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A global stage for Valorant was set up in Sao Paulo, Brazil, earlier this month to carry out the proceedings of the Red Bull Campus Clutch World Finals. The annual tournament, which was in its second edition, witnessed 47 collegiate Valorant teams competing for a grand winner's cheque of €20,000.
Teams from all over the world convened in Sao Paulo from December 13 to 16, 2022, to determine the best college-level Valorant roster in the world. Aside from the 47 participant teams, Red Bull Gaming also invited a few notable members of the Valorant community, which included a few members of the 2022 Game Changers Champions — G2 Gozen.
mimi talks about Valorant Red Bull Campus Clutch, G2 Gozen's plans for 2023, and more
In an exclusive interview with Adarsh J Kumar of Sportskeeda Esports at the Red Bull Campus Clutch World Finals in Sao Paulo, Brazil, the driving force of the G2 Gozen Valorant Game Changers team, Michaela "mimi" Lintrup, shared her thoughts on the tournament.
mimi also talked about G2's rise to the top as Game Changers champions, giving her insight on the recent Agent changes and growth of the Game Changers community, among other topics.
Q: Congrats on winning the Valorant Game Changers Championship in Berlin. How does it feel to be crowned a Valorant world champion?
mimi: It's still really, really crazy. All the attention that we have received after is unlike anything I've ever seen before. This is the biggest thing that has ever happened in my career, so it's still very surreal, and it feels really, really good; so good.
Q: G2 Gozen defeated the best teams from Asia, Brazil, and NA to win the Game Changers Championship. What, according to you, was the team's key to victory?
mimi: I think our mentality was very strong. On paper, we were probably not seen as the strongest individual team, but we have very good team play and a really good understanding of team play.
We have been very good at integrating that into the team. That's where some teams probably fall behind. Even though they're very skilled individually, you cannot win a game like that. We were really good at adapting and just playing our own game.
Q: After your remarkable victory in VCT Game Changers, other teams will most likely recognize and prepare targeted strategies against your playstyles. How do you plan to counter it?
mimi: I think it's very important to try and adapt whenever we go into a game, whenever we know that things are not working out. I think it's always important to play our own game and rather have them adapt to us than for us to adapt to them.
Of course, we always have to do things differently in case you play against a defensive team or an aggressive team, but you need to not lose yourself and not change everything yourself, but really just take it in the game and just read the game.
Q: One of G2 Gozen's key players is Mary, who is just 16 years of age. You've been in the esports circuit for almost a decade now, competing in CS:GO and Valorant. What do you think about the next generation of players when you see talented individuals like Mary succeed at the highest level of Valorant esports?
mimi: I'm very excited about it. I feel very lucky to have a girl like Mary on our team. I feel like I'm going to be a part of her history, and in 10 years' time, when she's my age, she can look back and be like, "How did I become who I am today?". Of course, she has her raw skills, but G2 Gozen was a part of making her the player she is.
I think it's super exciting to see that there's a lot of young talent all over the Game Changers scene. It's just really exciting to have all these young girls coming to the scene and being so skilled. I was not so good when I was sixteen years old, and I was considered a talent back then, but I wasn't that good. I'm just really excited about it, and I think it's really awesome to see that.
Q: We recently saw a ton of Agent changes being introduced to Valorant, with Chamber, Sage, and Viper receiving major updates. Being a Sentinel player, how balanced do you think the Sentinel meta is after those changes?
mimi: I think that Chamber is pretty much unplayable at the moment, so for him to be back in the pool, I think they should add another trip (Trademark) for him, making him an aggressive Killjoy without the mollies. I think that would be the best way to balance him. An Agent like him is really hard to balance, I would say. He would either be really overpowered or useless.
I think it's exciting that the Killjoy and Cypher meta is coming back, and hopefully, we'll see a new Sentinel come into the game next year, like a proper Sentinel.
We changed our comps so Mary could play Chamber and I could play Initiator, but it's a bit tricky now to figure out the balance. But I'm sure we'll figure it out before next year. I love Cypher and Killjoy, and I'm excited to see them come back into the meta.
Q: What are your thoughts on Riot Games consistently changing Valorant's meta by introducing new updates for the game?
mimi: I think that's what makes the game fun. Compared to CS:GO, where everything has been the same for the last decade, it's super exciting that the meta keeps changing, and you need to be flexible in your role. Sometimes, you even have to change your role because maybe double-Initiator works or double-Duelist or double-Sentinel.
I think that is really, really exciting, and it forces you to constantly think and be creative. For a player, that's really exciting. You don't really get into a routine and stuff. Whenever you create a routine, a complete meta shift happens, and you need to create something new. I think that's super fun.
Q: Right now, we're on a global stage with teams from close to 50 different countries competing for the title. What kind of an impact does a global event like Red Bull Campus Clutch have on grassroots-level Valorant players?
mimi: I think it has a big impact. Having many of the countries that you don't usually see in competitive gameplay is something that is really fun and exciting to experience. Putting their countries on the map is really important.
It's just like having females who are usually not a part of gaming, getting them into gaming, and focusing on including everyone. I think that's very important.
Riot and Red Bull are doing a really good job at that and making sure that everyone gets a taste of the competition and not just the usual NA and Europe-centric event. I think it's huge.
Q: Riot Games has done an exceptional job with Valorant in terms of promoting esports for women and marginalized genders with the Game Changers series. As someone who's been in the circuit for a long time, what do you think about the pace at which esports is growing for women and marginalized genders?
mimi: I think it is going amazingly well. Valorant, in general, has been so healthy for females in esports. I think that Riot is doing an exceptional job. This is just the second year of Valorant, a very early stage of the game, and they already put out a $500K tournament for Game Changers as well as invited eight teams from all over the world.
They're doing so much. I can only imagine how much bigger it will be in five years and how many more females you'll see in the competition. It is already very competitive, but it will only get more competitive.
With Game Changers in general, you will for sure see females at the top of any region, not just Game Changers. It's going the right way, for sure.
Q: Valorant Game Changers has seen steady growth since it started with Series 1 in 2021. What kind of improvements would you like to see in the Game Changers circuit next season?
mimi: I can mainly talk about EMEA since that's my region. I know that we would love to have our last stage of Game Changers to be on LAN; that would be super cool. But I also know that it's a big ask right now since next year is coming up in like one month, and our circuit will start.
I think what they're doing right now is really good, and I'm sure that they have already planned ahead for 2024 or 2025 in terms of how they see things evolving.
It would also be super cool to have like maybe two EMEA events in the first six months and then a Champions, and then two more EMEA events, like how it's done with VCT Masters and Champions. I think that would be really cool.
But I also know that it's not that simple to do. It's very easy to talk about, but it's not so simple to put into action. That could also be a lot because if you also want to participate in VCT and try to make it through the open qualifiers, you won't have time for that if you have like six tournaments a year.
I wouldn't mind that, though. It's going to be really hard to manage it for sure, but I love competing. I just want tournaments after tournaments.
Q: G2 Gozen are three-time champions of EMEA and are currently world champions. You've achieved it all. What's next for your squad? What would you consider your goal for the next season of Valorant esports?
mimi: We want to be undefeated in 2023. This year, we lost one EMEA Series. But for next year, we want to do everything flawlessly. We will also look into playing the open qualifiers and hopefully enter the Ascension tournament.
We cannot set a goal of qualifying for anything, but we need the experience for us to be able to do it in 2024 or 2025. A goal of ours, for sure, is to get a lot of experience and win all the Game Changers events.
