Listen to the audio version of this article (generated by AI).
Uk and Spanish esports organisation GiantX (GX) have secured their first-ever title in the Valorant Spotlight Series 2024, an event held in Paris featuring mixed-gender teams.
GiantX triumphed 3-1 against G2 Esports to become the inaugural winner of this new tournament.
This marks the first trophy of the GiantX era, following the merger of Giants (Málaga) and Excel (London) at the end of 2023.
Riot Games launched this new tournament as a precursor to the women’s VCT Game Changers Championship, which GiantX qualified for a few weeks ago.
The Valorant Spotlight Series also encourages preseason preparation for players from across the VCT circuit.
The tournament stood out for its mixed-gender format, bringing together players from three circuits: the Valorant Champions Tour, the main circuit of this esport; Game Changers, a competition focused on female teams and other underrepresented groups; and the Valorant Challengers leagues. A key requirement was that each match had to feature at least two representatives from the Game Changers circuit.
Some of the UK players that took part in the Valorant Spotlight Series EMEA 2024 included Benjyfishy, Loupiote, YaBoiLewis, Sevire and more.
After dropping to the lower bracket, GiantX fought their way to the final, defeating international organisations like Koi and Karmine Corp along the way, ultimately securing a convincing victory over G2 in the showdown at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles.
For the title match, the giants fielded Purp0, Westside, runneR, Joliinaa, and Miyori. Their roster also included ness, Smurfette and UK Valorant player Sarah.
In a press release, GiantX said that ‘despite the presence of a world champion like Jawgemo on the opposing side, GiantX dominated Lotus and clinched the win on Icebox’.
Joliinaa said after the win: “We have a really good environment on the team, it’s easy to feel confident with these players. And I wanted to have that revenge over G2 on LAN.”
runneR added: “When I started playing this tournament, I was like, okay let’s see what it’s like, and I got one-tapped a lot by Game Changers players! So I was like, ooh, maybe I shouldn’t underestimate them. So I was full try-harding.”
The next challenge for GiantX is the Valorant Game Changers Championship, which will take place in Berlin this November essentially as the women’s world championship.
In addition to their presence in Game Changers, GiantX compete in the Valorant Champions Tour (VCT), which, the League of Legends EMEA Championship (LEC) and the Game Changers circuit, as well as the Spanish League of Legends LVP Superliga.
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.
