Katsumi leaves VALORANT Game Changers to pursue mixed-roster Challengers qualification

One of the most accomplished players from the North American VALORANT Game Changers circuit, Katja “katsumi” Pfahnl, announced on Oct. 15 that she will no longer be competing in the scene, instead choosing to focus on qualifying for Challengers in 2024 alongside a currently unnamed, mixed-gender roster. 

“It’s not something I want to make a big deal of, but I’m not going to be playing in Game Changers moving forward, and I have no plans to return at this time. I am going to continue competing, but I am changing course away from GC,” katsumi wrote on Twitter. “I’ve always seen Game Changers as a temporary step and not an end goal. I’ve maintained through my entire career that if I ever believed I wasn’t capable of becoming a top player outside of GC – I would quit competing entirely and move on to something else in my life.”

“Over time, I’ve realized that the path to my goals as a competitor might not be as simple as moving directly from a GC team to a challengers / franchised team. I am very appreciative for the past 2 years I’ve spent competing in Game Changers. GC has been a very comfortable, safe, and stable place for me to explore competing. However for me personally, I think it’s time to start feeling uncomfortable in order to truly push myself. I don’t know that I feel particularly ‘ready’ or if that’s even possible, but I’m up for the challenge.”

Katsumi rose to prominence in the North American Game Changers scene during her time with the former Cloud9 White squad, where she won seven regional championships, and appeared on LAN for the first GC World Championship last year.

After Cloud9 announced that it was disbanding its Game Changers roster last December, katsumi and fellow C9 White alumnus Bob Tran moved to XSET Purple, where she took on the in-game leader role. They took third in the first NA Game Changers series of the year, but didn’t make it out of the lower bracket of the second one. XSET and katsumi didn’t compete in series three, as most of the other players on the team left for others in September. 

Instead of doing more of the same, katsumi is instead looking to compete for Challengers 2024 qualification alongside her former Cloud9 White coach Reid “x0tek” Johnson, Jason “JSUNG” Sung (formerly of Soniq Esports), Danny Huynh (formerly of Gen. G and Ghost Gaming), and PapiCantaloupe in an exciting new environment.