Alyssa VanPelt, Staff Writer
Esports is a competitive field where teams, or individuals, compete amongst each other in a variety of video games. Some of the popular esports games include Smash Bros and Overwatch. According to Esports Net, Esports originated in 1958 with “Tennis for Two”, developed by William Higinbotham and Robert Dvorak making use of an analogue computer to simulate a simple tennis match. It was replicated by the much more successful Pong in 1972, which was developed by Atari.” Esports has been a male-dominated field such as many other sports. However, in recent years, to promote female gamers, many Esports competitions have developed a women’s league.
One Esports tournament in particular, Valorant, has a separate men’s and women’s league. Valorant is a five versus five, tactical, first-person shooter where players play from a variety of “agents” to utilize abilities throughout each round. Agents are characters within the game that players may choose from who each have unique abilities that contribute to combat whether it be harming the opponents, healing teammates, gathering intelligence, or setting traps. Teams will either begin on the side of the attackers or defenders for the first twelve rounds. Attackers must bring the spike, a bomb, to the opposing side and successfully plant it. Defenders must prevent the attackers from planting and successfully diffuse the spike if it was planted before it blows up. After the first twelve rounds, teams will switch roles. The first team to win thirteen rounds is the winner of the whole game.
Shopify Rebellion, or “SR”, is one of the two finalists for the women’s Valorant Tournament on November 17th, 2024. On the team is Melanie Capone (meL), Ava Eugune (Florescent), Alexis Guarrasi (Alexis), Sarah Simpson (Sarah), and Nicole Tierce (Noia). Made in Brazil, or “MIBR”, is the team to compete against SR in the 2024 women’s Valorant Tournament finals. On the MIBR team is Nicolas Niederauer (SRN), Julia Iris (Jelly), Camila Oban (Sayuri), Melissa Souza (Mel), and Juliana Oliveira (Jubs).
For the first game, SR picked the map, Pearl. The team line-ups were Florescent playing Jett, Sarah playing Sova, Noia playing Killjoy, Alexis playing Kayo, and meL playing Astra. Then MIBR’s team line-up for the first game was Mel playing Viper, Sayuri playing Astra, SRN playing Jett, Jelly playing Skye, and Jubs playing Killjoy. For the first half of the first game, SR went nine wins to MIBR’s three where SR began as the defenders. Although MIBR started the second half strong with a three-win lead, SR picked up their last four needed wins between rounds sixteen and twenty. This means SR took the first of five games. The top player of this first game was Florescent with an average kill-death-assist ratio of 21/8/2.
MIBR picked Sunset as the map for the second game. The team line-ups were Florescent playing Neon, Alexis playing Breach, meL playing Omen, Noia playing Cypher, and Sarah playing Sova for SR. MIBR team’s line-up was Jelly playing Gekko, SRN playing Raze, Jubs playing Cypher, Sayuri playing Breach, and Mel playing Omen. MIBR started as a defender, winning the first two rounds of the second game. However, SR still swept the first half, winning nine of the first twelve rounds. Once again, in the second half after they switched sides, MIBR led again by winning the first three rounds, but just like in the first game, SR got their final four wins between rounds sixteen to twenty. The top player in the second game was Florescent with a KDA of 24/13/3. This would mean SR has won two out of the five games now.
SR picked Haven as the map for the third game. The team line-ups were Florescent playing Neon, Sarah playing Sova, Noia playing Cypher, meL playing Omen, and Alexis playing Breach. For MIBR, their team line-up was SRN as Jett, Jelly playing Breach, Mel playing Sova, Sayuri playing Omen, and Jubs playing Cypher. The first twelve rounds were a harder fight with MIBR, playing the attackers, lead seven to SR’s six by the end of the twelfth round. However, in the second half, SR took the lead winning nine of the last twelve rounds winning the third game overall. The top player in the third game was once again Florescent with a KDA of 29/16/3.
Shopify Rebellion won the first three games of the five planned, making them the winners of the tournament. SR stayed in the top bracket throughout the tournament and through their excellent skill, won the finals.
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