Cloud9 announce first all-female Valorant squad

Cloud9 has been making some big moves as of late, with one of the biggest CS:GO signings on record bringing in Patrick “es3tag” Hansen for their Colossus team. Now, the esports organization has signed the first all-female pro Valorant team, called Cloud9 White.

This team will compete alongside their male counterparts in the qualifiers for Riot Games' First Strike tournament qualifiers.

Cloud9 White: The all-female roster

This is the first time a top professional esports organization has signed a full, all-female Valorant roster. Fans will be able to see the Cloud9 White squad in action soon with the First Strike qualifiers starting on 26th October.

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Cloud9, alongside AT&T, announced the all-female Valorant roster on Twitter. 

(Picture: Cloud9)

The Cloud9 White roster consists of:

• Alexis "alexis" Guarrasi
• Annie "AnnieDro" Roberts
• Jasmine "Jazzyk1ns" Manankil
• Melanie "meL" Capone (Captain)
• katsumi

These players have been in the same squad before. They have been playing in an unsponsored team called MAJKL, and have won $25,000 in prize money so far.

Talking to VentureBeat, the senior VP of marketing at Cloud9, Kristin Salvatore, explained: "We have two competitive teams. And our goal is to actually have one competitive team that has the best players on it,

"We’re starting a women’s team and the goal is parity. The goal is pay equity. But we have a keen understanding that to get there, we need to make sure we are surfacing and supporting opportunities for women. There isn’t parity now, which means we’ve got to do some work to get there. But the ultimate goal is to normalize this so it isn’t news anymore."

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It will be exciting to see these players compete at the First Strike qualifiers for the American region.

Check out the announcement video about the Cloud9 White roster below.