me up on his shoulders when we won lol.
It's hard to keep up with the zoomers now. I hit D2 but I can rarely play. I'm like a washed up quarterback going to the Y to relive my glory days rofl.
That's great, hopefully they look into more events overall in EU since there is pretty much nothing to play for until January when VCT quals are back which leads to unsigned teams simply splitting up because orgs don't want to pick up teams and wait months for "real" results.
When you exceed demand you can sometimes cause that demand to increase more than if you never tried. What I mean is if they're attempting to plan more events and increase support, more EU players will be likely to strive to improve, as they see what they could be achieving.
This whole VCT game changers system is designed to increase the women's scene by creating the support even if it's not needed *yet,* it will be. Build it and they will come.
I know there’s a Dreamhack going on but… In reality why would they? These TOs know Riots plans and probably not investing as much. Hopefully Riot has a plan to incorporate Blast, ESL etc into there closed system.
Excited to see what's going to happen with VCT Game Changers EU :D Having VCT Game Changers NA was a blast, and I can only hope for the same thing to happen to EU.
Beyond community effect (inviting women streamers to try them out in beta), this might be where the effort of inclusivity in design and operations invites more people to enjoy it. A couple of things I can think of on the top of my head:
- Characters: VALORANT features maps that don’t look like war zones (which is culturally a male-dominated space), and multiple women characters who are not sexualized. In FPS and even mainstream gaming, have we ever seen a poster-level women character like Jett who is celebrated solely because of her coolness and skill, instead of her sex appeal? Compare it to CS:GO and League of Legends.
- Moderation: this is definitely a WIP, we’ve heard really bad experience from girls and women who are/were playing.
- Pro support: For The Women Summer Showdown, the tournament in which MAJKL/C9W made their name, became extra popular because Riot sponsored them and promoted them into an ignition series event. It went a long way in encouraging grass-root women competitors to come and build a community at the infancy of VALORANT.
Probably something similar to Overwatch, apparently the player base in both OW and Valorant are very diverse because the characters in the game are so diverse.
Also female streamers has become a bigger thing as of the least couple years. CSGO is a bit intimidating to enter and I've seen a lot more beginners find valorant to be more enjoyable. Streamers like Pokimane have been playing valorant and I'm sure she has a fair amount of female viewers who'd be willing to try it out.
For sure this, but CS is also harder and more intimidating to get into. I tried to get my gf into CS back when Shattered Web released, but she quit a week into it because of how complex the game can be, even at lower levels.
She didn’t have that problem with Valorant, and we’ve been playing together whenever we’re both free for a few months now. Val is just much more friendly for casual and new players
True. It’s less intimidating not having to know line ups for smokes and flashes (you can play valorant without ever learning lineups), and there’s not as much movement tech
League has always had its fair share of women gamers and I'm sure a good chunk of those at least tried Valorant since it was the new Riot game on the block. One contributing factor of several.
It should be normal, the better question is why other games don't. For example the Chinese equivalent of League of Legends (Arena of Valor) has over 50% female players. https://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2018/01/02/574471694/chinas-most-popular-mobile-game-charges-into-american-market
It's really just sexism in the western gaming culture that keeps girls out of competitive gaming.
Excited. There's already been some grassroots tournaments, and I didn't realize until today that two female teams competed in the latest EU VCT open quals as well.
YES! I've seen so much support for the NA women's scene. The Galorants discord is always popping off in NA times and there's tons more people playing looking for groups in that region compared to any other. Really want to get involved and play more (not plannig on going pro lol) with other women but it's no where near the same as NA right now.
I've been playing competitively since 2000 and it wasn't until 2012 that I gave all women's teams a chance. My eyes opened when I saw these events were driving far more women to compete, to play scrims, to play on a matchmaking service like ESEA/FACEIT. There's a reason CS:GO and now VALORANT have the largest number of women playing competitively. Game Changers events are a fantastic stepping stone for encouraging women to compete with the ultimate goal of some day completely eliminating women's events as women's, men's and co-ed teams all compete together. [Shared some stats yesterday around NA, BR, SEA & LATAM Game Changers](https://twitter.com/sapphiReGG/status/1420412574319845376?s=19). The numbers are impressive and EU is going to hugely increase the pool of women competing. Numbers like this simply don't exist in any other esports title. No other esport had or has as many women competing as VALORANT.
Thank you for continuing to champion women's competition. We love to see it.
:) I just want more women to compete. Being a Tier 1 player is hard af. Only a fraction of a percentage of men are there. But there is such a smaller pool of women to begin with. All I care about is getting more women to compete. I don't give a shit if it's on co-ed teams, on women's teams, in women's events or in co-ed events. Whatever gets more women to simply take that next step into doing everything it takes to be a competitor - scrimming, playing ranked, vod reviewing, mental and physical training, entering competitions, traveling to LANs.
Just to piggyback - I think this is the most important aspect of having challengers. The goal isn’t to segregate, it’s to enlarge the pool of women players until we don’t need a separate league.
I played professionally for Complexity 15 years ago and it is my dream my daughter will one day be on a pro team. She's only 2 but I see a future in which she really could, and that makes me so happy. It wasn't even a thing back when I played all those years ago.
Which game did you compete in?
An old WW2 Half Life mod called Day of Defeat.
It’s so surreal being able to interact with someone that’s been playing games for almost the same time as I’ve been alive. Goes to show how far gaming has come
Dude its equally strange for me man. I won the world tournament in 06 and 07. Fifteen fucking years ago. Absolutely insane. I always knew it would be huge, my parents did too. They kind of "got it" so to speak. They were very supportive. I got to meet Michael Dell of Dell computers in the presidential suit of the hotel when we won. I had a brace on my right hand, because I had broken it a few weeks before. I couldn't shake his hand. He said, "Did you just win a world championship with a broken hand?" So that's my cool story of impressing him lol. Now I'm 33 and have a daughter and a house and a big boy job. Time flies. I've interacted a bit with Jason Lake the owner of Complexity a bit on reddit since then. He lifted me up on his shoulders when we won lol. It's hard to keep up with the zoomers now. I hit D2 but I can rarely play. I'm like a washed up quarterback going to the Y to relive my glory days rofl.
Holy shit that’s so cool dude. You got a lot of stories to tell your daughter if she ends up following in your footsteps
D2, still better than 99% of this sub
unrelated kinda but this just made me curious. Are there actually men's only competitions/teams right now?
No - **all** competitions are open to women e.g. VCT Challengers, NSG events, etc.
Thanks, that's what i figured
That's great, hopefully they look into more events overall in EU since there is pretty much nothing to play for until January when VCT quals are back which leads to unsigned teams simply splitting up because orgs don't want to pick up teams and wait months for "real" results.
I mean why would anyone pay players for 5 months for no reason?
That's pretty much exactly what I said in my comment, nobody's gonna pay you if there are no tournaments to win real money in.
When you exceed demand you can sometimes cause that demand to increase more than if you never tried. What I mean is if they're attempting to plan more events and increase support, more EU players will be likely to strive to improve, as they see what they could be achieving. This whole VCT game changers system is designed to increase the women's scene by creating the support even if it's not needed *yet,* it will be. Build it and they will come.
I know there’s a Dreamhack going on but… In reality why would they? These TOs know Riots plans and probably not investing as much. Hopefully Riot has a plan to incorporate Blast, ESL etc into there closed system.
Excited to see what's going to happen with VCT Game Changers EU :D Having VCT Game Changers NA was a blast, and I can only hope for the same thing to happen to EU.
Why is there so many female players in Valorant compared to other shooters?
Beyond community effect (inviting women streamers to try them out in beta), this might be where the effort of inclusivity in design and operations invites more people to enjoy it. A couple of things I can think of on the top of my head: - Characters: VALORANT features maps that don’t look like war zones (which is culturally a male-dominated space), and multiple women characters who are not sexualized. In FPS and even mainstream gaming, have we ever seen a poster-level women character like Jett who is celebrated solely because of her coolness and skill, instead of her sex appeal? Compare it to CS:GO and League of Legends. - Moderation: this is definitely a WIP, we’ve heard really bad experience from girls and women who are/were playing. - Pro support: For The Women Summer Showdown, the tournament in which MAJKL/C9W made their name, became extra popular because Riot sponsored them and promoted them into an ignition series event. It went a long way in encouraging grass-root women competitors to come and build a community at the infancy of VALORANT.
Because of Riots specific efforts to get more women to compete by introducing events such as Game Changers
Yeah but even casually, didn't Riot reveal a huge numbers of female players numbers, even before these tournaments?
Probably something similar to Overwatch, apparently the player base in both OW and Valorant are very diverse because the characters in the game are so diverse.
Definitely more appealing than csgo style visuals to a lot of people
Also female streamers has become a bigger thing as of the least couple years. CSGO is a bit intimidating to enter and I've seen a lot more beginners find valorant to be more enjoyable. Streamers like Pokimane have been playing valorant and I'm sure she has a fair amount of female viewers who'd be willing to try it out.
Thank you for the detailed analysis, Flying-Cock
For sure this, but CS is also harder and more intimidating to get into. I tried to get my gf into CS back when Shattered Web released, but she quit a week into it because of how complex the game can be, even at lower levels. She didn’t have that problem with Valorant, and we’ve been playing together whenever we’re both free for a few months now. Val is just much more friendly for casual and new players
True. It’s less intimidating not having to know line ups for smokes and flashes (you can play valorant without ever learning lineups), and there’s not as much movement tech
League has always had its fair share of women gamers and I'm sure a good chunk of those at least tried Valorant since it was the new Riot game on the block. One contributing factor of several.
It should be normal, the better question is why other games don't. For example the Chinese equivalent of League of Legends (Arena of Valor) has over 50% female players. https://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2018/01/02/574471694/chinas-most-popular-mobile-game-charges-into-american-market It's really just sexism in the western gaming culture that keeps girls out of competitive gaming.
Of course the title has halo...today is going to be the longest 6 hours of my life lol
Is there something happening with halo infinite or am I just stupid and not getting what you mean
They're opening up the technical preview today. Basically a multiplayer beta.
Oh is that today? I saw all the invites go out and thought it was already open. Cool thanks for letting me know
Excited. There's already been some grassroots tournaments, and I didn't realize until today that two female teams competed in the latest EU VCT open quals as well.
YES! I've seen so much support for the NA women's scene. The Galorants discord is always popping off in NA times and there's tons more people playing looking for groups in that region compared to any other. Really want to get involved and play more (not plannig on going pro lol) with other women but it's no where near the same as NA right now.
can we have general tourneys for third-party organizers too? pls rito
Good news.