Game Changers Championship 2024 Preview

The Game Changers Championship is back in Berlin and bigger than ever! This year’s competition features the best of the best from all over the world. The numbers of teams expanded from 8 to 10 as a GC China was introduced as a separate region and East Asia and APAC merged together to create the Pacific region. The championship features 3 teams from EMEA, 2 from NA, 1 from Latin America, 1 from Brazil, 1  from China and 2 from the Pacific. With the tournament approaching, let’s look at all the teams participating, starting at the top of the bracket and moving down. 

G2 GOZEN

 After a third place finish in 2023 G2 GOZEN is back on their winning home ground!

 The EMEA GC titans showed dominance throughout the whole year, winning every single Stage through the lower bracket and only dropping series to Odd1Out and Falcons Vega in the Group Stages of the first and second events.

 Their most recent run was their greatest one – the team didn’t drop a single series in the whole of Stage 3 and only dropped two maps – one to NASR Ignite (4-13 Bind) in the Upper Final and one to GIANTX (8-13 Abyss) in the Grand Final.

 A lot of GOZEN’s success is attributed to their roster changes. Vania joined the squad from BBL Queens, amy from Acend Rising and rezq from FUT Female. Joined by mimi and Petra, G2 rounded out their team by signing a new head coach, Leader.

 Due to their supremacy in the EMEA league G2 GOZEN, as the #1 seed for the region, get a first round bye in the upper bracket.

KRÜ Blaze

Visa KRÜ Blaze has reached their third time qualifying for the Game Changers Championship, with conir and romi being at this same position for the past three years. With their new additions, dods, biazik, and micaela, they have only lost five maps in total throughout the Regular Phase and Playoffs Combined for LATAM South. 

They opened regional qualifiers against Akave Esports GC with a slow start but still winning 13-11, and then going into the next two maps in dominant fashion 13-2 on Bind and 13-4 on Ascent. Winning the regional championship for the third year in a row, they still remain undefeated in the LATAM region and undoubtedly qualified for Berlin. With this streak, KRU Esports will fly to Berlin and prove their dominance against the top teams across the world. To start, KRÜ Esports will be facing Zeta Division for their first match at the Game Changers Championship.  

ZETA DIVISION GC

 After losing their qualification match to EDG in 2023, ZETA DIVISION are officially back, this time on the global stage.

 The Japanese team started their year off with a bang by winning Split 1 through a run in the upper bracket and later on Split 2 as well where they dropped only 2 maps both to FENNEL. With two first place titles in Japan to their name, they advanced to Game Changers Pacific.

 After their voyage to the LAN tournament in Bangkok ZETA were placed into the “group of death”, with each team featuring at least one player who had previously competed in the Game Changers Championship. They faced off against APAC team BOBA, featuring Kohaibi, formerly of Team SMG and babytz, formerly of X10 Sapphire and FULL SENSE Sapphire. The games were close but after a 13-10 Haven and 7-13 Abyss ZETA were able to close it out with a 13-11 victory on Ascent.

 They then fell down into the lower bracket after facing Xipto Esports, previously known as Team SMG GC and faced a rematch against  BOBA for a spot in the playoffs. Yet again, it was close but ZETA DIVISION were triumphant with a 15-13 Sunset and 13-11 Lotus.

 In the Playoffs they had to play against Mir GC for a spot in the Game Changers Championship. Mir took map one with a 13-10 score on Bind. ZETA bounced back with a 13-5 Ascent. The last map was Lotus and ZETA dismantled MIR in a 13-7 victoryto move onto the biggest GC tournament of the year and seek their revenge against Xipto in the Grand Final.

Although they did not end victorious against the Filipino-Indonesian team (8-13 Sunset, 2-13 Icebox, 5-13 Haven) ZETA DIVISION GC have a lot more to show on the Berlin LAN.

GIANTX GC

 As the second seed for EMEA, GIANTX GC have shown why they deserve to be on the Berlin stage.

 Throughout Stage 1 and Stage 2 GX looked like the third best team in their region, always beaten by Falcons Vega and G2 Gozen. This however was not a problem for the squad as this year GCC features 3 EMEA teams.

 Their spot in Berlin was not guaranteed,as NASR Ignite was catching up to them in the circuit points standings. GX needed to show up in the last Main Event and they would be thrown into the fire with opening playoff match against NASR, but lost in a 0-2 series. 

 GX now had to fight for their lives in the lower bracket and fight they did – defeating Odd 1 OUT, Heroic Valkyries, Falcons Vega and completing their redemption arc by beating NASR Ignite in the Lower Bracket Final, which guaranteed them a spot not only in the Game Changers Championship but also in the Istanbul LAN Grand Final against G2. 

Although they lost to them in a 1-3 series their mixed gender roster won the Spotlight Series with every single member of the GC team being featured except for their substitute, mimier.

MIBR GC

With a convincing upset against Team Liquid Brazil, MIBR has solidified their spot in the Game Changers Championship to represent Brazil. Filled with the explosive roster of SRN, jellybangs, sayuri, jubs, and Mel, it was only an uphill journey for this team as they lost the Grand Finals of Open Qualifiers and Series 1 to Team Liquid Brazil who won in dominant fashion and were the favorites to go to Berlin early on. 

However; after Series 2, something clicked as they beat out the favorites Team Liquid Brazil out of the tournament and beat LOUD GC in a closer fashion, but came out as the winner with a 13-10 on Ascent. In Series 3, the two names that now came up for going to Brazil were Team Liquid Brazil and MIBR, with championship qualification on the line, MIBR came out victorious with only losing two maps in total throughout the series, and won 3-1 in the grand finals to punch their ticket in the Game Changers Championship and win the second trophy in their region. The team will be starting their Championship journey facing GIANTX for their first day. 

Shopify Rebellion

Coming into this year’s championships as defending champs, Shopify Rebellion have been dominant in their year minus two of the NA Open Qualifiers dropping a series to the second NA seed, FlyQuest Red and YFPX. 

Shopify Rebellion have shown their dominance in NA Series 1 only dropping one map throughout the entire series to FlyQuest Red. In NA Series 2, they had more of a competitive journey where FlyQuest Red in the grand finals took them to a Map 5, ultimately gaining victory in the end with a 13-8 on Breeze. This caused a means of conversation of if FlyQuest Red can finally overtake Shopify, but quickly shut those notions down as in the main event of Series 3, they only dropped a total of one map to qualify for the Game Changers Championship as the number one seed for NA.  

Filled with determination to win it all again, Shopify Rebellion head into the Game Changers Championship with the same roster as last year of  Mel, Alexis, Florescent, Sarah, and Noia with coach effys.  They will start the Championship with a bye and will be facing the winner of ALG and Falcons Vega the following day. 

Ambitious Legends Gaming

 Ambitious Legends Gaming was the second-to-last team to qualify for the Game Changers Championship. Representing China, the team received an invite to the Group Stage of the first and only series of Chinese Game Changers. 

 ALG’s run started well – they advanced to the Playoff Stage of the tournament after two swift 2-0 games against Nova Esports GC and Creator Gaming GC, dropping only 14 rounds in the process. 

 In the Upper Bracket Quarterfinal ALG continued their dominance by defeating YaoGuang in yet another 2-0 matchup and then proceeded to beat Dragon in convincing fashion as well.

 With the top 4 of the tournament decided, the teams had to take a trip to Shanghai to play on the grand stage. ALG’s first opponent was the formidable Trace Esports GC. The future champions did not falter though, as they were triumphant once again in a 13-8 Bind and 13-1 Sunset to move onto the Grand Final.

 Finally, for their last game Ambitious Legends had to face Killer Angel Girls ESC with a trophy and Championship on the line. They clutched out the first map, Haven, in overtime (14-12) and then finished their opponents in two 13-8 maps on Sunset and Bind. They completed their dominant run through the tournament without dropping a single map.

 With 6 total MVP titles, Muffyn was the star player of the tournament. The Thai duelist won alongside her teammate from 2022 APAC representative X10 Sapphire, Jinny. The team is rounded out by Yusin, previously on Chao Hui Edward Gaming, and newcomers Laiyin and 1hp.

Falcons Vega

Bringing in a new roster for this year, Falcons Vega brought in BBL Queen’s Eva, Case Esports’ Toki, and lastly G2 Esports’ Mary with madv and Sandra to go on a run for the Game Changers Championship as well as to rival teams like BBL Queens and G2 Esports. 

This team has gone through a journey to qualify for GCC, as they finished second in Series 1 & 2 against G2 Gozen, and managed to finish fourth in Series 3 to a 2-1 loss (2-13, 13-8, 8-13) against GIANTX GC in Lower Round 3. However, despite the loss, this placing still allowed them to accrue the points to make it to the Game Changers Championship as the third seed for EMEA. 

After Qualifying, this will be the first time for these players minus GCC 2022 winner Mary, will be heading to the Championship to compete against the best teams respective to their region.  With this, their next and first opponent at the Championship will be Ambitious League Gaming.

FlyQuest RED

With a consistent overall year, FlyQuest RED were the last team to qualify to the Game Changers Championship. 

FLY managed to clutch out a spot in the championship by placing second for in three of the North American Main Events. Their run was full of ups and downs.

In Series 1 FlyQuest qualified to the Main Event through circuit points, not being able to win either of the Open Qualifiers. The Main Event was not smooth sailing for them, as they were knocked into the lower bracket by their rivals, Shopify Rebellion but were quick to bounce back by defeating Decimate Gaming and advancing to the Grand Final. However, they were defeated by the reigning champions once again.

In Series 2,RED were again unable to win an Open Qualifier, even though this time there were three. In the Main Event they got off to a shaky start as they lost their very first matchup against Solstice in a 1-2 series. 

However, this was not the end for FlyQuest. With their backs against the wall, they battled through the lower bracket, defeating Teddy Tactics, Reformed GC, getting revenge on Solstice and finally beating Passion Project to yet again face Shopify Rebellion in the Grand Final. They were not able to grab the title but they improved on their previous showing with a 2-3 series loss. 

After Series 2 RED took a serious loss as their initiator player L4CE decided to step down from the team due to a wrist injury. The team would not be left incomplete, as they signed star player evv, formerly of YFP X and Floppers.

In Series 3 things finally turned around for them as they won the very first Open Qualifier, finally defeating Shopify in the process. In Series 3, their qualification to GCC was in jeopardy because of the newly formed YFP X, retaining the core of SOLSTICE who earned 25 circuit points in Series 2, and also took down Shopify in the second open qualifier. 

They had to face each other in the Lower Bracket Final, both knocked down by SR. In a very tense and very close series FLY closed it out in a 3-2 series (13-8 Ascent, 13-3 Icebox, 10-13 Bind, 11-13 Abyss, 13-6 Lotus) and securedthe second seed spot for NA in GCC.

Star performances by their duelist player, dodonut, must be noted as she had a +36 K/D ratio in the Lower Bracket Final and a very positive overall performance in all of their tournaments.

Xipto Esports

Through the year, Xipto Esports has been dominant throughout their region as they’ve placed first in all of their events. 

They started out their season with the VCT Game Changers SEA Stage 1 Open Qualifier with a undefeated 6-0 start going into an undefeated and dominant 3-0 victory against former teammate Kohaibi with her team, “BOBA” to win Series 1. Continuing their run, Xipto Esports dropped only one map in the Grand Final to “sisu” on Split (11-13) in Series 2 to solidify their spot in the new tournament of the VCT Game Changers Pacific LAN. In this LAN, after dropping a map to their previous opponents, Xipto Esports triumphantly qualified to the Game Changers Championship with a swift 3-0 to their opponents ZETA Division GC. 

Next stop will be Berlin as they will be the first seed for Pacific. Xipto Esports currently has a roster of Enerii, Alexy, Shirazi, Kamiyu, and Tara, with head coach, Colbat. They will next face FlyQuest Red for their first match at the Championship. 

Bottom Line

The Game Changers Championship begins on November 8 and the teams are now all preparing for the big day! With each and every one being better than ever, no one can be counted out. Who do you think is winning it all? Who are you rooting for? Let us know!