Riot Games Brings Women to the Forefront With Game Changers Championship
When Riot Games first launched VALORANT Game Changers — an initiative which aims to give women and underrepresented groups opportunities to compete within the esports space — it did so with the understanding that no one company or initiative can tackle a challenge that large in one fell swoop.
They also understood, however, that making change always requires someone to take an important first step.
“I think the best way to describe it is that we are just trying to open the door of our sport for more women to come in and to be part of it,” said Leo Faria, Global Head of VALORANT esports at Riot Games. “It might take a lot of time for our vision to be realized. We are very realistic about how challenging this is, but we are going to put in the work and we are going to make it happen.”
The best part? So far, it’s working. And the proof is in the fact that the VALORANT Game Changers program took home an award at the SBJ Esports Rising conference.
According to Faria, viewership of Game Changers’ competitive events has nearly doubled from last year, demonstrating a commercial interest in watching top female players compete.
“When you show a pro who's doing really well and you tell their story, you're both showing people that it's possible [and] you're also inspiring more people to play,” Faria said.
"Game Changers has helped bring together a community of female gamers whose experience in the competitive gaming world has largely been a disjointed one," says Ashley Washington, Head of VALORANT Game Changers EMEA. "The Game Changers Championship will be Riot Games’ biggest step yet. To both give top female gamers visibility on one of the biggest stages in esports, and to bring that rapidly growing community together, in person, for the first time."
The tournament will kick off Nov. 15 and run through Nov. 20, crowning a global champion on the final day of play. It will feature a double-elimination, best-of-three format for its eight teams, which all qualified through regional tournaments across the world to make it to the global final.
“There is this first layer of like, ‘Hey, the best of the best are playing here, this is super exciting — this is incredible,’” Washington said. “But then there is this other layer of just celebrating the Game Changers community in person and providing a space for players and people who have worked on the tournament.”
In addition to allowing top female VALORANT players to test their mettle against one another, the Game Changers Championship will demonstrate just how high the quality of play is among women who play VALORANT.
"Esports are one of the few sports in which women and men are truly on an even playing field from a skill perspective," according to Washington. "That made it all the more clear to Riot Games that there have been other barriers to entry to the competitive esports space which needed to be addressed."
“People sometimes refer to this need for women to have an opportunity to skill up, as you know, addressing that skill gap — I don't see this as a skill gap. I see it as like a social gap,” Washington said. “You are trying to exist in a space that keeps looking at you and being like, ‘Oh, I mean, it's cool that you're here but, you know, we weren't really expecting you.’ The fact that it's been slow to evolve, despite all of the innovativeness and speed, has kind of left us with this necessity, like, ‘All right, now we need to carve this space out with intention.’”
Visibility is a big goal for Game Changers, according to Washington — especially in working to make the landscape of esports, and gaming in general, a more inclusive one. With abuse and toxicity common in competitive gaming, seeing female pros celebrated is essential.
“Once you have this program, you basically invite other people to take a look at this well-respected and loved platform with games that people love and enjoy… and kind of see more clearly what a path to correcting this might look like,” Washington said. “It begins with providing that space and learning from it and then being able to develop solutions.”
When you talk with the folks involved in developing Game Changers, one thing becomes clear — it is not meant to grow into a league of its own. Instead, the hope is that it will eventually lead to women and men competing side-by-side on the VALORANT Champions Tour.
In that sense, Game Changers was built to outgrow itself. With luck, the initiative will be remembered as the first domino to fall in the fight to carve out space in the esports community where women aren’t just admitted, but invited; not just seen, but celebrated.
Hopefully, it all starts with one small step.
