Red Bull unveils women’s VALORANT event in the UK

Energy drink brand Red Bull has announced its latest esports activation, a women’s VALORANT tournament in the UK called Red Bull Instalock.

The invitational event will see four women’s teams compete at London’s Red Bull Gaming Sphere on April 20th-21st.

It has been revealed that G2 Gozen, GIANTX, Karmine Corp, and Shopify Rebellion will participate in the competition. Shopify Rebellion are the current 2023 VALORANT Game Changers champions after beating Team Liquid Brazil in São Paulo. The event was also the most-watched women’s VALORANT tournament ever.

Red Bull Instalock will feature a revised format where teams will be required to use three duelists to ‘encourage aggressive plays while rewarding tactical expertise.’ In addition to the main competition, Red Bull Instalock will also host an exhibition match involving VALORANT content creators.

Gaming monitor brand AGON by AOC will be the official monitor partner of the event. The brand will equip the event with its range of gaming monitors. AGON by AOC is no stranger to collaborating with Red Bull. In March 2024, it became the monitor partner of Street Fighter 6 tournament Red Bull Kumite.

Red Bull continues to operate esports tournaments across several titles. In December 2023, it hosted its League of Its Own, a League of Legends event which saw a high of 494,324 peak viewers according to data platform Esports Charts.

Red Bull athlete and G2 Gozen player Michaela ‘mimi’ Lintrup, spoke on competing in the tournament: “It’s fantastic to see another event for women’s VALORANT come into play and Red Bull Instalock is another amazing step into making a really lively competitive scene.

“It’s also going to be great for fans, with the format twist bringing a really exciting and new edge to every matchup.”