Cloud9 White Threepeat as VCT Game Changers 3 NA Champions Behind Dominant Play
It’s official, Cloud9 White have clinched the Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) Game Changers 3 championship, making it an official threepeat for the team as VCT Game Changers event champions all while having only dropped a single map on the cruise to the top. C9 White have made an absolutely dominant performance the standard outcome, as the team has now only dropped two entire maps across all three Game Changers tournaments.
Although the tournament featured many other large name organizations like XSET and their female roster debut, Dignitas Female, and even their pseudo-rivals Shopify Rebellion (whom they defeated two times throughout the tournament in both the winner’s finals and the grand finals match), Cloud9 White continue to be head and shoulders above the rest of the competition. The members of the team credit that to the relatively stable roster that they have consistently fielded while the majority of other teams competing in these tournaments have obsessively retooled their lineup many times over.
The tournament featured plenty of scorelines that supported just how strong of a contender C9 White are, like their 13-1 routing of Dignitas Female on Bind. The finals, both times they were played out, were also fairly cut and dry, although Shopify Rebellion did show improvement the second time around when they were able to not only take a map off of Cloud9 White but also keep the games pretty competitive.
In the post game interview, Cloud9 White’s head coach Dream stated that this tournament was “the easiest one yet” for the team, and that they had essentially overprepared. What does that mean for the competitive scene as a whole though? If women’s Valorant is to continue on the path of the explosive growth of the scene (235,872 hours watched across the tournament, with a peak viewership of 12,339 during the finals), other teams within the North American circuit are going to have to find their footings.
Over the past month and a half, many larger and notable esports organizations have announced that they too will be dipping their toes into the women’s Valorant pool, and with that, has to come with different challenges for the team that has frequently sat atop the leaderboards.
And while the tournament itself was a success, the VCT Game Changers series continues to highlight rising and growing talent within the women’s Valorant scene, something that is a resounding win for women in esports whether they competed or not. The tournament continues to be a bastion of great competition for women, but also continues to give a platform to these esports organizations to better support women in the esports scene in general.
Gen.G, CLG Red, TSM, Cloud9, Dignitas, and more, are the orgs leading the charge in giving women more opportunities to compete at a high level, and with the support of Riot, it seems like the momentum for the future isn’t about to be slowed any time soon.