ESL Impact League Season 2: #GGFORALL
This past weekend saw the winter finals of the ESL Impact League Season 2 taking place at Dreamhack in Jönköping, Sweden. The tournament took place from the 25th - 27th November and saw some of the top female and non binary CS:GO players taking to the stage.
Despite only being in its second season, the ESL Impact League is already proving to be one of the top esports tournaments for inclusivity. Some of the top esports orgs in the world are starting to build rosters of players of other genders so this kind of tournament is vital to the preservation of the scene.
#GGFORALL - inclusive esports tournaments
The #GGFORALL campaign was designed by tournament organizer ESL and, according to their statement, is “designed to tackle discrimination, promote mental wellbeing and progress environmental sustainability in esports”. In practice, that means two seasons a year of a Global Women’s circuit in CS:GO.
The world of esports has been male dominated since its inception and one of the main goals of this campaign is to provide a safe place for female players to compete. With the success of the IEM Rio Major, giving women the opportunity to take part is very exciting!
The initiative, as well as the impressive prize pots that equal the male leagues, should also encourage orgs to increase the number of female rosters too. Not only that but as CS:GO is arguably the most popular esport in the world, perhaps other games such as League of Legends will want to add more female based tournaments to their seasons.
Nigma Galaxy Female - winners of ESL Impact League season 2ESL Impact League Season 2 finals: top tier competition
It seems that the ESL Impact League season 2 was a roaring success as two more seasons and a Major in Katowice have already been confirmed. The competition was fierce and teams from Europe, North America, South America, Asia and South Africa travelled to Sweden to compete.
The teams taking part included some well known names as well as some fans may not have heard before. There aren’t too many orgs who have added female rosters just yet, which is giving others a chance to shine:
- Nigma Galaxy Female
- 9 Pandas Fearless
- Counter Logic Gaming Red
- Evil Geniuses Gold
- Furia Esports Female
- B4 Esports Female
- ATK Female
- HSG.
It was Nigma Galaxy Female who stormed their way through the tournament and, in fact, didn’t drop a single game over the whole two days. While it did make for a pretty open and closed final, the excitement was nonetheless palpable!
Will the leagues ever join together?
While splitting leagues according to the genders of the players is common in real sports including football, basketball and more, the same logic can’t really be applied to esports.
With the female based esports leagues only just beginning to take off across CS:GO with the ESL Impact League season 2, Dota with the Dots Valkyries and other extremely popular games, it remains to be seen whether fans will be adding female or mixed squads to their considerations when figuring out who will make it to Worlds in years to come.
Image source: HLTV