Thursday, December 5, 2024
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Guild Esports announces women’s CS:GO team

On Wednesday, which is International Women’s Day 2023, Guild Esports announced its new all women’s Counter Strike: GO (CS:GO) team. Guild is an LSE-listed esports organization that is co-owned by international soccer star David Beckham.

The roster for Guild Esports’ new women’s CS:GO team is as follows:

  • Kaia “KiKi” Holmen – captain
  • Marita “Minnie” Sørensen
  • Thea “Pullox” Evensen
  • Linnea “Nea” Claesson
  • Anna “Ann4” Laurinoviča

The core three of Kiki, Minnie, and Pullox previously played together on the Norwegian national CS:GO team. This new team will compete together under the Guild Esports banner in the ESL Impact League, the professional, all-female Counter Strike league with a $500,000 prize pool. They will also participate in the ESEA Open, which is hosted by third-party anti-cheat software company ESEA.

“International Women’s Day is a fitting occasion to announce this new team from Guild as although almost half of gamers worldwide are female, there are just a few women on the professional esports scene – only 5% of competitive esports players are women according to Women in Games,” Guild said in its press release. “Underrepresentation in esports typically stems from unequal access to opportunities in a male-dominated field. However, with the addition of all-female leagues to develop female talent and more inclusivity from teams, the industry is starting to change and conscious efforts such as the one Guild is making are expediting moves towards gender equality.”

Counter Strike: GO is a tactical first-person shooter that laid the blueprint for games like VALORANT. Though the game is now over a decade old — and just had a highly anticipated sequel leaked — it is still the second most popular esport in the world, with 450 million hours watched via streaming platforms in 2022 according to Esports Charts.

According to Guild, the organization is looking to build on the success of its VCT Game Changers roster, Guild X, who won the EMEA Game Changers Series 3 in 2022.

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