Everything you need to know about VCT Game Changers NA Series 1 2023
The 2023 VCT Game Changers season is kicking off around the globe, with qualifier events that will pave the road to this year’s Game Changers Championship. For the North American region, this path will kick off with the NA Series 1 open qualifiers starting on April 4.
VCT Game Changers is a professional VALORANT league for women/marginalized gender folks to compete and develop their skills without the barriers of traditional, male-dominated esports spaces. The league has aimed to be inclusive of transgender, nonbinary, and other gender non-conforming folks, but has run into some difficulties when it comes to verification of players’ gender identities. In an effort to improve in this area, the NA Game Changers organizers have partnered with AnyKey to provide a verification process that aims to confirm who players are while respecting their gender identities.
All of the registered teams will compete in the open qualifiers to try to take one of the eight spots in the main event reserved for the top performing teams. This stage is a GSL format, which is fairly similar to a double elimination bracket. In this format, two opening matches are played. The winners move on to the upper bracket and the losers drop to the lower bracket. But, instead of having two chances to qualify out of the group, like in double elimination, GSL provides players with three. Any team that can get two wins while in this stage will progress, while any that suffer two losses will drop out of the competition.
Once the qualifiers have wrapped up, the eight teams participating in the main event will switch to competing in a double elimination bracket in best-of-three matches. In this format, each team can lose once without being disqualified. If they lose again, however, they will be eliminated. The two squads that make it to the grand finals will compete in a best-of-five to see who will claim the first North American VCT Game Changers title this year.
Taking the top spot is important for these teams not only because they can win the lion’s share of the $50,000 prize pool, but because there are circuit points to qualify for the World Championship on the line. There will be 410 total points up for grabs during each series, with the placement breakdown as follows:
- 1st Place: 20% or 80 points
- 2nd Place: 15% or 60 points
- 3rd Place: 12% or 50 points
- 4th Place: 10% or 40 points
- 5th – 6th Place: 7% or 30 points
- 7th – 8th Place: 5% or 20 points
- 9th – 16th Place: 2% or 10 points
About The Author
