ESL announces women's CS:GO circuit for 2022

21-12-2021 20:57

The new circuit is part of ESL's #GGFORALL initiative.

ESL has announced its plans for a new women's CS:GO circuit to take place over the course of 2022. With a total prize pool of $500,000, the circuit will include two online league seasons with LAN finals, several online cash cups, as well as a standalone tournament at DreamHack Valencia.

The new circuit falls under the wing of the new #GGFORALL initiative alongside programs related to combatting in-game toxicity and match manipulation.

The new circuit will take place in 2022

The main component of the new circuit comes in the form of two regional leagues for Europe and North America, with eight teams from each region fighting for the lion's share of a $75,000 prize pool every season. The top three teams from each league will automatically qualify for the offline finals taking place during DreamHack Dallas and DreamHack Winter. The six teams will be joined by two additional squads qualified from Asia and South America.

DreamHack festivals will also host standalone $100,000 tournaments, with eight teams present by either qualification or direct invites. The first of these LAN events will take place between the two league seasons at DH Valencia on July 1-3.

Accompanying the leagues and offline events will be a series of online cash cups, taking place every month on ESEA with a prize pool of $4,000 split across the four regions.

"By providing an infrastructure equal to their male counterparts, we are thrilled to create more visibility and opportunities for women in the esports space, as well as support them in their professional development and to help make their dreams come true," stated Roberta Hernandez, the SVP People and Culture at ESL Gaming.

Pog

2021-12-21 20:58

18 replies

Honestly great to see, quality of competition and numbers of female players both gonna increase 1000x, maybe we will even see a female roster that can compete with some male ones

2021-12-21 21:30

14 replies

lol yeah sure...

2021-12-21 21:46

5 replies

2021-12-22 03:48

2021-12-22 08:20

+1 Yeah....

2021-12-22 15:27

+1 xD

2021-12-22 16:29

+1, but a roster with a female could def compete.

2021-12-23 01:15

Idk if you are baiting or not but would be great to see that.

2021-12-21 22:09

3 replies

Hes delusioning. If anything is gonna increase 1000x, its hltv threads complaining about females getting big money when they cant beat tier 4 male teams

2021-12-21 23:15

1 reply

tbh if a lot of people watch they can get paid, but I don't think they will pull a lot of viewers.

2021-12-21 23:29

2021-12-22 20:47

"maybe we will even see a female roster that can compete with some male ones" This dream has already been realized! Nothing really stops female teams from participating in "male" leagues (which are not male exclusive), they already exist, they already compete with males, you just never see them because they are constantly getting destroyed by tier 9000 teams and never qualifying. Now if you are saying we will get a female team to be able to compete with tier 1 male teams, that possibility is so statistically low you might as well consider it impossible. Why do you even think they are making female leagues and they exist in every other sport?

2021-12-22 00:29

1 reply

I didn't say compete with teir1, I just said "some" As in a stable environment for cs might make female rosters actually work really hard to be at the top of their game, and maybe upset some T3 teams. I'm not saying itll happen, I'm saying this makes it 100x more likely to happen.

2021-12-22 01:23

Ahahah

2021-12-22 02:03

Lulz

2021-12-22 20:03

not even the biggest woman's prize pool. That would be the valve major since theres no gender restrictions :)

2021-12-21 22:53

1 reply

Accurate.

2021-12-22 20:04

wow

2021-12-22 02:41

Nice

2021-12-21 20:58

2 replies

CS community needs to rescue FPS girls from Valorant

2021-12-21 21:29

1 reply

Why? They wouldn’t get paid in CS. Let them earn a salary in the new game.

2021-12-22 21:29

cool!

2021-12-21 20:58

Finally!

2021-12-21 20:58

cool

2021-12-21 20:59

nice

2021-12-21 20:59

This is cool and all. Women cs kind of already made themselves into a meme a long time ago but this is good. I just don’t know how big of a following/viewership it will get. I think there is some other stuff they could put more focus on or just lower the prize pool a little.

2021-12-21 21:00

11 replies

It just needs a bit of advertising. Valorant somehow manages to stream pro women games into my feed even though i am not subbed to the channel. Shows the amt of money they have put in.

2021-12-21 21:28

6 replies

Yeah but there isn’t much of a following for it. Women matches don’t get the greatest views even for Val

2021-12-21 22:16

5 replies

c9 white, shopify rebellion or g2 gozen are the only big view matches

2021-12-21 22:53

4 replies

Would be good to have atleast 3 csgo female teams that everyone knows of

2021-12-22 01:11

3 replies

CLG red, xset, and uhhhhhhhh

2021-12-22 05:26

2 replies

Dignitas fe, Cph flames fe, Denise(?) fe a few more

2021-12-22 05:32

1 reply

singularity fe

2021-12-23 10:56

Yeah, the thing is. And this is not sexist, this is just facts. But i've watched a couple of Female Pro games and even the so called "Best Female Team" looked like it was Faceit Level 9's playing, its just chaotic, seems like low game sense, aim, movement and teamplay. And therefore i dont think the Pro Female scene is gonna develop to something big, atleast not in the near future. Though i hope it will.

2021-12-21 22:26

3 replies

It is likely due to the lack interest of females in the game itself compared to males. Since a much bigger "pool" of males are interested in it, we have a higher chance to get some genius guy players, meanwhile the female pool being so small makes that chance decrease by a hundredfold, female geniuses are probably doing something else professionaly, something they are more interested with in their lives like being doctors, etc etc. If you think about it, even the male tier 1 category is extremelly small compared to the ammount of males that want to be professional.

2021-12-22 00:42

Its not the best csgo, but its the best female csgo thats what matters. No one can dispute that right? Thats what ppl wanna watch. Female football is worse quality wise, but the best teams there still are the best in category, until better teams are built ofc.

2021-12-22 01:15

CSGO in early days was sort of like that but no one noticed cause no one was ahead of everything. It evolved to what it is now. Same for women's cs in my opinion. I believe it will get more competitive and the level will increase and evolve. The chances of them integrating with men's teams will depend on the rate of growth but for now its unlikely

2021-12-22 06:10

Would've been great if they did this before Valorant

2021-12-21 21:02

I mean...are there any good players?

2021-12-21 21:02

11 replies

Many will make temporary teams then disband after two tournaments

2021-12-21 21:13

2 replies

that's so disturbing..

2021-12-21 21:15

Why wouldn't they. There's money up for grabs nd women CS is like women NBA. The amount of yearly income of a CS women is NOT worth being that unattractive. I love you Lisa Leslie btw

2021-12-21 21:52

Just Petra. And depends what you think is good. She is better than anyone ever in hltv for sure. Edit: I forgot SANJI uses hltv and we know he is GOAT

2021-12-21 21:58

4 replies

I mean she's good don't get me wrong, certainly better than me xd But do you actually think there aren't any 3k elo players on hltv or what? She's very much average as far as the upper echelon of players goes. There's lots of better 3k elo players that will stay nonamers forever because they are simply not good enough to compete with pros and can't just play in their comfy private tournaments with barely any competition. It just rubs me the wrong way when lower tier teams don't make anywhere near this amount of money but literally hundred times worse players will get private 100k tournaments just because of their gender.

2021-12-21 22:25

2 replies

Well. Most likely this will get no viewers and it will die quickly. And yea im just kidding I know that for example comediaN is also lurking in hltv.

2021-12-22 06:48

exactly!!! but I think it will probably die fast due to the lack of viewership... I don't think people will want to watch random level 9 faceit games

2021-12-23 12:19

hello im above 3k elo blya

2021-12-22 10:51

Nope, neither any good players

2021-12-21 22:26

Asia has no good players but it's not a reason nor to support development for marketing purposes. I believe that women's esport is a field of opportunity. You know. Sponsors probably will like it

2021-12-21 22:29

1 reply

the worst mens team at an asian tournament would crush the best 5 females you could possibly put together. its fact. its kinda ruthless but its fact.

2021-12-21 22:36

Nice!

2021-12-21 21:03

very good for womens)) cs, i hope many come back from valarante

2021-12-21 21:04

good for them hopefully xset come back and maybe if CLG red makes enough money they might be incentivized to make another csgo roster

2021-12-21 21:05

poggers

2021-12-21 21:07

Good job!

2021-12-21 21:08

That's nice :D

2021-12-21 21:10

nice!!

2021-12-21 21:11

Nice :)

2021-12-21 21:16

nice to see juliano back

2021-12-21 21:20

Let's gooooooooo!

2021-12-21 21:21

POGGG

2021-12-21 21:23

Bruuuh thats greaat!! A bit late but finally is here, and properly done. Just Sadge for juliano, mimi and co. that litterally just left for valorant

2021-12-21 21:23

Finally a opportunity for womans. juliano, mimi, zaaz wat doink?

2021-12-21 21:25

1 reply

Boff Their team will dominate female cs and they'll get their foot in valorant which will probably cater to them better as riot is pretty good with their pro scene. Just suck at balancing anything

2021-12-21 23:37

I dont know why some users are saying "too much money to these unprofessional girls that don't grind on tier 99". I think it have all to do with Furia (yes, Furia). Actually, Furia's investment on ESL was way bigger than 500K. And i'm sure Furia wants to make their female team to have tourneys outside of Brazil to compete. They are trying to hype their girls at max, and Furia Fe won anything they could on Brazil on 2021. They are investing on the girls, and it was probably one of the conditions they made to ESL on the investment to be partner. Wait and see, Furia will be the first team confirmed on these tourneys, and the female's team will be moving to NA.

2021-12-21 21:28

2 replies

Bro how delusional are you

2021-12-22 14:28

1 reply

What is delusional on that? I dont expect anything from the scene, but Furia expects a lot.

2021-12-22 22:38

nice

2021-12-21 21:26

Well, a little late for this. Many women are already off to Valorant.

2021-12-21 21:30

6 replies

they will obv come back for the money..? Is this even a question xD they r not particular top contenders in neither game, they will play where the money is at.

2021-12-21 21:48

Would this lure you back? i would

2021-12-21 22:17

3 replies

Enjoy hitting puberty, friend. The only women’s sport to watch is volleyball… for obvious reasons.

2021-12-22 21:08

2 replies

what? we talking money

2021-12-22 22:52

Bro you didn’t understand what he said, he clearly said that the 500k prize money will definitely lure the women back to cs

2021-12-23 10:32

if esl really want to create a female scene and not just one year circuit bet many would come back they only went to vaLULrant because female scene didn't exist and didn't receive any incentive

2021-12-21 22:38

POG

2021-12-21 21:30

On the one hand I am one of the haters and was going to drop a sexist joke here but on the other hand its actually good to revitalise women CS and thus the game as a whole. Can be interesting.

2021-12-21 21:34

juliano is going to destroy anyone just like how he destroy cadian

2021-12-21 21:37

good news :)

2021-12-21 21:39

good job ESL

2021-12-21 21:45

NICEEEEEEE

2021-12-21 21:49

a well needed step in the right direction. nice :) mimi, juliano, zaaz, petra please come back

2021-12-21 22:01

1 reply

I wanna see those 4 +rain (female)

2021-12-26 21:20

Very good!

2021-12-21 22:07

Very cool to grow the scene

2021-12-21 22:16

Finally! It might create some space for a team that will get a little bit closer to male divisions with this kind of competition. I really hope for a competitive female team, probably we won't witness that in a near future but it still gives a chance for development

2021-12-21 22:22

2 replies

the female scene here in brazil is growing up big with female league "liga gc" big orgs are investing more and more i hope esl doesnt do only this 2022 circuit and give a chance to actually develop with more circuits in the future

2021-12-21 23:19

1 reply

Nice to hear that

2021-12-21 23:40

Nice

2021-12-21 22:47

Nice

2021-12-21 22:51

Huge news! Big W for CSGO <3

2021-12-21 22:54

LESGOOOOOU

2021-12-21 23:01

Great, lets go

2021-12-21 23:10

Honestly its great to see but i feel like its a bit too late? Like almost every single one of them already moved to Valorant

2021-12-21 23:18

nice!!!!

2021-12-21 23:20

I'm all for more females in CSGO but this is the wrong way to go about it. Does anyone know what the highest ranked team is with a female on the roster? top100? top500?

2021-12-21 23:27

2 replies

I know of their best achievement, which is beating a (then) rank ~180 male team. So the best female team is around that level.

2021-12-21 23:44

top 86

2021-12-22 01:29

Niceeeeeee!!!!!!!!!

2021-12-21 23:28

Good to hear.

2021-12-21 23:31

I really want female cs players to compete on tier 1 cs against great teams, but this is not the right way to do it

2021-12-21 23:36

Dont get so upset or mad, just see what it brings and than evaluate this new circuit after a few years

2021-12-21 23:51

This is the complete opposite of what ESL and other TO's should be doing. if you want a discrimination free environment they need to encourage multi-gender teams, and have a single tournament circuit per TO. There are some female players out there that are pretty incredible when it comes to mechanical movement and aim, why are we segregating them? for those arguing they aren't as good as other all-male teams... just to play devils advocate: perhaps that's because they can't play against better teams in a tournament setting? Look at the Asian & Oceanic regions for CSGO right now as proof, they're pretty awful because all they can do is play domestically against each other, they need exposure to NA / EU to get any better.

2021-12-21 23:52

10 replies

Nah bro, women are simply inferior gamers and that's how it will always be, you are straight delusional, so many female teams have practiced against male teams just to get rekt even by teams whose level is barely in top 1000, there is just no competition.

2021-12-22 00:01

7 replies

name checks out. It isn't delusional, they aren't given the opportunity to compete. I'd be willing to bet that the womens teams would see strong uptick in form if they were to spend a few years getting beaten by the upper echelons of CS.

2021-12-22 00:06

6 replies

We already saw this with League of legend.

2021-12-22 00:20

1 reply

I don't think LoL trying this matters all that much. different games have different regions and players doing better than others, so i dont think that applies to CSGO at all.

2021-12-22 00:28

How aren't they given opportunity? their opportunity is just the same as random male teams, its insane how many male teams started just some buddies from faceit stacks playing together and that turned to a semi-pro team that would easily beat any female team, however female teams would never manage this, rather they lose some random nonames in early round open qualifiers and it never changes for them. I could see there being a good female player but due cultural reasons its tough to even manage that, its just not very female type thing play video game all day, so I suppose circuit like this could help regarding that actually.

2021-12-22 00:21

2 replies

I'm not denying that there is a skill deficit atm. What I disagree with is segregating them away, no one gets better playing the same 5 teams over and over and over again. the only reason the teams will show up at the women only circuit is to give themselves the best chance of winning prize money, it absolutely isn't to get better at the game.

2021-12-22 00:26

1 reply

Biggest issue is that currently volume of serious female players is actually insanely low and its way too tough to change, competitive gaming is not femine hobby at all anyway, rather many women would laugh at it and think these silly men who play games are low value losers (often not wrong btw :D.) On the other hand I do actually think circuit like this could help get more female players in competitive gaming so I do not believe one second its a bad thing, if its serious enough surely it will also reflect in effort orgs and players put in practice. However to get back at earlier point actually biggest reason why men are superior gamers, is simply because they actually want to be gamers by far bigger volume than females ever will, and that will never change.

2021-12-22 00:52

Given the opportunity lol, I went to a school that brags about the most women championships. Title 9 is a thing. Godspeed if you want a woman as your military commander.

2021-12-22 21:19

No one is segregating them, those best girls simply not good enough even for t5 cs, I don't know why male team should take female player when they can always find much better dude who doesn't mind sitting in basement 24/7 but ofc if someone wants to make good marketing project then go head but this team won't reach highs. When best fe team was given opportunity and met t3 teams, they simply got obliterated without getting double digits on both maps combined - hltv.org/matches/2345802/xset-vs-espada-.. hltv.org/matches/2336955/besiktas-vs-har..

2021-12-22 01:21

Because there's just not enough of them :(

2021-12-22 02:18

Lets gooo

2021-12-21 23:53

if only this was done 5 years ago

2021-12-22 00:01

Best and most of them went to valorant Now its only tier 5 woman teams playing for these events.

2021-12-22 00:06

1 reply

Yes I feel like this will not be enough to bring back players from valorant, so it will be even shittier than before, even if it is good prize pool

2021-12-22 00:11

cool

2021-12-22 00:36

good for them

2021-12-22 00:41

EZ4L.K.S

2021-12-22 01:00

sick

2021-12-22 01:16

This is actually great for CSGO as a whole. All of you bashing the females for having their own division lol.. stop it. This will bring back a lot of ORGS and teams that left to go play that terrible game Valorant. Good job ESL.

2021-12-22 01:18

Are there enough women on CS scene that are even close to being good enough for pro playing? Most of the teams here will just disband after orgs stop paying them for afk

2021-12-22 01:30

3 replies

vilga' team is the best female team atm finished 6-8 on esea intermediate

2021-12-22 02:20

2 replies

almost made it to esea advanced :DD

2021-12-22 03:40

esea i? yikes

2021-12-22 13:32

This is 10 years late but whatever.

2021-12-22 02:15

Imagine mixed gender cs teams I want that

2021-12-22 02:33

4 replies

Want to see someone who finished 6-8 in esea intermediate or at the very best #86 because their blouse is low cut? Pretty sure you can an… only fan.

2021-12-22 21:25

3 replies

lmfao what you think women would play csgo in low cut blouses are you retarded i just want some more diversity. Like how refrezh is the literal only pro player who is black

2021-12-23 22:18

2 replies

No one cares if he’s black or not. All you have is Juliano beating Cadian in a show match. I can name so many black FIFA players if you want to talk. Possibly the most diverse esport , so nah you’re wrong.

2021-12-31 22:56

1 reply

comparing soccer to csgo lol

2022-01-01 19:46

Good to see.

2021-12-22 02:34

Was about time to be fair

2021-12-22 02:44

why female teams can't play with male teams? i would like a mixed pro team.

2021-12-22 03:14

2 replies

they're not good enough for any team I guess. The best female players have the same skill level as tier 3 teams. Though this is because women have not had any major tournaments in CS, so the skill ceiling hasn't gone up since 2018

2021-12-22 03:34

1 reply

Bad excuse imo. The individual skill has more to do with pugs/ aim map rather than the few pro matches pros play every week or month. The raw skill comes from other practice. And they’re simply not there, not putting enough hours or blood sweat and tears into it :P

2021-12-22 04:23

Awesome! I look forward to watching this. ^^

2021-12-22 03:38

if they really get into the game they will definitely get the viewers and the money too.. counterstrike is a very competitive game that creates lots of emotions thus eternal moments

2021-12-22 03:53

aside from being very cool for women, it can broaden the interest of women in cs in general and benefit cs esport as a whole

2021-12-22 05:45

3 replies

Even Women don't watch female csgo

2021-12-22 05:48

2 replies

source: trust me bro

2021-12-23 04:25

1 reply

source that my words are wrong: trust me bro

2021-12-23 07:19

it would take like 6 years of this before we'd see any female teams/players worthy of t3 or above. this would be a good idea for valorant lmao

2021-12-22 05:45

Do they have enough teams for this?

2021-12-22 06:02

1 reply

I was just about to say. And the best players: Mimi Juliano Zaaz Petra Are gone to Valulrant G2 team

2021-12-22 09:08

clg red KEK

2021-12-22 06:07

actually very pog

2021-12-22 06:44

POG. So many misogynistic comments have been deleted lol. Investments like there are always good for the scene. Juliano pls come back

2021-12-22 06:47

5 replies

Ah, so that's why this comments section felt so uncharacteristically positive

2021-12-22 16:36

4 replies

Yeah bruh. It says there are only 170ish comments. But the latest comments are numbered 530ish already lol.

2021-12-22 16:45

2 replies

Really shows what's wrong with HLTV doesn't it? I mean people get more overall prizepools and possibly a growth of CS as an e sport and the only thing they come up with is misogyny?

2021-12-22 18:47

1 reply

Exactly mens. It's depressing seeing these misogynistic comments

2021-12-23 06:13

At least 370 comments were deleted

2021-12-22 19:53

Nice

2021-12-22 08:59

100 people major final pog! on a serious note this is great. well done esl

2021-12-22 09:01

this is gonna be so sool! really looking forward to this! :D

2021-12-22 09:14

Thats pretty cool

2021-12-22 09:23

great. I really do hope that some of the ladies could make it to good tier 1 roster. That would be sick

2021-12-22 09:58

Nice, a breath of fresh air after watching NaVi dominate 2021

2021-12-22 10:38

This is very good!

2021-12-22 11:07

You know its gonna be competitive when its woman vs woman and i hope it makes more females get introduced to CSGO esports in general so that our scene grows

2021-12-22 11:30

Just don't compare to men's esports guys. this is absolutely good news! Btw, hello there Jonathan E!

2021-12-22 12:30

Awesome! About time too...

2021-12-22 14:05

Nice!

2021-12-22 14:07

Who is gonna watch this? A bunch of no name players with no history plus they aren't gonna be playing in normal leagues so all of their wins will be taken with a grain of salt. How exactly are both sexes going to merge then? It's kinda like Asian CS where they just fall behind even more when not competing with the best. No offense but I don't even watch a lot of T2 tournaments, how do you expect me to watch a tournament where the teams play worse than Advanced teams. And if you think it is to grow the female audience, I believe it is too late for that with Valorant already showing some success in the female scene.

2021-12-22 14:12

CSGO is a sport of motor skills, communication and hard team work. Males and females are by this time well known to take different approach to these, making them better at some some segments while worse in other. Many sports have this same limitation, having male vs female rarely happen and mostly - it's on the highest level. Fact that female teams have not fought much so far tells me it's likely going to suck a bit more than expected level of tournaments. I do not think it will attract as much attention either. Cause even when some girl is talented as a very VERY good gamer, most just chill streaming some pvp games and take tons of money for way less stress. So incentive for them to grind it out and git gud is much lower. And statistically it shows. And it's fine, both genders are different and it's fine. Just announcement of a big event that they did not grind for to make it happen with their skills does not sound like something that will stick. Someone will take a big check for sure, but I doubt there is an ecosystem behind this in a sense that it's profitable. You can't make it more profitable for girls as compared to streaming, not to mention entire machine around it.

2021-12-22 14:22

It's about time but isn't a bit late?

2021-12-22 15:05

1 reply

late?? a lot of years doing womens championships. Maybe you want to say too early?? Anyways never is late when you want to try to improve something. ESL and others tried to increase women scene a lot of times in the past and maybe any year will be the good one, but until now nothing.

2021-12-22 16:23

That's alright, Hope they get some good casters

2021-12-22 15:58

Honestly I would've just preferred this money go to a T3-T4 circuit instead which women could theoretically be a part of if they were good enough; and it would help everyone trying to get into pro CS

2021-12-22 16:41

1 reply

very smart🧐

2021-12-22 19:46

I want to see a first prize from this ESL female tournament to lead to Dreamhack open direct invite so that best female team has a chance to improve with better tier of competition and eventually not having to result to only collecting paychecks from showing up to female only tournaments like previous female cs teams have done. Segregating and upping the prize pool in essentially hltv rank 100-200 scene only for females is counter productive for equality between males and females and their goals of improving to become good teams and competing in open circuit where you qualify in based on results not your sex. Few years back when the previous female csgo teams had their own tournament sponsors pulling out of the female csgo scene for not being economically sustainable since the female teams got paid better than tier 2 before they showed any skill or interesting viewing experience for viewers to watch those tournaments for females only they almost all went to valorant since riot games gave them more money for being females and not having to worry about tournament sustainability since that money came from very big marketing budget from riot games. At some point both ESL and riot games marketing exercises will end for lack of general interest and profit and that will cause another twitter meltdown from female fps scene accusing organizers and sponsors of sexism when they have been playing in sheltered easy money female only tournaments and not putting in the work to get actually good in the game and compete in open circuit. Only way to avoid this already seen cycle is to give qualifying spots to tier 2-3 tournaments for winning team of the female tournaments to let them grow and get better in the game they play.

2021-12-22 16:43

1 reply