On January 29, the Intel Extreme Masters Katowice 2025 tournament will start in Counter-Strike 2 (Steam). For the first time in the history of the shooter, a team of 5 women will compete in such a tournament of the ESL ProTour. The team has been dominating the women’s league ESL Impact since 2022. A second team of women has theoretically qualified for 2025 but will not participate.
Which team has qualified? The team is called “Imperial Female” and consists of 2 Russians, one Slovakian, one Romanian, and one Swede. They have been playing for the Brazilian organization Imperial since May 2024, which bought the roster from Team Pidgeon at that time (via bo3).
The team won everything there was to win in 2024 in a women’s league in Counter-Strike 2 and finished first in 8 LAN tournaments.
Therefore, they earned enough points to qualify in a ranking created by Valve, as the number 23 of 24 invited teams for the big tournament in Katowice, where a prize pool of $1 million will be contested. The winning team will receive $400,000.
The oldest player received her first prize money in 2007
What have they been playing so far? The players in the team have achieved quite a lot in their scene.
The oldest player, the 33-year-old Swede “zAAZ”, earned her first prize money in 2007. She has now earned about $86,000 in prize money with Counter-Strike.
The Romanian “AnA” has won prize money in CS:GO since 2017 and has earned 95,000 $ through victories in the women’s league “ESL Impact”.
The least experienced player in the team, the Slovakian “Kat”, received her first prize money only in 2021, but she has also had 3 lucrative years and has now earned $94,000 with Counter-Strike (via esportsearnings).
These are the 5 players who have dominated the competition in the women’s scene since 2022 and have secured numerous first places in the seasons of ESL Impact.
How is this being discussed? On Twitter, this is being received positively. In the comments, it says:
- “Deserved”
- “Historic moment”
- “When you look at how long some have been around, your jaw drops”
There are negative voices claiming that they “did not deserve” the spot or that the place is wasted on them. But these voices are in the minority.
Why is only one team qualified? Theoretically, a second women’s team could have qualified for the tournament this year. The ladies from “FURIA fe” had enough points for 24th place in the ranking, but since each organization can only send one team, Furia decided to send their men’s team, which is ranked 10th.
What’s behind this: Ultimately, it is Valve who decides on the value of the individual leagues, how many women’s teams are allowed to participate in such a tournament. If they had rated ESL Impact less strongly, there would also be no women’s team in 2025.
The team’s achievement is nonetheless to dominate a weakly rated league so much that enough points are earned for 23rd place to qualify. Therefore, it is definitely an achievement.
The debate about women in e-sports, and whether there should be mixed teams, is heated and emotionally charged. It is known that a women’s team in LoL was once so harshly mocked by their opponents that Riot had to intervene.
But apparently, things are slowly moving.
Recently, a German player made a kind of breakthrough in e-sports, even if only in an exhibition tournament. The Twitch streamer Thunny was able to impress in the battle against the world champion Faker and his team in League of Legends: LoL: Twitch streamer steps in for sick friend, defeats world champion Faker, immediately retires
