For transparency: Esports News UK editor Dom Sacco used to work full-time for British Esports between September 2016 and February 2021, and currently does some freelance work for them, producing their weekly email newsletter.
The British Esports Federation hosted a Women in Esports Valorant casual showmatch at the Insomnia Gaming Festival today.
The teams comprised of a mix of Women in Esports community members and Valorant Game Changers players split into Team Winteriio and Team Juggler.
The showmatch was a tense battle that went all the way to the third map with Team Winteriio eventually winning 2-1 against Team Juggler. Maps were Pearl, Split then Icebox.
This was held at the main esports stage as well as being live streamed to the British Esports Twitch channel, with Harry ‘HazzaJC’ Chapman and Elias ‘Eko’ Wylde being the shoutcasters.
Team Winteriio consisted of Misty, Navy, Billie, Cavade (who wrote a blog post on the Women in Esports showmatch here) and Winteriio, while Team Juggler was formed of Tvsha, Koneko, Jasmine, Lliandra and Juggler.
Juggler, Koneko, Tvsha, Navy, Winteriio and Misty are are all Game Changers players, with Cavade and Lliandra as Women in Esports community members.
Team Winteriio managed to grasp a win on the final map, in a close game ending up 13-10. Both of the previous maps were 13-5.
Team Juggler won the first map and then Team Winteriio tied it up in the second map, despite both maps being the opposite team picks.
Both Winteriio and Tvsha performed well as players in particular, topping the leaderboards of both teams in map one and having some fantastic individual plays throughout the match.
Winteriio was a particularly popular player, with enthusiastic chants of “Winteriio I love you!” heard throughout the match.
While the first two maps were played in the usual competitive spirit for a LAN event, the showmatch ended up as a lighthearted affair when both teams decided to play “Jett Roulette” (when all players hover over the agent Jett and the game randomly selects an agent for the players – as you can of course only have one agent on each team).
Also, Juggler managed to entertain the crowd by juggling on stage after the match.
Women in Esports also has a presence at Insomnia at British Esports’ stand 7.
Riot Games also has an official women’s tournament circuit in Valorant, known as ACT Game Changers. G2 Gozen are the current VCT Game Changers champions and have won three finals in a row.
Billie Purdie’s thoughts on playing in the showmatch
After the match we interviewed Women in Esports manager Billie Purdie and asked her how playing in the showmatch felt:
“It was crazy, playing on stage and being able to provide other women with the opportunity to compete on LAN, given that it was a showmatch, just being up there on the stage and showcasing all this female talent was just such a good opportunity for women in esports and the space in general.”
Billie Purdie
Women in Esports nominated for awards
British Esports has announced its Women in Esports initiative has also recently been recognised by the Women in Games Global Awards.
The Women in Esports initiative has also been nominated in the ‘Aspiring Ally Organisation’ category at the separate The*GameHERs awards.
Further to this, content manager and Women in Esports Committee member, Bryony-Hope Green, has been recognised for her contribution to journalism and education in esports, with nominations in three categories, including Journalist of the Year, Cosplayer of the Year and Generation Esports Top Educator.
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Koneko was actually built diff it that