5 new champions had been topped within the last season of CS2’s ESL Impression, as new champions, BIG Equipa, took down MIBR fe within the grand last, successful 2-1 after three shut maps.
This got here simply weeks after the announcement that ESL Impression, the all-female Counter-Strike 2 league, will likely be closing down and ceasing operations
BIG Lastly Rewarded For Dedication to Girls’s Esports
When different high organizations have slowly light out of the Impression circuit, German group BIG have at all times caught by their girls’s workforce. They’ve been current within the scene since Season 1 of the ESL competitors, and previous to successful Season 8, their finest inserting was Third-4th in each Season 1 and Season 6.
BIG started their marketing campaign in Stockholm with a loss, falling 13-8 to NA workforce Sakura on Mirage. Despatched right down to the decrease bracket, they averted a last-place exit with a 2-0 win over FlyQuest RED, then confirmed their place within the playoffs after defeating Let Her Prepare dinner 2-1.
That playoffs would see them pitted towards one other mainstay of the ladies’s league, NIP Impression, the place they once more gained by a 2-0 scoreline. Their grand last opponent could be MIBR fe, who had additionally gone on a decrease bracket run in Group B and booked their spot within the last following wins over Imperial Valkyries, Atrix, and Sakura.
The grand last itself was a detailed sport, with gamers on each groups seeking to lastly carry gold now that the dominance of Imperial Valkyries has subsided.
Beginning out on Dust2, the 2 groups had been evenly matched within the first half, going into the break all sq. at 6-6. BIG managed to only narrowly edge out their opponents within the second half, although, sealing the primary map with a 13-11 scoreline after Alexandra “kyossa” Tykhonska and Wiktoria “vicu” Janicka mixed for large impression on the T facet.
MIBR fe then drew stage Inferno, regardless of one other 6-6 break up on the break. One other map that was determined by the power of the T facet, this time it was the flip of Giovanni “yungher” Yungh Mataveli and one of many largest stars of Impression, Ola “Olga” Rodrigues, to return up clutch and tie the sequence at 1-1.
BIG Equipa confirmed their victory on Nuke, closing out the sequence with a 13-9 win. They began out the map decently sufficient with a aggressive 4 rounds on their T facet, however it was the CT facet the place they impressed, successful 9 out of ten rounds with a purpose to safe their trophy win.
What’s Subsequent For Girls’s Counter-Strike?
Though some gamers and analysts have accepted that they perceive why ESL Impression has been suspended, it couldn’t have come at a worse time for the ladies’s Counter-Strike scene.
Not dominated by Imperial Valkyries, the ultimate two seasons of ESL Impression noticed two new groups topped as champions, and the extent of competitors was raised to such a level that the champions of Season 7, FURIA Fe, didn’t even qualify for the Season 8 finals.
With no new women-only competitors on the horizon, it’s powerful to see the place the ladies’s scene goes from right here. It was a component of CS that was stagnant earlier than the arrival of the Impression circuit, and though many within the scene wouldn’t wish to see it return to that method, it’s unclear the place the following huge occasion will come from.
