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Changing the Game - FuriousSyndrome’s journey through content creation and promoting inclusivity in VALORANT
- bryonyhopegreen
- Jul 24
- 5 min read
According to the ‘Power of Play: 2025 Global Video Games Report’ by esa, 48% of gamers identify as women, and creators like FuriousSyndrome (aka Eve) are paving the way for more women to become involved in esports and gaming. Bryony-Hope sat down with Eve to look back at her amazing journey so far, how VALORANT had an impact on her work, and what her future hopes are as a content creator.
Eve began her gaming journey through Minecraft in her early teens, but the desire for a competitive element pushed her head first into the world of esports. Overwatch was her first real step into that side of gaming, and alongside VALORANT it became a real driving force in where she is today.
Whilst studying the esports BTEC at college, Eve became more invested in the content creation side of the industry - beginning to really utilise her skillset to do more variety streaming. She had done previous work in the social media realm and streaming before embarking on her esports journey, but things really took off when she began to build a community.
Fast forward to 2026, Eve has become a prominent figure in the VALORANT and Game Changers scene, making an impact and inspiring other women to get involved. From cosplay to organising community meetups, Eve has fully immersed herself into the space.
“I’ve been following VALORANT since the beginning, and then recently I started cosplaying. The first time I properly did my Killyjoy cosplay was at Insomnia 69 back in 2022. It was literally just a friend’s cosplay that they lent me and it was really bare bones, but this was such a great experience.
Following this event, my first big cosplay project was a promotional photoshoot with Riot Games in London. They asked if I could get to London in cosplay, then I got up at like 4am to hop on a train to meet the team. It was super fun.”
Alongside cosplaying, Eve continues to stream and has built a community who share a passion for all things VALORANT and inclusion. This has led to several exciting industry opportunities for her - attending multiple TwitchCon events, being invited to Fnatic watch parties at their London HQ, and even being a creator at Dreamhack 2026.
“I got approved to be a creator at Dreamhack which was super cool, but it was the busiest I have ever been in my entire life. This was the first time I had a full schedule, because normally I go to conventions to film pieces here and there, but this was a full week of streams.”
Between travelling, taking part in VALORANT women’s custom matches on stage, and debating in Gaming Court, Eve also did IRL streams for the first time - bringing a whole new level to her content creation.
“One of my most memorable moments at that event was that I brought a bunch of Pokemon packs to unbox, and I saved my last pack for the stage. When I was up there I pulled a Mega Charizard EX which is worth a fair bit of money. You could tell it was not a scripted bit because I started shaking, and the adrenaline off that was incredible.
Doing all of this made me realise that I can get accepted for big things if I put in the effort - I just have to get over the imposter syndrome.”
Having become involved in supporting the Game Changers initiative, a specific VALORANT tournament made for women and marginalised genders to compete, Eve was invited to the Game Changers Collective event in Paris during VCT in 2025. This event was designed to bring people from across the community together to celebrate the initiative, and give a glimpse into the main aims of the tournament.
“What really stuck with me at the event was that the Game Changers team were very vocal about how they don’t want to exist in the future. The goal for the initiative is to get things to the stage where women are allowed on these larger teams under one tournament. It has become a constant uphill battle, especially with how transphobic and homophobic the world has become recently.
For example, for team SwimTrek, a lot of their players are gender non-conforming and trans, and because of who they are they have received constant harassment, mainly the usual transphobic rhetoric. The social media post congratulating them on their win had to pre-emptively lock the comments because they knew there was going to be so much backlash.
I kind of just wish there was more empathy in the world, especially for trans and queer people.”
Transphobia and homophobia is unfortunately still very common in the esports and gaming space, with people constantly harassing others for just being themselves. Players in the spotlight, especially through tournaments like Game Changers, are targeted for who they are, regardless of their ability or skill.
Eve has been a target for toxicity on social media and in game, but even with the most extreme things thrown at her, she can still come out the other end with a smile.
“Take an example I had on Twitter - my friend Fawx got signed to FlyQuest Red on their Counter-Strike roster and they got so much hate. I quote retweeted saying like ‘good job’ and all of a sudden I woke up to several death threats because I supported a trans woman getting onto a team.
I think with these incidents, you go through them and then you become stronger.”
On top of content creation, Eve has also started hosting more community events for Game Changers, aiming to bring together fans and inspire more people to watch the tournament. Most recently, she held a Shopify Rebellion Gold (SRG) fan meetup at the RedBull Gaming Sphere in London during VALORANT Masters.
“My meetup started as a small picnic concept, and Mel and Alexis from SRG actually shouted out the community meetup plans via the DuoQ podcast. Before the mention we had like 20 people, and within 24 hours the form had over 45 people interested. I very much had to adapt quickly following four months of planning.
SRG sent three GIANT merch packages for us to give out, Yinsu Collins and the VALORANT Community team helped us secure the RedBull Gaming Sphere for the event, and everything just came together. I was willing to go into the red for this because at the end of the day, I just want to see people happy.
I was blown away by the sheer kindness and support from the community to make it happen.”
As well as this, Eve has now announced her brand new Game Changers roster, Low Playtime, in order to immerse herself even further into the tournament.
With Game Changers gradually increasing in popularity, Eve and many others are continuing to promote inclusivity through content creation. But the industry has a long way to go in making women and marginalised genders feel able to thrive, especially in the VALORANT scene.
“There needs to be more community events to bring more eyes to Game Changers, and I am hoping to do this with more events like the SRG meetup in London. We need more storylines and we need more narrative for people to get attached to in Game Changers like the main tournament circuit.
I want to see a lot more men interested in Game Changers like they are in VCT because it is not just ‘for the girlies’, it’s gaming for everyone to enjoy.”
You can check out Eve’s work over on her social media platforms, or catch her on stream over on Twitch!
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