Valorant Game Changers is Riot Games’ esports program for women, which consists of various tournaments including Berlin’s upcoming inaugural global finals: the Game Changers World Championship.
Esports News UK was offered an interview with Head of VCT Game Changers EMEA, Ashley Washington, to ask about the effects Game Changers is having within the game and the industry. Rather than just have a man ask questions about a scene that’s for women, Esports News UK enlisted a trio of women actually working in the space to ask Ashley guest interview questions direct: British Esports’ Women in Esports manager Billie Purdie, Game Changers tournament admin and NUEL women & non-binary product manager Lauryn Halpenny, and Durham Uni esports lead Kylie Kendrick (aka Lliandra, who also plays on team Nyx with Billie).
Billie Purdie, Women in Esports:
How do you feel as though the Game Changers initiative has helped develop the female Valorant scene as a whole?
Ashley Washington, Riot Games: I think that one of the most important things that we’ve been able to do with Game Changers is generate exposure for rising teams. I believe that’s almost the core of our capability with the Riot platform, that we can show so many people the talent that exists within these teams because the Valorant community lends itself to this variety.
Aside from that, the number of participants has grown from series to series which, at the very least, speaks volumes about how necessary having a space like this is. As mentioned before, a lot of third-party events have popped up around this and I believe those events complement Game Changers really well. It feels like a very comprehensive space already and could lead to, what I hope, will be a very rapid normalization of women’s participation in the rest of the ecosystem.
Lauryn Halpenny, NUEL:
In Riot’s eyes, what is the ultimate goal with initiatives like Game Changers?
Ashley Washington, Riot Games: The future of Game Changers is really about the future of the Valorant ecosystem as a whole. The normalization of women’s participation – whether that’s mixed rosters or women’s teams – is ultimately where we want to land by getting players involved in Game Changers.
Positioning the tournament circuit as the point of entry for any woman interested in getting serious about Valorant is one piece of that, but the other piece is getting everyone on board with making sure that these players are not simply existing in the space, but thriving as well, growing and ultimately finding their place in the space, should they choose to do so.
Dom Sacco, Esports News UK:
It’s been about a year and a half since the Valorant Game Changers initiative was first revealed, and a year since Riot announced it was coming to EMEA. Please can you reflect on how things have gone since then?
Ashley Washington, Riot Games: I feel incredibly proud of where we’ve ended up with things. VCT Game Changers EMEA has grown in almost every way we could have hoped since then – in evolution of format, growth of participation and increased awareness.
We have an enthusiastic and invested community full of incredible teams, admin, and talent and we’re really beginning to see exactly what Game Changers’ positioning in the overall VCT ecosystem looks like at its best.
Kylie Kendrick, Durham Uni: Do you envision siphoning talent from the winners of each GC series/champions into the “main” VCT leagues and tournaments with your support? Do you have the vision of co-ed teams on the horizon? At the moment the skill disparity is still stark (perhaps not amongst the top GC pros but there are only a few teams that stand out at that tier) so I fear that co-ed teams wouldn’t do so well. Do you plan on placing more emphasis on co-ed teams in the future outside of GC?
Ashley Washington, Riot Games: Right now, we don’t have any direct promotion planned but this is definitely not meant to indicate that I don’t support it happening. Seeing our best Game Changers teams and players out in the rest of VCT is the goal. The conversation of how to get there is going to take a lot of work from multiple angles.
It can be argued that there is a skill disparity but I see this as more of a “social gap” than a “skill gap” that can be remedied as Game Changers becomes more mature and as more opportunities to play and skill up are generated. Anyone starting out would need time to get better.
The difference that Game Changers makes is the space itself which is meant to be more ideal for women than leaving them to figure it out without it – an often painful experience. Getting the players who are ready onto a team is going to take commitment from the industry as a whole and this is absolutely something that I hope to lean into. This is tough work that is absolutely worth doing.
“Seeing our best Game Changers teams and players out in the rest of VCT is the goal. The conversation of how to get there is going to take a lot of work from multiple angles.”
Ashley Washington, Riot Games
Dom Sacco, Esports News UK: It’s interesting to see rivalries forming in Game Changers, and Guild finally beating G2 in a final for EMEA Series 3 at the start of this month. Riot says Series 3 had 128 teams competing – some 37 teams more than the last tournament – and Valorant seems to be one of the most popular esports in the UK and EMEA right now. We also have some good teams here in the UK in particular like Rix.GG Lightning, Guild X and Tenstar Nova – why do you think this is? What are your views on rivalries forming & the recent finals?
Ashley Washington, Riot Games: I can’t say for sure why that is but I’m, of course, very happy to see the level of investment in Game Changers rosters that we’ve seen with the UK and I’m looking forward to how these teams advance in the future. Both in performance and storyline! The team stories are really where a lot of the rivalries develop.
G2 has held the crown for a while now but, as time goes on, and the teams meet again and again, eventually they learn how to be hyper-efficient when it’s time to go toe-to-toe and the crown inevitably changes hands. I think this is the hallmark of any healthy esport which is great news for women’s Valorant. I, personally, want all of the teams to win all of the time so my heart gets simultaneously warmed and broken every time.
Billie Purdie, Women in Esports:
What impact do you think having the Game Changers Championships LAN finals in Berlin will have? It also has a live audience – how are you going to ensure it is a safe space?
Ashley Washington, Riot Games: Game Changers has been going so well globally, I think the only thing missing has been this opportunity to connect the teams in person.
Berlin is the perfect place to do something like this and I think that having an audience along for the ride would only make it better. Of course, as we always endeavor to do with Game Changers, we will be taking all the necessary steps to ensure that the LAN will also be a safe space. A supportive and enthusiastic audience could be a key part of that, especially for those experiencing a LAN for the first time, so let’s see how it goes!
Lauryn Halpenny, NUEL:
Currently, the Game Changers initiative is only open to women. Are there any plans to include other marginalized genders, such as non-binary identifying players, within this program?
Ashley Washington, Riot Games: There are currently no plans to change the criteria for the EMEA region.
Dom Sacco, Esports News UK: Game Changers has inspired many other grassroots women’s tournaments in Valorant here in the UK, including the Goose House Birds of Prey, British Esports Lioness Cup, Contenders Legion Athena Series and more. Could we see the likes of these linking up with Game Changers in the future, like grassroots Beacon tournaments lead to Polaris, the Valorant Regional League for the UK and Nordics?
Ashley Washington, Riot Games: I surely hope so! There’s a lot to be said about how important it is for there to be as many opportunities as possible for the players to get this kind of playtime and exposure.
I absolutely envision a future where some of these events could somehow feed into the Game Changers EMEA space and amateur player community.
“I ultimately would like for women who play Valorant to enjoy the experience and develop the desire to dig deeper, to feel confident doing so without having to think twice. This goes for the women working the tournament as well. I want them to be able to do that without worrying about their appearance on broadcast, the comments in the Twitch chat, or even whether or not they are good enough.”
Ashley Washington, Riot Games
Billie Purdie, Women in Esports: Whilst Game Changers is a controlled safe environment for women and nonbinary folks to compete, how are you hoping to make Valorant as a whole more inclusive? As a woman playing the game, the only thing that entices me to keep playing is this community they have built around Game Changers, however this isn’t something I can take into my ranked games with me. How are you planning to combat toxicity that women are still subject to in their game on a day to day basis? Currently there are little to no disciplinary actions.
[Riot said this couldn’t be answered by Ashley as she focuses primarily on Game Changers and the esports scene rather than in-game processes]
Lauryn Halpenny, NUEL:
After seeing the implementation and huge success of Game Changers in the Valorant scene, with the Championship taking place this year, are there any plans to bring this initiative into other Riot titles? A women’s LoL circuit is said to be planned.
Ashley Washington, Riot Games: Riot Games as a whole really values diversity in the esports ecosystem. From a League esports perspective, we’ve been following the Valorant Game Changers esports program very closely and have learnt so much from its roll out.
In our region, LoL Esports leagues around the world have been executing and further developing diversity programs to make professional competitive League of Legends more accessible to more players. Beyond that though, we don’t have much more we can share at this time, but will be sure to update the community when we do.
Kylie Kendrick, Durham Uni:
What is your general vision for the future? I think it’s great that we have this space to play and grow, but what’s the end goal?
Ashley Washington, Riot Games: The “normalization vision” that I’ve mentioned before definitely rings true here but, to add to that, I think that I ultimately would like for women who play Valorant, enjoy the experience and develop the desire to dig deeper, to feel confident doing so without having to think twice. This goes for the women working the tournament as well. I want them to be able to do that without worrying about their appearance on broadcast, the comments in the Twitch chat, or even whether or not they are good enough.
It is true also of the world outside of games, that there can be this expectation, that when the work is done to create a platform for women, that they should both meet and exceed common standards. No one can be perfect from the start and no one should be expected to be.
We have seen so many great players and talent in Game Changers already – they are poised to be great outside of this tournament too – but there are also many participants in the space who are still growing. Game Changers is for them too and I hope that we can show that.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Ashley Washington, Riot Games: I haven’t been working on the tournament for very long but I am really so honoured and appreciative of the opportunity I’ve had to get to know the community so far, and I am really excited about working to deliver something we can all be proud of in the coming year.
Congratulations to this year’s winners & I’m looking forward to seeing everyone (& hopefully some new faces) in 2023. For now, we’ll watch EMEA take the prize at Game Changers Berlin!
Thanks to Ashley for this interview. You can follow Ashley Washington on Twitter here. The VCT 2022 Game Changers Championship will take place in Berlin from November 15th to 20th.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
