Each year, the well-known media company Forbes publishes a list of 30 people under the age of 30 who have a significant influence in certain fields. This year, several individuals from Valorant have been nominated, including a famous female esports player and the main streamer of the discipline.
On the main page of Forbes' 30 Under 30 in North America, you can see the member of Shopify Rebellion - Melanie "meL" Capone. She is considered one of the strongest female players in Valorant, as evidenced by her excellent performance.
Melanie Capone is one of the most competitive Valorant players who grace the professional gaming scene. She is currently the leader of the esports team Version1, and before that, she led Cloud9 White, possibly the best women's team in Valorant history. She has earned almost $50,000 and won eight tournaments, dominating in the women's Game Changers group.
Also in the 30 Under 30 list is Tarik "tarik" Celik. A former professional CS:GO player, he is now a Valorant streamer. Thanks to his experience and charisma, his broadcasts gather hundreds of thousands of viewers, sometimes surpassing the popularity of official Riot Games streams.
Former professional Counter-Strike player Tarik "tarik" Celik has won several of the biggest game tournaments and is one of the most profitable players with winnings of over $750,000. He was also a founding member of the Counter-Strike Professional Players Association. In 2021, he left Counter-Strike and switched to full-time streaming Valorant for the esports team Sentinels, where his popularity skyrocketed to almost three million Twitch subscribers. His broadcasts of Valorant events often gather more viewers than the official broadcasts of official tournaments.
In addition to the above-mentioned individuals directly related to the discipline, the list also includes the co-founder of the esports organization M80 - Nate Schanker. M80 also had a roster in Valorant, which achieved some success, taking 2nd place in the VCT 2023: Ascension Americas league.
In December, Nate Schanker launched the esports organization M80, announcing an initial funding round of $3 million to accelerate efforts in web3 and the creator economy. The brand has an overall reach of 15 million subscribers on social platforms, and its teams have already achieved success in competitions, including second place at the Americas Valorant Challengers Ascension 2023 tournament, another second place at the $2 million Gamers8 2023 tournament, and donated $300,000 to charity by winning the international Gamers8 qualifying tournament.
Also nominated were developers from Riot Games, Victoria Horsley and Abby Sherlock, who work in the Valorant division. Interestingly, among the male professionals, no esports player was nominated.
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