Europe’s famous esports organization Godsent has become the pioneer in signing an all-female Valorant team. With the release date set to be somewhere during the summers of 2020, Riot Games has yet to formulate an official esports scene for the new first-person shooter, but that is not stopping the popular esports organizations like Cloud9, T1 and Sentinels from signing professional players and creators for Valorant; whose closed beta has been launched since 7th April.
The Swedish esports organization that participates in the LoL, CSGO, Rainbow 6, Dota 2, Fortnite, and now Valorant, announced their newly formed all-female team via Twitter. Apart from professional players, there are over 20 streamers and content creators who work under the banner of Godsent. With the addition of newly added division, Godsent organization will be looking forward to achieving new targets.
GODSENT x #VALORANT
We are very honoured to announce that GODSENT have signed a professional @PlayVALORANT Female Team.
This is only the beginning..
Welcome to the family;@Tinyladyy @Juju16k @nCL_TV @Kattilul @al1kea #GODMODE #VALORANT pic.twitter.com/qzmz4G8vTM
— GODSENT (@GODSENTgg) May 7, 2020
Female teams have not been so successful in competitive events. Therefore, this addition would be an added pressure for the Valorant schedule. In the past, an all-female Russian team Vaevictis had to be dropped from the League of Legends’ LCL subject to their poor show. They ended up at the bottom in the 2019 Spring Split with zero win rate and they averaged a whopping 26 deaths every game. But on the other hand, CSGO’s all-female team Dignitas has been pretty successful in the minor professional circuit. Recently, they finished second at the GIRLGAMER esports festival, bagging $14000.
Community backlashes on verbal abuse
Riot Games’ Valorant might be new but it has already been under fire for the way women are treated in the voice chat section. Games nowadays rely more on verbal communication to win rounds, for that reason voice chat is a must. But some female streamers experienced harassment in the voice chat. 100 Thieves content creator Rachel “ Valkyrae” Hofstetter tweeted about a solo queue being terrifying which Imane “Pokimane” Anys seconded.
Solo ranking in Valorant is terrifying LOL😅 I have to play it off stream with no voice..
I need anonymous mode.. or a voice changer— rae (@Valkyrae) May 2, 2020
This increase in harassment claims captured the eye of Riot earlier. Valorant’s executive director Anna “SuperCakes” Donlon confessed that solo queues might be scary in multiplayer games. She has assured the fans and players that their team is working towards coming up with a solution to build a better community. She stated in one of her recent tweets that, “I’m hopeful we all want the same thing for our VALORANT community; a community of players united by a love of competition and social play, not one plagued by hate and harassment. I hope we’re in this together.”
I’m hopeful we all want the same thing for our VALORANT community… a community of players united by a love of competition and social play, not one plagued by hate and harassment. I hope we’re in this together. (Also, Dave's got some updates on servers 😄). ❤️ https://t.co/vtaTE8zQDR
— Anna Donlon (@RiotSuperCakes) May 6, 2020
One step forward
During this pandemic and all the ups and downs that happen in this esports arena, a few recent events come up as a blessing in disguise. With more female players and content creators entering the esports circuit there is now a need to establish a women wing for esports as well just as we’ve seen in sports. But till then we surely can formulate some things which could restrict bashing females in this mixed esports community.
