The queens of North American VALORANT have finally been dethroned.
In an astonishing upset, Evil Geniuses has brought down Version1 to complete a stellar lower bracket run at Series Three of North America’s VCT Game Changers. The 3-1 victory also secured EG GC an appearance in November’s VALORANT Game Changers World Championship in São Paulo, Brazil.
Evil Geniuses already made history yesterday by knocking Shopify Rebellion out of Grand Finals contention for the first time in North American Game Changers history. This feat was obviously special for the whole team, but it likely tasted a little sweeter for team veterans Lorrian “Lorri” Elad and Melisa “Theia” Mundorff.
Despite serving as a core member for the past two years, Lorri was dropped from the SR squad in early September and spent the time leading up to this tournament unsure if she would even have a team to compete with.
According to her post-game interview, Lorri found out that she would be competing on the EG team within a week of the qualifiers starting and had to skip practice to attend a wedding—but that wasn’t an issue in the end.
She used her extensive past experience with SR squaring off against the V1 core of Melanie “meL” Capone and Alexis Guarrasi to help make this miracle run happen for EG. The cherry on top for Lorri is that this victory has catapulted her to her second career Game Changers World Championship, leaving her old team back home on the bench for the post-season.
Theia, meanwhile, may be new to captaining on the server, but her experience in FPS titles dates back beyond VALORANT’s inception. Starting out in CS:GO as an aspiring professional at 15, Theia eventually signed with Dignitas Female and later transitioned to VALORANT alongside the organization. This is the first time she’s helmed her own team, and this historic run has surely proven she’s more than up to the job.
She, Lorri, and the rest of EG will get the chance to prove themselves to the world when the 2023 VALORANT Game Changers World Championship kicks off on Nov. 28. They will be entering as North America’s second seed, with V1’s performances across the 2023 circuit enough to lock them in for the top spot.
