On the evening of October 29th, with Clem Keqing's 1V1 victory, he became the last of the ten players, and it was also announced that the EDGS team (EDG Valorant Women's Division) officially won the championship of this year's Valorant East Asia Changers, and qualified for this year's Valorant Changers Global Championship in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
When the championship was confirmed, the female players of EDGS cried with joy. A few months ago, the team was officially formed, and with a lot of cold words, they finally defeated the Japanese and Korean teams to win the East Asia Changer's Championship.
After winning the championship, the players cried with joy
Every step they take will open up a new history of women's esports in the Valorant CN region. Remember the IDs of the six of them: EDGS.Lizhi (lychee), EDGS. WawaLee (Doll Power) EDGS. Blue、 EDGS. XiMiLu, EDG. Clem, EDG. Yusin (sequential).
Sports e-sports also conducted an exclusive interview with the girls, about the championship this time, about the usual daily life and thoughts on women's e-sports.
Although they did not mention much about why they won the championship in the interview, those love, perseverance and thinking are all answering why this EDGS team has become the only team to win in the East Asian region this year.
A champion with a lot of gold
It was not easy for EDGS to win this championship, and not many people could even think of it before the game.
The Valorant East Asia Changers 2023 will be held online over five days. A total of 8 Valorant women's professional teams from Japan, South Korea, and CN participated in the event, including the teams from the CN region: CCG, EDGS, ASEO; The teams in Japan are: ZETA, DFM, FL; The teams in the Korean region are: NC and CVA.
This time, EDGS, as the second seed in the CN division before the game, was actually not favored. Japan has an absolute competitiveness in this event with the starting advantage of the Valorant Women's Championship, and many people predicted before the game that the final would be a Japanese civil war, just like in last year's East Asian Changers, the final matchup was a civil war between ZETA and FL in the Japanese division, and FL qualified for the promotion, and the strength of the overseas division is undoubted.
But the fact is that EDGS quickly got into the groove after the start of the tournament, first defeating South Korea's NC 2-0 to advance to the double-elimination stage, then defeating Japan's ZETA 2-0, and CN's No. 1 seed CCG 2-1 to advance to the finals, and facing ZETA again in the finals, winning with a final score of 3-1.
EDGS not only won the No. 1 seed in South Korea and CN, but also "double-killed" ZETA in Japan, the No. 1 seed and favorite to win the tournament, winning the championship with an indisputable performance and getting the last ticket to São Paulo to participate in the Changemakers Global Championship.
Talking about the feeling of the moment of winning the championship, the team members felt like a dream. Before the game, he deliberately wore a white jersey that would bring luck, and finally won the championship as he wished.
Doll Power feels no regrets. The night before the finals, everyone studied the map and discussed tactics together as usual, and it happened that they had a good performance in the finals.
Lychee felt extremely relaxed, having previously left the team for treatment due to heart problems. For this championship, both the coach and the players put her return first. Coach Shuai Shuai said, "The main reason for winning the championship is that Lychee came back, and the team has a higher degree of tacit understanding because of the previous run-in, which also gives everyone full confidence." ”
Lychee is the duelist and marksmanship in the team, and after she returned to the team, EDGS's strength increased greatly, and she won consecutive battles. In the last game of winning the championship, it was also the MVP won by Lychee.
Next, the girls will compete in the 2023 Valorant Changers Global Championship in São Paulo from November 29 to December 4. This is also the first time that a team in the CN region has qualified for the 2023 Valorant Changemakers Global Championship.
This event can be said to be the equivalent of Valorant Women's version of the "S Tournament", with only eight teams from all over the world participating in the selection. It was first held in Berlin, Germany in 2022 with the G2 Gozen team winning the championship.
Qualification for the 2023 Changemakers Global Championship is determined by the winners of their respective regions. There are two quotas for EMEA and North America, one quota for each of Brazil, Latin America and Southeast Asia, and one quota for China, Japan and South Korea. At present, according to the online information, all the teams in each region have been decided, and EG GC and Version1 in North America, G2 Gozen and BBL Queens in EMEA, TL in Brazil, KRU in Latin America, SMG in Southeast Asia, and EDGS in China, Japan and South Korea have become the eight finalists.
Information on the teams that have been promoted in each region from the Internet
The EDGS team members are looking forward to the World Championship, and Heemilu said in an interview that she wants to stand on the stage of the World Championship and take a photo to commemorate it, because she feels that this may be the last chance of her life.
Doll Power said that he was most concerned about G2 Gozen and hoped to fight the captain of G2 Gozen because he felt that she was very good at handling the endgame.
The winner of the 2022 Changeers Global Championship, G2 Gozen
Yu Xin just wanted to go over and enjoy the game. Lychee, on the other hand, regretfully revealed that she may not be able to participate in the follow-up competition due to physical reasons, so her expectation for the World Championship is to believe in her teammates!
Not long ago, Lychee's heart had just been fitted with a pacemaker, and the doctor said that he would be banned from flying for half a year. This time, even if you bring the accompanying doctor, because the flight to Brazil is too long, there is still a certain risk to your life.
Blue will bring Lychee's Expectations to the dueling position in the Changemakers World Championship
Hitting the World Championship for the first time, both the coach and the players set the goal of the World Championship very pragmatically to win a BO3. However, regardless of the final result, to be able to step on the stage of the global competition, the girls have already made history for the women's e-sports of "CN Wa".
Behind the championship
This team hasn't been around for a long time. In June 2023, EDG, a well-known domestic e-sports club, announced the official establishment of the Valorant Women's Team, consisting of five players: Lychee, Ximilu, Yuxin, Keqing, and Wadoli, and later joined Blue.
In fact, there were some doubts about the women's e-sports team in the domestic environment before, and accumulating traffic through the identity of professional players, and then going to live broadcast to earn money, has become a common route for many female professional players. At that time, under the promotional posters of the EDGS players, many netizens half-jokingly joked, "Don't play professionally, just make your debut."
However, although EDGS is a newly formed team, some of the players are already mature female professional players. Some of them have won past community women's competitions, while others have finished third at Valorant Berlin 2022 East Asia Changers.
Talking about how to embark on a career path, Heemilu said that she used to just play games happily, but then she found that she seemed to have a lost talent, so she began to participate in large and small competitions, and slowly embarked on a career path.
In contrast, Doll Force can be said to be an "e-sports veteran", with many years of FPS experience, once there is a new game, it will try, and in each game it tries, a women's team has been formed, and it has also played League of Legends in the middle, and won the championship of Taiwan Province of China. Because of his passion for Valorant and his encounter with a group of like-minded teammates, he signed up to become a Valorant professional.
Litchi has been doing live broadcasts and is well-known, and she has also played a stable role in RANK, and she didn't think about playing professionally at first, but after getting to know her teammates, she felt that it felt great that everyone was moving forward for the same goal, so she decided to devote herself to the profession.
Lychee previously competed in an exhibition match at the 2023 Valorant Tokyo Masters
After coming to EDG, the girls also started a career with a very regular daily routine. The club trains from 1 p.m. to 12 p.m. every day. The team members usually gather around 12 o'clock for dinner, and then go to the training room to heat the gun. There are four training matches a day, 2 and 3 p.m., 7 and 8 p.m., and the rest of the time is the review, and the players practice on their own to keep their hands.
When asked if there was any situation of late arrival and early departure, Xiao Ji, the leader of EDGS, said that it was only possible to arrive early and leave late, and it was impossible to arrive late and leave early. In addition to meeting the normal training, the girls will also ask for extra training on their own. And for such an intensity, the players have said that it is not big.
Such a professional and regular career has not been easy for some of the team's members, many of whom competed in last year's Valorant East Asia Changers and finished third, missing out on a ticket to the Changemakers World Championship.
Talking about the difference between this year and last year, Xi Milu believes that the biggest difference is in the coaching link, last year the players did not have a coach, and they all relied on themselves. Everyone also has their own work and coursework, and when they are free, they can only find time to play training matches together to practice, and various problems will naturally arise in coordination and tactics. ”
She was still at work when she played the East Asian Changers last year, and she needed to hurry home after work on the match day to catch the game, and when she got home, she didn't even have a hot gun to play. This year, we prepared a lot of information about the opponent in advance, and we watched the video every night and discussed tactics, so I think the difference is really big. ”
Yu Xin mentioned that because of the offline training camp, the problems arising in the process can be pointed out by the coach or teammates in time, and the process of solving them will also greatly improve the tacit understanding of the team.
Speech on the field
Some time ago, the topic of esports not believing in girls made a lot of noise on the Internet. Xi Milu also talked about her own views on this, she believes that the most important thing is that girls should try their best to do their best, "Instead of caring about other people's eyes, you should do your part." Whether or not we played better than the men's team, I don't think we would think so much about doing our best. ”
In her opinion, the trouble for girls to play professionally is that girls have different communication styles than boys, "Girls will be more tactful, and they often don't encounter problems to speak directly, so everyone may have a little trouble in communication." I think the most important thing to play professionally is that you have to learn to be honest with your teammates. The reason why we get along so well is because we talk directly when we encounter problems. ”
So what to do when you have arguments and differences of opinion? "We agreed that it was a 'fight,' and whoever wins will be up to whomever wins." Lychee quipped.
Heemilu added to this, normally everyone will ask everyone's opinion, and when there are different ideas, they will take them out and discuss them, and then study a more suitable solution to solve the problem. But it's more important to see what the coach thinks. "But I think the coach is sometimes too gentle and too strict, and whatever we say, the coach thinks that what you say seems to be right. He often doesn't stand his ground, and then he becomes a listener to us. In the end, Heemilu and the players complained about the coach's "gentleness".
After hearing the complaint, the coach and the players laughed together. Undoubtedly, this atmosphere is also the key to EDGS's victory this time.
The return of Lychee may be the reason for winning the championship, but after listening to so many stories of the girls, I will find that behind this championship is everyone's love for e-sports, the persistence of the e-sports profession, the self-discipline day after day, and the honesty with teammates and coaches.
Women's esports has a game-changer
Talking about what kind of expectations he has for the Valorant domestic women's tournament in the future. The team members all expressed the same opinion, that is, they hope that there will be more women's competitions in the future, so that more girls can have the opportunity to participate.
According to the 2023 edition of the "Global Esports Industry Development Report", the proportion of women in esports users has increased from 34.4% in 2020 to 47.3%, nearly half of them. In 2022, the number of hours watched by women in esports increased by 1.5 times compared to 2021.
Behind this high growth, the female group has both "demand for spectators" and "demand for participation". However, there are not many women's e-sports events on the market, and many women's teams have been established, but because there are too few events, they often become hype gimmicks.
There are two reasons for the lack of women's events, one is that there is a big gap between the women's events and the men's events in the same event. In addition, there are too few high-level female professional players, and it is difficult to support a women's event above a level.
To a certain extent, the emergence of Valorant has become a game-breaker for women's e-sports in China. Valorant is more acceptable to female gamers due to the game's more comic book style, and as an FPS game, it no longer tells the story from a purely male perspective, and there are attractive female characters in each position. Globally, once launched, it attracted countless female gamers. Under the large game population base, excellent female professional players continue to emerge.
In addition, there is not such a generational gap between the current women's and men's events. At least not like MOBA games, you can see "operation under rice" at a glance.
Because these two pain points of women's esports can be solved, Riot Games has been deploying Valorant women's esports events around the world for a long time. In February 2021, the VCT Game Changers, or VCT Changers program for short, was announced. We hope to provide a stage for women to perform in the esports industry. Since then, many well-known esports clubs have begun to form women's teams, and have expanded from North America to other regions of the world.
In 2022, the first Changemakers Global Championship was held in Berlin, Germany, with a women's team. Qualifications are selected through competitions in their respective regions, and a preliminary global framework for women's esports is established.
In this female-friendly esports atmosphere, some women are starting to join the Valorant family. At the Valorant Los Angeles World Championship in August this year, the Americas team EG won this year's World Championship, and the team's coach Potter is a female coach, which is the only female coach of the team to enter the World Championship.
Coach Potter led EG to this year's Valorant World Championship
Coach Potter's success has inspired more women to pursue Valorant esports. In Coach Potter's view, women need more opportunities in the women's league. In 2024 or 2025, she is looking forward to showing everyone the possibilities and potential of the women's league.
In China, the layout around women's events is also underway, Feng Xiao, the general manager of Tengjing Sports' new project e-sports and the head of Valorant E-sports, said in a previous interview: "Although you can see at present, mainstream e-sports events are still dominated by male professional players. However, we also believe that there are many very good female gamers and female professional players who also have esports dreams, so we want to provide them with a stage. ”
With the official announcement of the 2024 VCT CN region as the fourth official league in the world, in order to connect with the world, the domestic Valorant Women's League is also gradually on the agenda. Just as Riot named the women's tournament name changer, it's time for a change, and it's time to do something for the girls who love esports.
Spectators cheer on their support at the 2022 Changemakers World Championship
"I hope to see the crowd at next year's women's event." For next year's women's event, Litchi is full of expectations.