At the 2025 Game Changers Championship in Seoul, Chinese representatives Nova stunned the world with China’s first-ever international GC win, taking down NTZ in their opening match. Their next challenge, however, came in the form of defending champions G2 Gozen, one of the most experienced and decorated rosters in women’s VALORANT.
After a spirited fight, Nova fell 2–0, sending them into the lower bracket. But for Kelly “Shirazi” Jaudian, the focus has never been on expectations or pressure; it has always been about showing the world what Nova can do.
Hotspawn sat down with Nova’s Filipino superstar after the match to talk about her clutch moments, adapting to life in China, team chemistry, inspirations, future goals, and the experience of competing on the biggest stage in Seoul.
Hotspawn: Firstly, congratulations on the performance today. Rough result, but some incredible individual rounds — especially that 1v2 4K clutch on Corrode.
Shirazi: Actually, at that time, when we played against them, Corrode, it’s more like the pressure is on them compared to us, because they’ve been winning a lot. They have more fan base. So, yeah, mostly the pressure is on them, not on us. We’re just here to show our best and what we can do.
And that round… actually it happened all of a sudden. It’s just, I see someone, I shoot someone, then suddenly, everyone is dead. So I don’t know what happened that round also, but I’m glad I got that clutch, I guess.
Hotspawn: That last kill — four bullets in the gun, insta-headshot.
Shirazi: I didn’t even know, haha.
Hotspawn: Speaking of showing what China can do — your win yesterday was China’s first international GC win.
Shirazi: Ah, that one. Yeah. The funny thing is, before that game day, I just saw everyone throwing their Pick’Ems on Twitter. Then I saw everyone putting us on 2–0.
‘Okay, you guys, do you. We will just do our best.’
And then, yeah, we basically ruined everyone’s Pick’Em because everyone is basically hoping NTZ wins there. It’s their home ground.
Hotspawn: You’re a Filipino player who’s played for multiple APAC teams — now you’re competing in China.
Shirazi: For me, I guess it’s been a lot to take in since I need to learn a lot of stuff, like the language, new people, have a new org. Then I guess I had a rough start since I barely knew anything before coming to China. But now I’ve been living there for almost six months, then I got to learn a bit of Chinese, and I tried all the Chinese food.
And the only main difference from the past APAC teams that I had — I stayed all the way to China for seven months just for the bootcamp, compared to SMG/Xipto, [when] we only bootcamped for like one month. Two months is the max before a tournament. But this time, I stayed all the way to China to get used to the culture, to the food and stuff.
Hotspawn: Has it been stressful, or fun?
Shirazi: I’d say a mix of both, because I rarely get to see my family, but at the same time, I got more close with my teammates because of the close bonding. We get to eat every day, hang out every day, play together.”
Hotspawn: You’re also now playing with Alyssa, another player from APAC.
Shirazi: It’s fun because it’s my first time being teammates with her. Also, I remember I used to watch her back then.
Hotspawn: Back on the X10?
Shirazi: Yeah, she was in Berlin. We lost against her also. I was in Bren that time. But it’s fun, and it’s awesome that I get to be teammates with her right now.”
Hotspawn: Today, you, Clem, and Alyssa were fighting hard.
Shirazi: Good question. I think since in G2, there’s the core, and it’s always been Petra and mimi. So my teammates, all of us are new, basically. We have never been teammates with each other, so we gotta work more on the team chemistry and how we train our skill and stuff. Because I think what went wrong earlier is more of like — I don’t know if my teammates were nervous, but I can tell a bit because it’s also their first time playing against a really, really good team.
So, next time, we just fix our team chemistry, then tell them to calm down, be like, ‘[You’ve] got nothing to be scared about. It’s just G2. We can almost win against any team if we just try our best and don’t be scared.’
Hotspawn: Now you’re headed to the lower bracket.
Shirazi: For me, [it] doesn’t really matter because I feel like we’ve learned a lot from this G2 game and we can definitely do better for the next match. So we don’t really care if it’s KRU or GIANTX.
Shirazi: It’s been fun. We’ve been buying a lot of stuff in Olive Young, like skincare and stuff. Then the food, then went shopping. Yeah, it’s really nice here in Seoul. We really like the cold weather here, actually. Then the food. Really nice.
Hotspawn: GCC Berlin or GCC Seoul?
Shirazi: It’s gotta be Korea. Like, have you seen the convenience store?
Hotspawn: You can get everything.
Shirazi: It’s so cheerful. It’s so nice here.
Hotspawn: You’ve been around for a long time and you’ve achieved a lot.
Shirazi: For me, I want to win the GCC first before I get into a Challengers team, and perhaps, someday, VCT. Who knows?
Shirazi: Honestly, I haven’t seen other games from other teams, so maybe today I’m gonna rewatch them then see how it goes. Like, for now, I don’t even know who’s gonna win, MIBR versus SR. So I’m looking forward to seeing how they’re gonna do today then.
Surprisingly, nothing has surprised me, I guess because I’m just here to basically do my best. I don’t really care about anyone’s opinion about my team, opinion about anything. I’m just here to do my best. That’s my mindset going here.
HUGE 4K BY @shirazigo! #VCTGameChangers pic.twitter.com/UGKTRUyK0j
— VALORANT Champions Tour (@ValorantEsports) November 22, 2025
Hotspawn: You’ve been MVP in most of your games so far.
Shirazi: Thank you for supporting me. Even though I moved into a different region, a lot of APAC fans are still looking forward to my games, and I love you guys for that. Thank you.
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