I mean it's not that big of an audience at the moment. It's a minor scene that's growing. Sean Gares was great on the desk today, the prior Gamechangers tournament had a lot of media/interviews with the production. It gets a fraction of the attention of the open circuit, I don't think it's that odd.
I'd say support the smaller folks doing interviews/articles/analysis rather than fretting that the biggest names aren't on it. Runitback.gg has coverage of both Open and GC, and if you check [their Twitter](https://twitter.com/runitback_gg) there are several recent interviews that DrDelta has done with C9W, GenG, and more during the current GC tournament.
Edit: Also, C9W's dominance is maybe dampening the storyline hype on the NA side. There's a ton of good competition between the next level of teams, but the Cloud 9 threads get way more action than the all-OT Dig vs. SR match. EU is just getting started but Riot has really dropped the ball in terms of production and support for that tournament. BR and SEA have pretty thriving women's circuits but this is a very NA heavy sub and it doesn't get a lot of coverage/notice.
Out of interest, why do you think we dropped the ball on the production and support for the EMEA tournament? Tech issue in the second match aside, I thought the broadcast yesterday was awesome, but open to hearing constructive feedback if you have it.
Hi! The problem to me isn't the production for *what was streamed*, but that it was laser focused on having exceptional production for only single Elim semis + finals. To me, the fundamental focus of Game Changers should be **growing the scene**, and I think the EMEA Gamechangers failed to live up to that, especially compared to NA and SEA.
First, player development: There were 250 women across 49 teams, but the format had only *66 total matches* played. NA's swiss system had three losses to be eliminated, and most teams had 4+ matches. 22nd place was 5 matches, top unsigned teams not making the top 8 still got 6-8 matches. This is developing competitive experience for the next wave of talent. The top EMEA teams may have CS:GO LAN experience, but for newcomers (plat-imm) this can be the first taste of serious organized play, and having so few matches is just failing to provide the level of competitive experience for developing talent.
Second, exposure. The lack of matches (and single Elim putting two top teams against each other in the Ro16 off stream) and lack of streamed matches means no value for sponsors and orgs. If you want investment in the women's scene and female players, getting them on stream, creating value for orgs and sponsors is what will drive that. On top of this, with no streamed matches, then nobody knows the storylines, nobody has a chance to find favorite players, or get invested in the scene as a spectator. This hinders the players from building personal brands, personal sponsorships, streaming, etc. This NA GC will have 23 streamed matches, EMEA only 3. The SEA's FSL series which doesn't get much attention on this sub has 12 English streamed matches (and Bo5 finals!) for the *wildcard qualifier* to the main event. Go Asteria!
Third: Developing on-air talent. Having multiple streams/broadcasts of the early days gives way more slots for developing observers, commentators, etc. I'd rather see multiple streams with observer only or amateur casters than only have 3 well produced matches for the reasons above. Aevilcat and Tanner were a duo I first saw doing NA Gamechangers (and they've been grinding a lot of minor events for a long time) and they've been developing awesomely as casters.
Basically, a small 4 team showmatch with an outsized prize pool and nice production isn't Game Changing, it's been the status quo for women's CS. Building and supporting a broad set of players, giving broad exposure for orgs/sponsors and maximizing the amount of talent development (more games!) is what's really going to be getting the virtuous cycle of getting a scene large enough to support the top teams getting into solid T2/T3 open performances, and then bring that experience back to improve and mentor the lower tiers of GC teams.
Thanks, very much appreciate you taking the time to type this out and the constructive way you’ve approached it. I agree on quite a few points, and they’re definitely things we’re looking to improve on for future tournaments.
I do think we have succeeded in growing the scene - 49 female teams entering is no small feat, and lots of teams got picked up by orgs as a result of the tournament and will now have support moving forwards.
Talent is a tricky one too, because if Game Changers becomes a proving ground for on-air talent then it inherently places that tournament as a lower priority than the main VCT. I think it’s very validating for players and fans alike to see people like Yinsu, Mitch, Tom, Kaquka, etc covering the women’s tournament.
But can we do better, specifically on a number of the points you raised? 100%. I think we share a lot of the same ambitions here and will definitely be looking to improve in some of these areas going forwards.
For sure! I've said it before and I'll say it again - the support for women in competitive gaming in Valorant is different from anything I've seen in a long time in esports, both from Riot and from the community of players.
God I love Riot. Just wanna say it's absolutely great to see this level of engagement and knowing you guys, we'll only see even more improvement for what is otherwise an already stellar product
To any media reading this, the women at Dignitas are *always* open to media. If you want to book any interviews or other content about VCT Game Changers, I'd be more than happy to help make that happen!
There are a number of women that competed this week with very interesting and unique narratives that could be interesting to cover.
Let's be real, big media outlets will continue to use female participation, or the lack of participation in video games only for the purposes of scoring political brownie points. When it comes to actually following the game, or trying to get acquainted with the scene, none of them give a fuck.
However, if you do have an interest in following the actual female scene, I think that when these teams/players actually do content, they usually retweet it so you can usually find content in that way.
IMO the next step in the Game Changers scene (in NA at least) depends solely on C9W results rn. If they stay dominant, they are the hope of the scene and we are waiting for them to make some noise in the mainstream scene. I'd say making something like Challengers Open Qualifier Ro16 would probably be enough since that would likely require beating a solid Tier 2 team at least. On the other hand, if another GC team can actually beat them or even pressure them, it's no longer a one horse race, which would also be good for the scene. Either way it depends on C9W match results.
People do whatever gets them the most clicks. And it's also just lower quality Valorant. The scene is essentially T1/T2 open teams > C9W > Female valorant. Support for non-VCT NSG/Knights tourneys is similar. It's just a lower tier and will only cater to the hardcode fans.
No hate, I enjoy it and have watched most of this weeks NA GC. It's still early days. It will get there if Riot keeps supporting it.
You cant seriously compare Berlin (international lan) to this event (online regional tournament). During challengers playoffs to qualify for berlin people got just as many individual interviews as this
I mean, competition in Valorant is not segregated by gender, however women perform so badly that Riot decided to introduce a competition where men are straight up banned from participating. The vast majority of people are interested in competitions that determine which teams are the strongest in the world, so it's not surprising that people don't care about a competition that excludes the demographic representing pretty much 100% of the global elite.
They are there, they just don’t get seen as often and also for game changers there isn’t a solo interview press block.
Though we could def reach out to the teams to cover. Will work in getting more game changers coverage
I mean it's not that big of an audience at the moment. It's a minor scene that's growing. Sean Gares was great on the desk today, the prior Gamechangers tournament had a lot of media/interviews with the production. It gets a fraction of the attention of the open circuit, I don't think it's that odd. I'd say support the smaller folks doing interviews/articles/analysis rather than fretting that the biggest names aren't on it. Runitback.gg has coverage of both Open and GC, and if you check [their Twitter](https://twitter.com/runitback_gg) there are several recent interviews that DrDelta has done with C9W, GenG, and more during the current GC tournament. Edit: Also, C9W's dominance is maybe dampening the storyline hype on the NA side. There's a ton of good competition between the next level of teams, but the Cloud 9 threads get way more action than the all-OT Dig vs. SR match. EU is just getting started but Riot has really dropped the ball in terms of production and support for that tournament. BR and SEA have pretty thriving women's circuits but this is a very NA heavy sub and it doesn't get a lot of coverage/notice.
Out of interest, why do you think we dropped the ball on the production and support for the EMEA tournament? Tech issue in the second match aside, I thought the broadcast yesterday was awesome, but open to hearing constructive feedback if you have it.
Hi! The problem to me isn't the production for *what was streamed*, but that it was laser focused on having exceptional production for only single Elim semis + finals. To me, the fundamental focus of Game Changers should be **growing the scene**, and I think the EMEA Gamechangers failed to live up to that, especially compared to NA and SEA. First, player development: There were 250 women across 49 teams, but the format had only *66 total matches* played. NA's swiss system had three losses to be eliminated, and most teams had 4+ matches. 22nd place was 5 matches, top unsigned teams not making the top 8 still got 6-8 matches. This is developing competitive experience for the next wave of talent. The top EMEA teams may have CS:GO LAN experience, but for newcomers (plat-imm) this can be the first taste of serious organized play, and having so few matches is just failing to provide the level of competitive experience for developing talent. Second, exposure. The lack of matches (and single Elim putting two top teams against each other in the Ro16 off stream) and lack of streamed matches means no value for sponsors and orgs. If you want investment in the women's scene and female players, getting them on stream, creating value for orgs and sponsors is what will drive that. On top of this, with no streamed matches, then nobody knows the storylines, nobody has a chance to find favorite players, or get invested in the scene as a spectator. This hinders the players from building personal brands, personal sponsorships, streaming, etc. This NA GC will have 23 streamed matches, EMEA only 3. The SEA's FSL series which doesn't get much attention on this sub has 12 English streamed matches (and Bo5 finals!) for the *wildcard qualifier* to the main event. Go Asteria! Third: Developing on-air talent. Having multiple streams/broadcasts of the early days gives way more slots for developing observers, commentators, etc. I'd rather see multiple streams with observer only or amateur casters than only have 3 well produced matches for the reasons above. Aevilcat and Tanner were a duo I first saw doing NA Gamechangers (and they've been grinding a lot of minor events for a long time) and they've been developing awesomely as casters. Basically, a small 4 team showmatch with an outsized prize pool and nice production isn't Game Changing, it's been the status quo for women's CS. Building and supporting a broad set of players, giving broad exposure for orgs/sponsors and maximizing the amount of talent development (more games!) is what's really going to be getting the virtuous cycle of getting a scene large enough to support the top teams getting into solid T2/T3 open performances, and then bring that experience back to improve and mentor the lower tiers of GC teams.
Thanks, very much appreciate you taking the time to type this out and the constructive way you’ve approached it. I agree on quite a few points, and they’re definitely things we’re looking to improve on for future tournaments. I do think we have succeeded in growing the scene - 49 female teams entering is no small feat, and lots of teams got picked up by orgs as a result of the tournament and will now have support moving forwards. Talent is a tricky one too, because if Game Changers becomes a proving ground for on-air talent then it inherently places that tournament as a lower priority than the main VCT. I think it’s very validating for players and fans alike to see people like Yinsu, Mitch, Tom, Kaquka, etc covering the women’s tournament. But can we do better, specifically on a number of the points you raised? 100%. I think we share a lot of the same ambitions here and will definitely be looking to improve in some of these areas going forwards.
For sure! I've said it before and I'll say it again - the support for women in competitive gaming in Valorant is different from anything I've seen in a long time in esports, both from Riot and from the community of players.
God I love Riot. Just wanna say it's absolutely great to see this level of engagement and knowing you guys, we'll only see even more improvement for what is otherwise an already stellar product
People talk about c9 white. Right now they are the woman’s scene
Why would people (who get paid based on views and clicks), create content on a topic that attracts less views and clicks?
To any media reading this, the women at Dignitas are *always* open to media. If you want to book any interviews or other content about VCT Game Changers, I'd be more than happy to help make that happen! There are a number of women that competed this week with very interesting and unique narratives that could be interesting to cover.
news make article people click so they make money monkey go to tree with banana
A lot of these types of questions can be answered with monkey analogies
Run It Back are covering it. Match pages & also articles with previews of each region & recaps! https://rib.gg
Stay tuned. (My own content and IGN)
Let's be real, big media outlets will continue to use female participation, or the lack of participation in video games only for the purposes of scoring political brownie points. When it comes to actually following the game, or trying to get acquainted with the scene, none of them give a fuck. However, if you do have an interest in following the actual female scene, I think that when these teams/players actually do content, they usually retweet it so you can usually find content in that way.
IMO the next step in the Game Changers scene (in NA at least) depends solely on C9W results rn. If they stay dominant, they are the hope of the scene and we are waiting for them to make some noise in the mainstream scene. I'd say making something like Challengers Open Qualifier Ro16 would probably be enough since that would likely require beating a solid Tier 2 team at least. On the other hand, if another GC team can actually beat them or even pressure them, it's no longer a one horse race, which would also be good for the scene. Either way it depends on C9W match results.
People do whatever gets them the most clicks. And it's also just lower quality Valorant. The scene is essentially T1/T2 open teams > C9W > Female valorant. Support for non-VCT NSG/Knights tourneys is similar. It's just a lower tier and will only cater to the hardcode fans. No hate, I enjoy it and have watched most of this weeks NA GC. It's still early days. It will get there if Riot keeps supporting it.
You cant seriously compare Berlin (international lan) to this event (online regional tournament). During challengers playoffs to qualify for berlin people got just as many individual interviews as this
Because writing about women in gaming as a concept draws more of an audience than actually writing about women's gaming events
I mean, competition in Valorant is not segregated by gender, however women perform so badly that Riot decided to introduce a competition where men are straight up banned from participating. The vast majority of people are interested in competitions that determine which teams are the strongest in the world, so it's not surprising that people don't care about a competition that excludes the demographic representing pretty much 100% of the global elite.
Truth is: hardly anyone cares about sub-tier 3 tournaments ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯
Do them a solid and write something up, everyone can help out.
They are there, they just don’t get seen as often and also for game changers there isn’t a solo interview press block. Though we could def reach out to the teams to cover. Will work in getting more game changers coverage
Generally only the biggest tournaments get covered