Total Shorty Kills
NOTHING2LOSE: Repeat Champions of Game Changers Academy
Lynne "drDelta" Dumeny
08/28/2021
The latest instalment of the Game Changers Academy took place between August 27-29, 2021.
The goal of the Game Changers initiative is to create new opportunities and exposure for women seeking to participate in VALORANT esports. Specifically, the Game Changers Academy is meant to serve as a lower stakes, more accessible competitive experience for women. To be eligible to compete, players must be 16 years or older and ranked platinum or higher at the time of registration. With the new partnership with Gen.G, this tournament recently increased the prize pool to $2,000 ($2000 for 1st Place and $600 for 2nd Place)
Tournament Format
Group Stages (Friday, August 27) was a set of Round Robin best-of-one matches. The top two teams from each group then qualified for the Playoff bracket. The Playoffs were a single elimination bracket consisting of best-of-three matches with the top 8 and Semi-Finals on Saturday, August 28. Finally, the Grand Finals were held on Sunday, August 29.
Tournament Results
There were four groups made up of four teams each. One group in particular was considered the “group of death” with 100 emoji, Unbind Crouch, and last month’s winners, Nothing2Lose. With the lower stakes, players have used this tournament as an opportunity to try out new rosters. There were several newly formed teams competing like Ethereal and AKUma. Gorilla Grip was an “avengers-type” squad of current and ex-members of CLG Red, Just Breathe, NOTHING2LOSE, Serenity Purple, Shopify Rebellion (Chobo, Laysix, Katriggered, emluo, it not han). However, most of of teams making it to the playoffs were the rosters with prior tournament experience.
The top teams making it out of group stages were:
- Team Valiant
- Fatality
- Ethereal
- No Shot
- STWB
- 100 emoji
- Nothing2Lose
- Gorilla Grip
NOTHING2LOSE, the favorites of the tournament, made it to the Grand Finals without dropping a map.
Team Valiant, a relatively newer team, also made it to the Finals without dropping a map.
In the Grand Finals, Team Valiant put up a valiant effort against NOTHING2LOSE. Team Valiant took the first map on Ascent, winning 13:7 and they kept a very tight map 2 on Bind, 11:13. Going to map 3 on Haven, it was another very close series, but Nothing2Lose came out on top (13:11), maintaining their status as the top unsigned women’s team and reigning champions of Game Changers Academy.
The NOTHING2LOSE Roster:
- Ariane “ARIANARCHIST” Lafrenière
- Carolyn “ArtstaR” Noquez
- Maryna “maryna” Semyaniv
- Katherine “starriebun” So
- Elena “EllieTwitches” Garland
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