Football club Parma Calcio enters VALORANT Esports

The Esports division of Italian football club Parma Calcio has expanded into VALORANT by launching a women’s team.

The women’s VALORANT roster will participate in local and regional tournaments, with a focus on Riot Games’ Game Changers series.

Parma Calcio’s expansion into VALORANT comes shortly after the club announced a partnership with Italian esports organisation Reply Totem in August 2024. At the time, the two brands announced that the partnership would focus on content creation and influencer marketing. However, the collaboration would also have a strong focus on women-focused activations.

Interestingly, while Reply Totem is a known organisation in Italy and has rosters in several games, the company does not have a VALORANT team. The organization currently fields teams in games such as EA FC, Clash Royale, Brawl Stars and Call of Duty Warzone.

Parma noted that the newly-created team will participate in VALORANT’s Game Changers off-season events. The team consists of three Italian players Daniela "Effy" Vrabie, Martina "Marti" Marini and Beatrice "Lily" Caputi, one Syrian player Mayssam "May" Achour and one Swedish player Arbenita "Flawless" Kurtaj.

The Head Coach is Davide Bicocca, a former Counter-Strike and VALORANT player.

Parma is one of the earliest adopters of esports when it comes to football clubs. The Italian club created an esports section in 2018, and has participated in numerous competitions, mostly in sports simulation games such as EA FC and FIFA. On the real football pitch, Parma is a fan-favourite team in Italy, having won two UEFA Cups in the 90s before enduring a long period of ups and downs ever since. The team currently competes in Serie A, the top level of Italian football.