Philadelphia-based esports network Nerd Street Gamers (NSG) and Spectacor Gaming, home of Philadelphia Fusion, previously announced the FTW Summer Showdown all-women Valorant tournament taking place on September 12.

Now, in addition to sponsors T1 Entertainment & Esports and G FUEL, Riot Games has entered the fray, increasing the tournament prize pool from US$10,000 to US$50,000.

Riot also announced that FTW Summer Showdown will be the fifth and final event in the NA Ignition Series after POP FLASH, which was initially declared the last.

“The VALORANT Ignition Series is all about showcasing the best talent of our community, and we want to use our platform to celebrate those who do great things,” said Anna Donlon, Executive Producer of VALORANT at Riot Games.

“Competing as a female in games is a daunting task for many reasons, so when we heard of Nerd Street Gamers’ and Spectacor Gaming’s FTW Summer Showdown, we knew we wanted to throw our support behind the tournament and elevate it to the level of our VALORANT Ignition Series.”



With the developers onboard, FTW Summer Showdown will be the largest all-women Valorant tournament to date. Instead of the initial one-day, eight-team format, it is now a three-day event involving 12 teams competing for a larger prize pool from September 12 to 14.

Among the 12 teams, eight are invited amateur, professional and content creator teams. They will be joined by four amateur teams that emerged from the qualifiers. 

FTW Summer Showdown will begin on September 12 at 5 a.m. (GMT +8), broadcast live at twitch.tv/nerdstgamers.

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