Cloud9 White took the series 3-0 against CLG Red, while player AnnieDro shared her thoughts on the all-female team’s win.
Cloud9 White dominated the NA women’s VALORANT scene once again, after sweeping CLG Red 3-0 in the VCT Game Changers Series Two grand finals. Cloud9 White only gave up one map in the qualifying rounds throughout the entire event. A clean sweep through the Main Event bracket helped them establish dominance and alert the NA women teams on an alarming issue, which they highlighted in respective interviews after the tournament.
VCT Game Changers grand finals: a matchup for the ages
Cloud9 White were coming into the finals without dropping a single match in the bracket so far making them the obvious favorite. On the other hand, CLG Red were relegated to the lower bracket after a surprising loss against Moon Raccoon Blasters. Nonetheless, CLG Red came back and toppled one team after the other to make their second consecutive grand finals appearance, promising a rematch from the previous tournament.
CLG tried Red kept things close on Split, but C9 managed to preserve their undisputed record by winning the map with a 13:11 score. Ascent followed with a 13:9 scoreline due to deterioration in CLG Red’s performance in the second half. Cloud9 White shattered CLG Red’s hopes of winning with six attacking rounds to one CLG defensive round in the second round of Icebox resulting in a 13:6 finish, rendering Haven and Bind unnecessary for the series.
Post-game interviews
Following their grand finals triumph, the C9 White players sought to inspire the rest of North America’s female VALORANT lineups by urging them to compete in open qualifiers against the best VALORANT teams to learn new tactics and strategies, even if they face heavy defeat.
“They need to start getting into these open tournaments, when we first joined those tournaments, we weren’t winning, we were getting rolled, I think we even got 13-0’d a couple of times. But that didn’t stop us. We didn’t go home and cry. It gave us more footage to review so that we got better. That is the one step you can take to improving beyond your scene going out of your scene. We went beyond the girls’ scene and that’s why we’re at the top right now. I think if other [female] teams do that, then we’re going to see more close matches, and maybe a team taking a series off of us.”
Cloud9 White’s Annie “AnnieDro” Roberts
Fellow teammate and a prominent member of Cloud9 White Katsumi added, “If you want to be better than us, you have to compete against people who are better than us. You can’t do that playing the women’s only [events].”
C9 White’s Melanie “meL” Capone had some announcements building upon the same theme as her teammates before: initially, she confirmed that C9 White will continue to challenge themselves in the open qualifiers in Stage 3, despite having been beaten by XSET Gaming in their previous attempts. Furthermore, she also clarified that CLG Red will also be competing for second qualifiers for VCT Stage 3.
Lastly, she announced that Shopify Rebellion, which was the only team to take a map off C9 white since the Game Changers started, will also be playing in tournaments like the Nerd Street Gamers and Pittsburgh Knights monthly events. C9 White meL expressed her fondness for the idea of playing against other female teams in these events.
