Cloud9 White win Game Changers again, but drop map in tournament series for first time

Cloud9 White secured a three-peat victory Sunday in the third and final North American VCT Game Changers tournament for 2021 with a 3-1 score against Shopify Rebellion. They’ll close out the year being the only team to claim first place in the tournament series.

However, unlike their previous tournament runs, C9 White dropped a map. Facing elimination on Map 3 of the best-of-five grand final match, Shopify Rebellion did what no women’s team had been able to do against C9W all year.

At the half of Map 3 on Haven, Rebellion looked like they would be taking the loss and awarding C9W their victory with no contest, but they came back in the second half and tied the map 10-10. C9W took a round from them, but Rebellion answered back with two more rounds to win the map. C9W didn’t sound disappointed though.

“That s--- was a relief,” C9W coach Chris “Dream” Myrick said.

His players felt a wave of relief, too.

“It was definitely a relief because honestly after a year of not dropping a map, every tournament you play after that point, it’s just more surmounting pressure of ‘oh, we can’t drop a map,’ so honestly when we did drop that map, it was kind of a relief,” Melanie “meL” Capone said.

Shopify Rebellion’s Kiana “KP” Lytle had a standout map on Haven with a 25/17/4 K/D/A and an ACS of 278. KP’s clutch plays and ability to flank took C9W by surprise, and it allowed her teammates to pick off C9W’s players when they had their backs turned to deal with KP.

“Just the other day, the half was 2-10 on Haven against C9W. And this time, it was 4-8. And I told everyone, I said ‘guys, we got double the breathing room this time’. And we knew our defense was quite strong, especially when everyone gets fired up. And the first pistol round at 4-8 I got a 4k which got everyone fired up,” KP said.

Grand final overview

C9W took the first two maps and the fourth, but Rebellion pushed them, especially at the start of the match.

The first map on Icebox had some fans raising their eyebrows when Rebellion took a massive lead against C9W. They gave up a few rounds here and there, but they were able to end the half with a nice-looking score of 8-4. Once the second half got started and C9W started their defense, it was a steamroll from there. They took seven rounds in a row from Rebellion, and only gave up two rounds in the second half before securing their first map win with a score of 13-10.

On Ascent, it was a little less nose-to-nose. It was painfully clear that this was C9W’s map pick. Rebellion started with a two-round lead but quickly gave the rest of the rounds to C9W to end the half 10-2. Rebellion started answering back in the second half, but they couldn’t keep the momentum going enough to overtake C9W. The map ended 13-8 in favor of Cloud9 White.

Bind was the last map, and it was yet again painfully clear that this was C9W’s map pick. This map didn’t go very well for Rebellion, and they weren’t able to carry their momentum through after they took a map off of C9W. Bind ended with a score of 13-6 to give C9W their victory.

Shopify Rebellion and the rise of more competitive women’s teams

Between their strong start on Icebox, and their dominant finish on Haven, Rebellion at times seemed like they might be the first women’s team to beat C9W. It didn’t happen this year, but based on their track record, it wouldn’t be surprising to see them pull off the feat next year.

The team started as Moon Raccoons Black, which was then signed by Built Better and ultimately picked up by Shopify Rebellion. They’ve been steadily improving since then, and showed immense improvement between their first match against C9W in the upper bracket of this tournament and their match in the final.

KP said that they talked about the pacing improvements and playing less scared in between those matches.

“We were just so scared and so hesitant [in the first match against C9W]. It was like we were just playing not to lose,” KP said. “And today it was like, ‘eff it,’ nothing to lose, just go back to our normal playstyle, just disrespect them. There's no reason to give them the respect when like they have everything to lose and ... if you looked on a betting website the match odds were 20/1 for us to win, so there's literally zero expectation, just run at them, just have them hold W and shoot them, shoot their bodies.”

C9W now plans to take a short break and allow their players to catch up on IRL things such as school or work, but they plan to use the offseason to grind more and compete in some monthly tournaments. Although they have easily beaten every team they’ve come up against, coach Dream knows that there will be more teams with growing talents, so they plan to enter as many tournaments as they can to improve. In fact, meL once again urged other women’s VALORANT teams to play in as many open tournaments as they can.

“Teams don't even have to wait to get signed before playing in these tournaments, and like getting boomed and getting that experience and failing," meL said. "When I first started the team and we were all together before we got signed, there were no female tournaments at the time, we were only playing an open tournament and we were getting smashed. It was so fun to learn to improve for sure, but I will say we were getting smashed and you know we've improved so much and you don't have to wait for that perfect opportunity or for the perfect roster or for when you feel like you have just a minor practice. … Just go in and lose it [for] the experience.”

With Cloud9 White’s victory, they have now won every single NA Game Changers tournament this year, and are looking to come back next year even stronger. With new teams being signed recently, the team expects to be challenged more, but they are still expecting to come out on top.

“Personally, I think that all of the individual players and the teams as a whole will look a lot better.” Katsumi said in a postmatch press conference. “But I still think that we'll be on top just because we are still so much more dedicated. And we are already starting ahead. So I don't know, I think that the entire scene as a whole will look a lot better, but we'll still be on top.”

Lead image credit: Riot Games