The VALORANT Champions Tour Game Changers Championship is taking place this week, at the end of which the first ever women's international VALORANT champion will be crowned.
Created by Riot Games in an attempt to create new opportunities for female players within the world of VALORANT and Esports in general, the tournament features the eight best teams from around the world, hailing from regions such as North America, Europe, Asia and South America.
The VCT Game Changers is a LAN event, set to be played out in a double-elimination bracket at the LEC Studio in Berlin and there is a prize pool of $500,000 on the line.
All matches are a best-of-three with the Grand Final set to be a best-of-five encounter.
The tournament is already up and running with all four upper-bracket quarter-finals having taken place.
Cloud9 and G2.G both advanced to the upper bracket semi-finals with G2.G winning and becoming the first side to reach the upper-bracket final, which takes place on Friday.
SR GC and Team Liquid BR also won their upper-bracket quarter-finals and will compete in the second upper-bracket semi-final on Thursday, when the lower bracket also begins with KRU.fe vs X10 Sapphire.
Here is a look at how both of those matches could unfold in this landmark tournament.
| What | Team Liquid BR vs SR GC |
| Where | Berlin, Germany |
| When | 09:00, Thursday 17th November 2022 |
| How to watch | Riot Games Twitch / YouTube channels |
| Odds | Team Liquid BR -100, SR GC -137 |
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SR GC, otherwise known as Shopify Rebellion GC, from North America progressed to the upper-bracket semi-finals courtesy of victory over Guild X in their quarter-final contest.
They managed to pull off wins on Pearl and Icebox either side of defeat on Haven to progress but they could have their work cut out against Team Liquid Brazil, who are considered one of the bigger sides in women's VALORANT.
Team Liquid were one of a number of bigger sides to book their place in the first ever VCT Game Changers Championship due to their domination of regional competitions which began with open qualifiers.
They were the best team in the Brazil Circuit Points Standings by some distance, accumulating 140 in total with 60 in Series 1 and 80 in Series 2.
They looked sharp in their upper-bracket quarter-final clash with FENNEL Female, losing the middle map Icebox but dominating the maps either side of it, winning 13-4 on Ascent and 13-9 on Breeze.
Shopify Rebellion are a decent side but arguably not even the best in North America given the quality of Cloud9 White and, at the prices, Team Liquid BR are worth a bet at -100.
Punters expecting this encounter to be a close one may also want to consider backing over 2.5 maps at -100 as well.
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| What | KRU.fe vs X10 Sapphire |
| Where | Berlin, Germany |
| When | 12.00, Thursday 17th November 2022 |
| How to watch | Riot Games Twitch / YouTube channels |
| Odds | KRU.fe +138 X10 Sapphire -187 |
Also taking place on Thursday is the first round of the VCT Game Changers lower bracket and in the first match KRU.fe of Argentina will lock horns with Thailand's X10 Sapphire.
Both sides dropped down to the lower bracket at this event as a result of 2-0 defeats with KRU outclassed by Cloud9 White - arguably the best team in the tournament - and X10 Sapphire ousted by G2 - another of the big hitters.
Of the two, though, X10 arguably held their own more, falling only six points short of G2 Gozen on the second map breeze.
X10 Sapphire also battled through the Asia Pacific Elite regional event to reach the VCT Game Changers, having won all four of their upper-bracket assignments in the process.
It is no surprise, therefore, to see them priced at -187 to win this one but in such a new event with little separating the teams, it does not make sense to be backing teams at shorter prices.
Instead, the better bet could be to anticipate a tight contest and go for over 2.5 maps at -110 in Berlin.
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