Women Esports League Game Changers Impact & Next Steps

In June 2020 during the height of the COVID lockdowns, Riot Games launched Valorant, its 5v5 tactical shooter. As difficult and uncertain as real life was, the gaming world benefited from people being stuck at home. Games saw an explosion of interest from women, driven by titles like Animal Crossing: New Horizons as well as Valorant. In 2021, retail innovation firm Outform found that 20% more women were gaming than before the pandemic, and there was a huge appetite to see more in-game characters that were reflective of the growing diverse playerbase. Valorant, whose agents hail from different countries and include an even mix of women and men, was essentially the right game at the, albeit challenging, right time. “I feel like the stars all aligned,” says esports host Sue “Smix” Lee on the timing of Valorant’s launch. “From its inception, Riot made a point to try to make Valorant an inclusive game, and you see it in the representation across the different agents you lock in.”