After their dominant performance against G2 Gozen in the lower bracket finals yesterday, I really thought MIBR might be the team to knock Shopify Rebellion off their pedestal in the grand finals this afternoon. But alas, there’s no underdog story for us here. Shopify showed again and again why they deserves to be on top and once again, they are Game Changers Champions.
A Clean 3-0
I mean, we never really want to see a clean sweep in a grand finals, it usually makes it feel a little one sided but this one managed to be extremely exciting nonetheless. After taking down G2 Gozen, I really thought MIBR had a chance at taking it further but Florescent’s hyper aggression is always so difficult to deal with and so much fun to watch, what she can do really shouldn’t be possible but she did it again and again.
The first two maps came out as 13-7 a piece in favor of SR but this makes it seem like it was a lot closer than it ever felt. I was rooting for MIBR to take at least one map but when Flor is sitting on an 14/0 KD, keeping your mental in check has got to be difficult
Map 3 came down to OT or GG
MIBR really held it together on Haven, despite it being SR’s pick. Round 23 was messy for SR, they got the plant down early but once Flor and meL fell, the rest of the team struggled to keep it going. It looked so close and so promising for MIBR, melissa even managed to hold her own 1vs 5 in the final round and managed to take down 2.
But in the end, Shopify Rebellion defended their VALORANT Game Changers title and in style. In fact, they didn’t drop a single map the whole time. If anyone was going to do it, it was G2 Gozen and despite taking it to OT in both maps, they couldn’t take down their long term rivals.
In the post game interview, meL compared the experience of playing the grand finals in a separate room from the rest of her team in 2023 to this new title in 2024: “…it’s insane to think about, obviously you can’t really control whether you win but we’ve worked so hard the last few months”.
When it came time to speak to Flor, there was really only one question to ask. No one can doubt that she’s the GOAT but how did she become that way? Her answer? “I think sarah said it perfectly, you play 50 ranked games a day”.
Flor was voted MVP of the tournament and absolutely deserved it. The team has talked consistently about how hard they’ve worked in preparation for this tournament and it showed.
Game Changer proves women’s esports works
It’s not surprising that women’s esports has lagged behind the men’s leagues but there’s actually no real reason for that. I’ve followed VALORANT for some time but this was my first time really watching Game Changers and I’m so glad I did.
The vibes were immaculate, the gameplay was outstanding and it’s great to see RIOT putting effort into creating an actual ecosystem for women’s esports. I’d very much like to see League of Legends, Dota and CS follow in its footsteps.
