A rumor has recently surfaced claiming that male VALORANT players have prevented female players from participating in VCT trials. According to information revealed by esports journalist Slasher, some male players prevented meL, a Version 1 player, from practicing and testing for Tier 1 teams.
VALORANT female players out of tier 1 teams
Recently, VCT commentator Sean Gares and esports journalist Rod “Slasher” Breslau touched on a very interesting topic. In that talk, they discussed why players as talented as Melanie “meL” Capone couldn’t even try out for top-tier teams.
For her part, Slasher revealed meL had made several attempts to make tier one teams. However, Slasher comments that he has heard directly that on every occasion, at least one (male) player has commented that he does not want to play with girls on the team. As a result, these teams have not even considered meL for the tryout phase.
meL’s outstanding career
Undoubtedly, meL has had an excellent career as a professional player. Regarding titles won in the global VALORANT Game Changers ecosystem, she is second only to G2 captain Michaela “mimi” Lintrup. However, while meL played with Cloud9, the team stood out as the top team in the region. This team won six NA Game Changers awards between 2021 and 2022. However, despite having an outstanding career, it seems that sexism within tier-one teams is a boundary that has yet to be broken.
Female players in esports
Now, it is important to note that in the esports of tactical shooters such as VALORANT or CS:GO, this problem is nothing new. For her part, Slasher comments that Mimi, a professional CS:GO player, also suffered from prejudice from male players throughout her career.
Slasher stated the following:
“Previously, I heard the same story with Mimi; she works as the best female professional CS:GO player. This player stood out with her great performance and was the best player in her team, with which she had managed to win all the titles in the women’s league. However, she could never try out for the top-tier teams, not even the second or third-tier ones. No male player wanted to play with a woman on his team. As a result, no one on these teams considered her.”
Another case similar to meL’s and Mimi’s is Julia “juliano” Kiran, another female CS:GO legend who claimed to receive the same treatment. This player commented that she had been rejected from tryouts because male players did not want to play alongside a woman.
Undoubtedly, based on these experiences, it is clear that the opportunities for professional female players are very few. So, it would only be fair that teams prevent male players from controlling the future careers of female players.