Riot Games have announced that VCT Game Changers EMEA Series 2 will be a women’s-only event after the company faced strong backlash over the initial format, which would have allowed for mixed-gender teams.
VCT Game Changers, a women’s-only Valorant circuit, has seen a lot of success after its launch in the North American region in February 2021. In early September, Riot Games announced that EMEA would have its own Game Changers series.
Community members responded negatively when it was announced that the October tournament would also be open to mixed-gender teams as long as they had a majority of women players.
Riot responded on social media by announcing that the ‘ALL IN’ mixed-gender tournament format would be scrapped and the October event would be women’s-only teams.
Riot reverts VCT Game Changers format
VCT Game Changers was launched as a concerted effort to make room for women in esports. 2021 has seen three Game Changers events in the North American region, all won by Cloud9 White.
It was announced that EMEA region would be getting its own Game Changers series on September 7, with three events scheduled to take place between September and November.
However, the announcement also revealed that the Series 2 event, which will be held between October 25 and October 31, would be a special ‘ALL IN’ edition, which would allow mixed-gender teams to compete as long as three of their players were women.
This led many fans to question the format, feeling it went against the core purpose of Game Changers.
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GC by definition is ABOUT inclusivity & creating a safe space for MARGINALIZED GENDERS B/C they are marginalized. Opening this up to men defeats the purpose. All GC competitions can still compete in the main VCTs and other tournaments, there’s no designated male-only tournaments
— Juna (@Junafour) October 3, 2021
Riot responded on October 8, five days after French team TENSTAR Nova were crowned champions of the first EMEA Game Changers series.
#VCTGameChangers EMEA ALL IN update. pic.twitter.com/BsFXURMKDc
— VALORANT Champions Tour EMEA (@valesports_eu) October 8, 2021
While Riot will keep the women’s-only format for the time being, the tweet revealed their intentions to revisit the mixed-gender format at some point in the future.
