Insomnia, EXCEL Esports and EE to host all-women’s VALORANT tournament

VALORANT Women's Cup by EXCEL and EE
Image credit: Insomnia

UK esports organisation EXCEL Esports, mobile network operator EE and the Insomnia Gaming Festival have announced an all-women’s VALORANT tournament.

The tournament will feature a £10,000 prize pool and will be played offline at the NEC Arena in Birmingham, England during the festival’s next instalment Insomnia71.

The VALORANT Women’s Cup will take place over three days through a group stage and double-elimination bracket. The tournament will feature 16 teams with the winning side earning £5,000.

EXCEL fields its own female VALORANT side — EXCEL GC — in VCT Game Changers tournaments. According to a release, their team will showcase talents such as Cornelia ‘Neli’ Johansson, India ‘cataLina’ Dubourg, Safaa ‘Purii’ Baydi, and Camille ‘Luzia’ Millet at the tournament.

EXCEL streamer Daniela ‘Jupi’ Grald — a former player for their Game Changers side — will co-host the competition’s final two matches.

EE is a notable partner of EXCEL Esports, with the duo initially teaming up in 2020. Last year the two companies announced a three-year renewal of the partnership. Some of EXCEL’s other commercial partners include HSBC, JD and PCSpecialist.

Held twice a year, Insomnia features a range of LAN tournaments covering multiple titles including Counter-Strike, Rocket League and League of Legends. Alongside Insomnia, the Apex Legends Global Series (ALGS) 2023 Championship will also take place in Birmingham on September 6th-10th.

The announcement comes after fellow UK organisation Guild Esports unveiled its own women’s competition – an eight-team, grassroots Rocket League competition in collaboration with Sky UK.

Lee Jones