FaZe Clan announce their first women’s VALORANT team

On Tuesday, FaZe Clan announced they would field a women’s VALORANT team to compete in the upcoming VCT Game Changers North America Series 1. FaZe have had a VALORANT team since 2020, but this is the first time FaZe will have a women’s VALORANT team. It’s also the first time FaZe will field a women’s team in any esport.

The roster includes Jennifer “refinnej” Le, Emma “emy” Choe, Vannesa Emely “panini” Emory, Madison “maddiesuun” Mann and Diane “di^” Tran. The five women have been playing together since late last year as an unsigned roster called Hamboigas.

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“It’s been a long time coming but we’re stoked to officially announce bringing on our first all female esports pro team for VALORANT,” Erik Anderson, Head of Esports at FaZe Clan said in a statement. “Signing this group of talented women is just the beginning of bringing female gamers to the forefront at FaZe and I can’t wait to watch them play as a team.”

Refinnej, panini and maddiesuun also were teammates with Complexity GX3 in 2022. Refinnej, emy and di^ previously played Counter-Strike: Global Offensive together with CLG Red.

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Photo credit: FaZe Clan

Refinnej, emy and di^ had their best performance with CLG Red when they won the World Electronic Sports Games 2018 Female competition alongside Benita “bENITA” Novshadian. BENITA now plays for Shopify Rebellion’s VALORANT team, which should be FaZe’s toughest competition in Game Changers Series 1. Shopify were finalists at the Game Changers Championship last year.

The road to this year’s world championship will kick off April 4 with an open qualifier for the North America Series 1 main event. The top eight teams will qualify for the main event which will take place April 7-14.

Lead photo credit: FaZe Clan