Valorant
The 2023 Valorant Game Changers Championship concluded with Shopify Rebellion lifting the trophy after defeating Team Liquid 3-2 in the grand finals.
As we look back at the event and everything that happened in its duration, let’s go over the best images that were captured.
The tournament began with plenty of grand entrances, one of which featured Chao Hui EDward Gaming’s Wang "Clem" Ke-ching doing a front roll in honor of T1’s Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok’s Worlds 2015 grand finals entrance. (Credit: Adela Sznajder/Riot Games)
Another aspect that resolved around the start of the tournament was the appearance of highly anticipated players like Odella “enerii” Abraham, who dominated APAC for the past two years as the region’s best player with Alter Ego Celeste and later Team SMG for 2023. (Credit: Adela Sznajder/Riot Games)
Fellow IGLs Abigail “Kohaibi” Kong and Melisa “Theia” Mundorff send some love during their walkout before taking each other on in the upper bracket. (Credit: Adela Sznajder/Riot Games)
KRU Blaze’s Luisa "shyz" Minarelli greets the crowd with her finger bunny amidst the team’s opening series against BBL Queens. (Credit: Bruno Alvares/Riot Games)
Before BBL Queens and KRU Blaze started their series, both took a moment of silence to honor a notable figure from their respective country that passed away during 2023. For BBL, they honored Gizem "Luie" Armankaya, a Turkish GC player who died on February 6 after an earthquake struck the country. (Credit: Adela Sznajder/Riot Games)
As for KRU, they honored Santiago "Daveeys" Ruiz, who passed away on September 3, just one day after his 23rd birthday. (Credit: Adela Sznajder/Riot Games)
As has been the case in international Valorant events, the crowd remained as bombastic as ever, but with the GC Championship taking place in Brazil, no team received as much support as Team Liquid Brazil for obvious reasons. (Credit: Adela Sznajder/Riot Games)
As such, the TL players welcomed those fans with open arms. (Credit: Adela Sznajder/Riot Games)
Reigning GC champions G2 Gozen huddle up before starting their world title defense. (Credit: Adela Sznajder/Riot Games)
Sometimes, when one tries to make a grand entrance, they don’t need to do or change anything. (Credit: Bruno Alvares/Riot Games)
Michaela "mimi" Lintrup greets the fans as she enters the Arena CBLOL with her team. (Credit: Bruno Alvares/Riot Games)
"Onwards to the next day," shyz said—probably—after KRU took down EDG in the first round of the lower bracket. (Credit: Adela Sznajder/Riot Games)
Alexandria "Alexy" Francisco takes a second to kiss enerii on the cheek amidst Team SMG’s run in the competition. (Credit: Adela Sznajder/Riot Games)
Playing without Lizhi in the tournament and having to sub her with Blue in the duelist role, EDG ultimately finished 7-8th after dropping matches to Shopify Rebellion and KRU Blaze. Despite the result, for the Chinese team to make it this far after winning the East Asia qualifier over other good Japanese and Korean teams, there’s a sense of potential behind what they can do in the future just like how the male team did this year. (Credit: Bruno Alvares/Riot Games)
Felipa vs the world: With four members of BBL Queens testing positive for COVID-19 and thus having to play in a different location, Zehra "Felipa" Durak was left by herself on the main stage by the time the team faced TL in the second round of the lower bracket. (Credit: Adela Sznajder/Riot Games)
One of the unsung heroes of TL’s run in the event has to be Panso (center), their duck/goose mascot whose name comes from a mashup of "pato" (duck in Portuguese) and "ganso" (goose in Portuguese). “He’s one of the main parts of everything,” said TL head coach André "palestra" Gomes about Panso. "He takes [in] a lot of my anxiety as well because I squeeze him every time." (Credit: Adela Sznajder/Riot Games)
Paula "bstrdd" Naguil ends one of TL’s series (which ended in a victory of course) with style as she flips her hair. (Credit: Adela Sznajder/Riot Games)
What’s the use of having muscles if you don’t show them off to the crowd? (Credit: Adela Sznajder/Riot Games)
As the tournament continued, more and more teams began to get eliminated. One of those affected was Evil Geniuses, the North American first seed who lost to SMG and TL in quick succession after shuffling its roster amidst the removal of keenc and simultaneous addition of Scaryshark32. In the image shows Lorrian "Lorri" Elad (left) consoling PowerPixele (right) after EG’s elimination at the hands of TL. (Credit: Bruno Alvares/Riot Games)
Speaking of EG, head coach Christine “Potter” Chi was at the GC Championship as one of the casters alongside Alex "Vansilli" Nguyen. While she worked in the event, she was named the Coach of the Year by the Esports Awards. (Credit: Bruno Alvares/Riot Games)
Team SMG eventually saw the end of the road as well as they fell to TL in the third round of the lower bracket off a back-and-forth affair. Enerii and TL IGL Natália "daiki" Vilela give each other a hug after the series. (Credit: Adela Sznajder/Riot Games)
The sting of defeat hits deep. (Credit: Adela Sznajder/Riot Games)
G2 Gozen experienced the same bitter fate as they fell to TL in a redemption match after the former dispatched the latter earlier on in the upper bracket. (Credit: Adela Sznajder/Riot Games)
On the precipice of greatness. This was how Nicole "Noia" Tierce reacted after helping Shopify Rebellion advance to the grand finals after defeating G2. (Credit: Adela Sznajder/Riot Games)
When TL lost to G2 in the opening match of the GC Championship, some believed it was all over. The Brazilian home team would have scratch and claw their way out of the lower bracket by winning four best-of-three series in three days to even reach the grand finals. Despite the gauntlet that awaited TL, the team beat EG, BBL, SMG and G2 to complete the comeback and set up a date with SR in the grand finals. daiki tears up after defeating G2 in the lower bracket finals. (Credit: Bruno Alvares/Riot Games)
The support of a parent goes a long way. (Credit: Bruno Alvares/Riot Games)
Same goes for the support of fans. (Credit: Adela Sznajder/Riot Games)
Shopify Rebellion vs Team Liquid Brazil: the 2023 GC Championship grand finals. Two teams that never faced each other before finally meet for the world title. (Credit: Adela Sznajder/Riot Games)
In a surprising twist, SR IGL Melanie “meL” Capone tested positive for COVID shortly before the grand finals. As a result, she had to be play while being separated from the team. No worries though. The team had a replacement ready to take meL’s place on stage. (Credit: Bruno Alvares/Riot Games)
Smiles and hearts, courtesy of Letícia "joojina" Paiva. (Credit: Bruno Alvares/Riot Games)
Final fist bumps before the grand finals begin. (Credit: Bruno Alvares/Riot Games)
😳 (Credit: Bruno Alvares/Riot Games)
Amidst a Brazilian crowd, there was one person who shouted just as loud for SR. (Credit: Adela Sznajder/Riot Games)
Truly, the grand finals went the entire distance. An overtime, a close 13-11 score and two stomps summed up to a pivotal fifth map which took the form of Ascent. Following an equal 6-6 first half, SR captured the GC title by winning the next seven rounds on defense. Alexis "alexis" Guarrasi, who formed the SR (then-Version1) team at the start of 2023 with meL after leaving Cloud9 White, reacts to the series’ end. (Credit: Adela Sznajder/Riot Games)
The realization of a dream for SR and its players. (Credit: Adela Sznajder/Riot Games)
Shopify Rebellion: the 2023 Valorant Game Changers Champions. (Credit: Adela Sznajder/Riot Games)
Oh by the way, Noia won the grand finals on her 19th birthday. Who else can say they’ve done the same? (Credit: Adela Sznajder/Riot Games)
A tournament-high VLR rating of 1.43, a 112 /71/18 total KDA against TL in the grand finals (which garnered finals MVP honors and two broken records [most kills in a LAN GC map and most kills in a LAN GC best-of-five series]) and a world title to boot. Take a bow, Ava "florescent" Eugene. (Credit: Adela Sznajder/Riot Games)
From Tier-2 pro Valorant outcast to being a GC Championship-winning coach, ladies and gentlemen, Loic "effys" Sauvageau. (Credit: Adela Sznajder/Riot Games)
"We knew we had to do it for meL,” alexis said after the grand finals victory. “She's had our back the entire year...we just kept our energy up 10 times as much to make up for the fact that she wasn't on stage with us [for the finals]. We honestly just did it for her." (Credit: Bruno Alvares/Riot Games)
