Nerd Street Gamers and Spectator Gaming are partnering to host the FTW Summer Showdown, the largest all-women VALORANT tournament. The original one-day, eight-team event is now expanded to a three-day, twelve-team tournament with an increased prize pool from $10,000 to $50,000. Riot Games has made the tournament an official event in the VALORANT Ignition Series to showcase the diverse talent in the VALORANT community. The teams will go head to head on September 11th-13th.
Nerd Street Gamers and Spectator Gaming are partnering to host the FTW Summer Showdown, the largest all-women VALORANT tournament. The event will take place on Saturday, September 12th, at 2 PM CT. Eight all-female teams will compete for their piece of a $10,000 prize pool. (Photo courtesy Nerd Street Gamers)
Twelve teams consisting of professional players and content creators, will compete at the FTW Summer Showdown. The competitors will be announced later, and four spots are filled by amateur teams that qualified at the qualifier event. GALorants, a women’s VALORANT Discord community, hosted the qualifier tournament, which took place on September 5th. The teams competed for a piece of the $1,000 prize pool, and the winning teams secured their spot in FTW Showdown.
The FTW Summer Showdown is only a part of the For The Women inclusive initiative. Spectator gaming started its women in gaming resource group in 2019 to support women’s growth and advancement across the gaming industry. FTW’s partnership with Nerd Street Gamers has allowed the further development of an amateur to pro-pipeline for women. It has further established an inclusive space to help them through networking and other growth opportunities.
Spectator’s Gaming Meridith Weber is the Co-Founder of FTW and further explained their vision for FTW and how the partnership with Nerd Gaming is helping fulfill their vision:
“Since FTW’s inception, we knew we wanted to create unique opportunities for women to showcase their talent through esports tournaments and inspire the next generation of gamers,” said Weber. “We’re thrilled to expand our partnership with Nerd Street Gamers to power our first all-women tournament and were drawn to VALORANT as our first title since many of the game’s core values align with FTW’s mission, like being triumphant through teamwork, committing to respect and empathy, and protecting your team and community.”
Paige Funk, Senior Marketing Director at Nerd Street Gamers, explained how the tournament will show how powerful women in gaming are and will shine the light on rising female players:
“We want to give more women a seat at the table in this industry – both for competitors and for women seeking a career in esports,” said Funk. “We’re excited to team up with Spectacor Gaming, T1, and G FUEL to host our first all-women VALORANT invitational and spotlight female gamers who are making strides in the industry. From the players to the logistical staff, this tournament is a testament to the power that women have to drive the gaming industry forward today and in the future.”
Riot Games recently joined the lineup of sponsors and officially added the FTW Summer Showdown to the VALORANT Ignition Series. VALORANT Executive Producer Anna Donlon explained how Riot Games knew it had to sponsor the first all-female VALORANT tournament:
“The VALORANT Ignition Series is all about showcasing the best talent of our community, and we want to use our platform to celebrate those who do great things,” said Donlon. “Competing as a female in games is a daunting task for many reasons, so when we heard of Nerd Street Gamers’ and Spectacor Gaming’s FTW Summer Showdown, we knew we wanted to throw our support behind the tournament and elevate it to the level of our VALORANT Ignition Series.”
VALORANT fans can watch the action live on Saturday, September 12th at 2 PM CT on the Nerd Street Gamers Twitch channel.
