Valorant Champions Tour Game Changers to create more opportunities for women and marginalised genders

Riot has recently announced the Valorant Champions Tour Game Changers program, designed to create more opportunities for women and other marginalised genders across the competitive Valorant scene.

VCT Game Changers will come in the form of two initiatives, the VCT Game Changers Series and the VCT Game Changers Academy. The Series will be a series of top-level tournaments around the same scale as the Ignition series, and will occur across multiple regions. The first is set to take place in March, although more are expected to follow through 2021.

The Academy on the other hand will create monthly tournaments designed to give players a chance at grassroots and semi-pro level competition. These events will be organised by Galorant, a community in Valorant that previously helped organise the For Women Summer Showdown event. No date on the first Academy tournament has been provided as of yet.

"Game Changers will provide tournaments and development programs for women who want to take their game beyond competitive ladder play," said Whalen Rozelle, the Sr. Director of Esports at Riot Games in a press release. "With VALORANT esports, we're committed to fostering an inclusive environment for competition and creating safe opportunities for women to compete without fear of identity or gender-based harassment."