ESL to suspend Impact circuit

3-10-2025 16:05

The premier women's competition will be suspended after the conclusion of Season 8.

ESL has announced that they have made the "incredibly difficult decision" to suspend the ESL Impact circuit at the end of Season 8, citing the fact that the "current economic model is simply not sustainable" as the reason.

The news follow ESL's earlier efforts to consolidate the Impact circuit for 2024, which saw them axe ESL Impact Katowice as well as remove Finals pathways for the Asia and Oceania regions. The circuit was also hit by the withdrawal of multiple organizations from the scene at the start of 2025.

ESL Impact 2024 changes cut Finals spots from Americas and Asia, axes Katowice

ESL Impact Season 7 set to start with notable omissions

The decision brings the ESL Impact circuit to an end after over three years of play, with the inaugural competition taking place in 2022. Eight seasons of ESL Impact, 10 LAN events and many one-off cash cups will have taken place over that time, with the Impact circuit serving as the backbone of the women's scene.

Veteran player Ksenia "⁠vilga⁠" Kluenkova spoke on X in the wake of the announcement, stating that "this departure leaves a gap that cannot be overstated," before going on to call on other organizations and partners "to step forward and invest in this community."

Very sad, like yeah I get you don't make a profit but you are owned by literal oil barons with infinite money

2025-10-03 16:06

417

12 replies

Their interest is dump money to improve Saudi government foreign reputation. AFAIK they don't even have a fe falcons team. So its useless to them.

2025-10-03 16:21

3 replies

Yeppp and empowering women / especially not other people that fall under the "impact" umbrella isn't really in line with their values

2025-10-03 16:16

2 replies

Also pretty sure they took inspiration in the rest of the world's corporations slowing down on rainbow capitalism, as that was the only real reason the Impact circuit was allowed to stay operating after the saudi nation attacked.

2025-10-03 20:44

1 reply

that's when everything changed...

2025-10-05 07:33

well yeah but if theyre not making profit then whats the point, sure they have like an infinite money glitch but its still capitalism and they need to profit

2025-10-03 16:18

5 replies

The point is the same for any other subsidized "lesser" sports league that isn't turning a profit. Be it a professional female league or an after school children's football little league. To promote the growth and for betterment of the scene/society. They don't have to ofc. No1 has the obligation to help those in need either, generally speaking.

2025-10-03 16:31

4 replies

Sure, but it's been 8 seasons and the growth has been very minimal. Impact matches get little relative viewership and the dismal performances of Imperial Valkyries and NIP Impact (along with a handful of NA teams) in non-FE events shows that the league has not promoted meaningful growth in that time. You can only throw money into a fire for so long

2025-10-03 17:00

They are a business first and foremost, they have no moral or ethical obligation to build anything female only. It's open circuit with 0 segregation which is how esports should be.

2025-10-03 17:11

1 reply

i made it pretty clear they dont have this obligation this is a pretty obvious thing. The NBA dsnt have the obligation to fund the WNBA. No1 has obligation to follow someone else's ethical and moral values. These values have always changed throughout human history and are different from one society to another. The person simply asked what's the point. I merely explained the actual point and why this happens in other sports and societies.

2025-10-03 17:34

Children's league is mainly for a pipeline, like china wanting to win the world cup by 2050

2025-10-04 11:38

wtf ESL? just let the girls cook

2025-10-03 16:20

those oil barons you speak of are the ones telling esl to tighten the belt because their operations are too unprofitable

2025-10-03 18:08

Saudis cba to throw money away if its for women of course

2025-10-03 16:06

157

I don't really understand how they kept it afloat for so long tbh

2025-10-03 16:05

115

4 replies

Long term investment into something that was once profitable back when missharvery was the top female pro like 15 years ago. That reflections was quite interesting seeing how a once thriving scene is so dead in the water. Also, I think a lot of the money was from Intel's big sponsorship and they may have wanted a female league ontop.

2025-10-03 17:25

1 reply

Makes sense

2025-10-03 17:35

Oil

2025-10-04 11:23

1 reply

normally they keep things alive that'll make money, this would never

2025-10-05 23:18

sad

2025-10-03 16:06

anluko

2025-10-03 16:06

What

2025-10-03 16:06

huge L

2025-10-03 16:06

basically girls will not play anything official after this

2025-10-03 16:06

18 replies

They can play against men, they only need to step up and keep up

2025-10-03 16:08

101

7 replies

so rip

2025-10-03 16:19

Yeah.... We know that wont happen tho

2025-10-03 16:29

5 replies

Then so be it? It's stupid to force diversity just for the sake of diversity

2025-10-03 16:34

2 replies

Nah i get it, i support letting them into the tier 3 league. Yet, they dont improve enough which is making it close to impossible. And they generate 10 max people watching, business is business

2025-10-03 16:39

I think it would've been good if like in chess there were open tournaments and female tournaments so girls would still play the game. Making exclusive female tournaments is not really forcing diversity. Unfortunately, diversity for the sake of diversity that allowed to participate in them, let's say, less feminine girls, made it much worse. Another case of diversity for the sake of diversity was Imperial Valkyries farming female tournaments and getting invites, that was clown fiesta. Tournaments by themselves were okay though. Academy league, female league, veteran league, disabled league, that's all good things and should exist imo

2025-10-03 17:05

Why not? I think they're able to be competitive in t2 or t3 scene.

2025-10-03 21:27

1 reply

More like tier 4 or 5 who are orgless

2025-10-03 21:40

they will just switch to valorant

2025-10-03 16:18

9 replies

Believe it or not, valorant actualy have better money for players

2025-10-03 16:30

8 replies

you are right. i just checked and it is $500,000 Prize Pool for their Female League

2025-10-03 16:32

7 replies

Thats one thing, yet when thats said. Valve's anti cheat is teeeeeerible compared to vanguard made by riot. And they are better at marketing. Too bad we live and breathe cs run by people who are greedy :))

2025-10-03 16:34

4 replies

if ohnepixel can switch to valorant others will too, I guess.

2025-10-03 16:38

3 replies

I think you are refering to the UNC nitro who cant chose

2025-10-03 16:40

2 replies

no, I mean that Ohnepixel is currently watching the Valorant Finals with 50k viewers. Looks fun tbh.

2025-10-03 16:41

1 reply

Ahh sure, his *content* isnt near my taste

2025-10-03 16:55

Imagine a life with just for desperately seaching place gives special treatment for women LOL

2025-10-03 17:24

1 reply

0/8 Girls prefered Valorant even before that.

2025-10-03 17:38

Huge L

2025-10-03 16:07

Esports getting broke

2025-10-03 16:07

I forgot that was an event

2025-10-03 16:07

not surprising sadly, hope one day the womens scene can "rise" again to how it was in 2022/23

2025-10-03 16:07

I guess that saudi oil money wasnt meant for the women

2025-10-03 16:08

for those who think this is pointless and women should just play in T3 tournaments the point is to make a place where women can get representation in the Esports scene and make it more welcoming, rather than the often toxicity and sexism plagued gameplay we usually see in normal games that deter women. remember to stay nice and friendly to everyone, you won't get or keep a girlfriend by telling other women online "Go back to the kitchen".

2025-10-03 16:10

38 replies

The scene is toxic to everyone, not only to women. Turks and Chinese send death threats to players and their fans on daily basis.

2025-10-03 16:23

2 replies

But think of those poor ESL Impact players being paid to be the bottom 50 worst ranked teams on HLTV

2025-10-03 16:53

i dont think this is a good reason to write that off, a toxic playerbase is a toxic playerbase and pretending like the amount of hate is even is weird if you've ever been in a match with a woman you'd know that it's insane the amount of flak they catch for actually no reason

2025-10-12 02:19

Men play in the same toxic conditions and get no benefits for it. We either accept that men and women are equal and make them compete under the same conditions (open quals, vrs), or we continue to have separate circuits, giving women the ability to farm tier1 level money while being worse than semi-pro male players, which in turn gives them no incentives to actually compete with men

2025-10-03 16:30

27 replies

Men do not play in the same conditions as women do

2025-10-03 16:37

17 replies

Why not?

2025-10-03 16:40

16 replies

men don't harassed for being men

2025-10-03 16:46

15 replies

You can get harassed for anything else as a man. There is a problem with women getting harassed, yeah, but separating female scene and isolating it from the male one is not a solution and helps nobody.

2025-10-03 16:53

1 reply

Okay so we established that they are not playing under the same conditions. ESL Impact didn't isolate the female scene from the male scene. The women's teams all still played in male tournaments and attempted to climb through the ESEA leagues. What it did was create enough incentive for these orgs to have women's teams in the first place. All of these orgs will now drop their women's teams because of lack of funding which makes the situation worse obviously.

2025-10-03 17:00

But harassment occurs for other reasons instead - nationality, race, age, skill level etc. Assholes will find excuses no matter what. Is there a higher likelihood of harassment just for being a woman? I haven’t played in ages so I’m out of the loop.

2025-10-03 17:21

7 replies

Of course they are. You got to remember the average CS player won't ever get to finger a girl. These things have a tendency to make them view the opposite sex as nothing but the butt of a joke. Doesn't mean that toxicity hurts more for females than men though, just that the concentration of toxicity is higher.

2025-10-03 17:28

3 replies

thats your assumption, probably projection

2025-10-03 19:03

2 replies

It's not an assumption but a definite fact, Kumar.

2025-10-03 19:26

1 reply

wow im being harassed for my nationality, give me a separate indian league now!!!

2025-10-04 00:09

The thing is that women get harassed for being women on top of all the thing you already mentioned. It's another factor on top of everything else

2025-10-03 17:38

2 replies

but it doesnt really matter for what you get harrased. The real fix would be to fix harassement in general then it would be better for both men and women

2025-10-03 18:07

1 reply

That's sadly impossible

2025-10-03 19:36

i get harassed for being an indian, do you support making an indian only league which pays the same as t1 tournaments?

2025-10-03 19:07

Yes they are. We just don't cry about it.

2025-10-03 21:36

2 replies

lol no

2025-10-03 21:41

1 reply

Yes they are and for example you are now harrasing me just because of my gender by refusing that male can be bullied or harrased by a gender-based reason.

2025-10-03 21:49

Yes, but you do get harassed for being gay.

2025-10-05 05:54

Are you against women divisions in other sports as well?

2025-10-03 16:44

8 replies

E-sports and sports aren't really comparable in terms of difference between men and women there, so no. Although I'd like to see more mixed gender options everywhere, but only as long as it's not forced and happens naturally.

2025-10-03 16:48

7 replies

There definitely is difference between genders. Women are better than us at lots of things in cs, genetically, and we are better than them at some other areas in the game. It probably evens out but doesnt change the fact that there are inherent differences. Trans males that went through the whole process AFTER puberty are NOT the same as these other women in the league. It should come as no surprise, even if it's not "okay" to point these things out in todays world..

2025-10-03 17:26

6 replies

>Women are better than us at lots of things in cs, genetically, and we are better than them at some other areas in the game. It probably evens out nobody believes this PR nonsense, not even you at the time of typing it. women obviously don't have ANY advantage in cs, genetically or otherwise. the chips are firmly stacked against them. if they could admit that I would be way more sympathetic to the cause of a female league. but since they're gonna pretend they are equal, let them be equal. men don't get a charity league that bleeds money with no viewership so women shouldn't either.

2025-10-03 18:02

5 replies

This is the correct take.

2025-10-03 18:58

They do. They have better reaction times, whereas we have better spatial awareness. (there are more, these are just examples.) These aren't factors that necessarily translates to how well you play the game, they are just facts. Doesn't mean that the average female cs player has better TTK. Most men shit on women, and that is a fact. Its ok. Some people have poor eyesight and are still professional cs players, you work with or around these advantage and disadvantages. Theres no sympathy for women cs players to find here, guy. But just because I don't like american cars doesn't mean I can't see that they usually have bigger tires.

2025-10-03 19:28

3 replies

>They have better reaction times no. where did you get this lie?

2025-10-03 19:40

2 replies

Reaction times is how fast someone can react to something, neurologically traditionally, whereas cs players get stuck on TTD or TTK, which was uninteresting when in this context Im just stating a fact. However to elaborate on my point, men have more muscle fiber which translates to faster bodily reactions from the stimulus of the brain. Most guys have better time to damage. Don't let yourself get triggered by words then jump to conclusions without having read what I'm actually saying, bud. I'm in agreeance with you on almost everything you've said in this thread.

2025-10-03 19:55

1 reply

credible studies again and again measure boys and men as having better "reaction time". on the other side you have weird shit, like one obscure study from 1980 where I can't access the contents. they claim something called "decision time" which they differentiate from "movement time" and I have no idea how they would measure a decision before any movement occurs. electrodes on the head plus wild interpretation? sounds like the kind of pseudo-science that has given us the replication crisis. >men have more muscle fiber which translates to faster bodily reactions I don't think this is the reason. the same man can't improve his reactions by growing more muscle mass. and the fastest players are routinely guys with a donk or jabbi build, literally less muscle mass than the average woman, let alone a trained one. and yes, I know there's a difference between fiber count and other forms of muscle growth. but both can be increased with training, yet bodybuilding won't make you react faster. here's a serious study we can both access: pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3198384.. it shows clearly in sprinters that men have significantly faster reaction time. the way they measured it is much more reliable than the click tests online and the task they measured was one that every participant had trained excessively so it's a true apples to apples comparison. it also debunks some false starts from female sprinters that were previously used to claim reactions on par with or faster than men's. there is a clear pattern of vague pro-female biological claims being made by pseudo-scientists and other activists. it's a god of the gaps situation. they keep looking for way to create a scientific foundation for egalitarianism, and they always fail. wait til you find out that women aren't actually good at ultra-marathon running either. every. single. time. it's a lie. and every year several new lies are added to the list.

2025-10-03 20:22

youre not fooling anyone mr.

2025-10-03 16:31

1 reply

name does not check out

2025-10-03 16:56

Representation is a wrong goal. The goal should be making a product that would be successful by itself even though the level of play is clearly much lower, ideally like in tennis, but at least like in chess or basketball

2025-10-03 17:09

2 replies

heck even valorant managed to get their womens scee to be a bit interesting by giving it proper marketing instead of whatever ESL has been doing in the last 7 years at least, idk I didn't watch much before that

2025-10-03 17:55

chess is a great example. female chess influencers are striving. seems like CS2 female influencing should be rather easy when you look at some of the simp magnets that twitch has turned into multi-millionaires. with all due respect (none), most of them aren't even particularly good looking. not to name names of course. have you seen pokimane? awful personality, too. no matter, she's farming simps by pretending to have masculine interests on the internet. now imagine you actually like CS and don't have to pretend. the job just got even easier.

2025-10-03 18:32

> if you're not nice to women they won't have sex with you at least you don't pretend to be motivated by ethics, almost refreshing.

2025-10-03 18:05

creating a separate money bleeding circuit for women only is not representation, its lollipop feeding, and even then impact was useless, it did nothing for female cs. This is not diversity. With how bad imperial fe played this year, they only made the situation worse for the entire scene, because people kept hyping them up for winning female only tournaments and cuz they are women. Their skills didnt develop and were stagnated. Also, this doesnt stop the already existing female teams to participate in open tournaments and make a name for themselves, can you say they will do that instead of finding new safe spaces to play?

2025-10-03 19:07

How did the year start so promising for female CS with Valkyries on tier1 tournaments to impact being suspended.....?

2025-10-03 16:10

3 replies

they simply didn't utilize their chance

2025-10-03 16:15

they should have played better

2025-10-03 16:20

Embarrassing completely unprepared women by giving unfair invites for them to lose every single match against strong male teams was the opposite of promising

2025-10-03 17:24

esL

2025-10-03 16:12

Sad, expect to see those teams in small T3 tourneys.

2025-10-03 16:13

1 reply

probably going to pull more viewership than ESL impact lol

2025-10-03 19:10

Worst news of 2025

2025-10-03 16:15

The girl should change their career to Valorant scene for own sake.

2025-10-03 16:15

7 replies

is val scene better for women?

2025-10-03 16:18

6 replies

ye like 10x better

2025-10-03 16:21

play one match and take a guess

2025-10-03 16:24

2 replies

i mean. is it better cuz it's easier than cs or more appearing to women

2025-10-03 16:27

1 reply

More appealing to women and Riot's female league is supported by Riot better than ESL's impact league.

2025-10-04 07:37

infinitely

2025-10-03 16:24

2025-10-03 16:27

no worries, my favourite player jL assured me that imperial valkyries would be at the next t1 tournament.

2025-10-03 16:16

Difficult decision... Really? Just say there is 0 revenue to get from it, lets keep it real

2025-10-03 16:18

3 replies

There is 0 revenue from the men's game as well. The CS scene stays afloat thanks to gambling sites and Valve (whose revenue also comes from gambling), and recently thanks to Saudi oil money they are investing into sportswashing

2025-10-03 19:09

2 replies

>there is 0 revenue >mentions sources of revenue. ESL is under operating loss, but blast isnt. Some orgs are nearly broke, like faze. But orgs like vitality, mouz and g2 are profitable. Yes, they are profitable via gambling money, but thats revenue, you liking it or not. If you exclude gambling from the mix we would be back to the 2000s with players playing for free or for 1k. Orgs that are under loss can float for a while, but they ultimately pull out. Examples are north, who crashed out pretty early, astralis, who got sold out. Its not by the goodness of the private companies that men cs stay afloat. There is much more opportunities for profit there. And even then, a lot of the financial issues of orgs are huge buyouts and salaries, which are bound to be corrected or the orgs implode.

2025-10-03 22:30

1 reply

Relying so much on gambling money is fraught with problems.

2025-10-04 06:00

I just hope that money which was put into Impact is now getting used to make CS a safer space for women. As someone who played with women, it is an absolute embarrassment on how women/girls are treated in CS. Toxicity and trash talking is part of the game, but it crossed so many borders and the harassing is constant, as in every single second they play from the moment they use their mic. More bans should be thrown out of that.

2025-10-03 16:19

2 replies

was this copy+pasted from reddit?

2025-10-03 16:55

1 reply

No, which reddit? Or am I missing something?

2025-10-03 23:14

Can’t burn money forever, I guess.

2025-10-03 16:19

rip women cs

2025-10-03 16:20

Bummer.

2025-10-03 16:20

this is actually a big L for the scene makes sense financially since ESL are bleeding and it’s possible they won’t exist in the next 2-3 years but still a big L

2025-10-03 16:22

2 replies

arent ESL owned by saudi? if so how do u expect them to bleed out of money in 2-3 years if ESL is def profitable, except Impact

2025-10-03 16:52

1 reply

ESL is not profitable my friend lol “They (ESL) also state that “The operating loss has increased by 14.004k to 24.028k mainly driven by quality increases in all areas, and recruitment of higher quality staff as an investment in future growth.” >operating loss “the company is still considered to be in a developing stage and continuing to explore new growth opportunities, which require large cash investments” through to 2029 and that “ongoing losses” will be part of that plan” richardlewis.substack.com/p/esl-faceit-g..

2025-10-03 17:49

well i get that every sport has like a womens only circuit, but i really dont think it makes much sense in esports, and its probably better to not have it. it might sound harsh but watching some of those female teams you can tell that they are literally just new and bad players, if they really want to go pro and make money then why dont they invest 10-15k hours in the game the same way male players have to (and if they already do have a lot of hours and yet still arent good enough to be pro then theyre just not fit for it and shouldnt be payed, just like a lot of male players who have a lot of hours but still suck). I think if ESL made a circuit for low elo male players it would be basically the same thing

2025-10-03 16:23

expected

2025-10-03 16:29

Sad, but expected tbf

2025-10-03 16:38

expected

2025-10-03 16:43

wow I wonder why

2025-10-03 16:51

expected

2025-10-03 16:52

Its over

2025-10-03 16:54

Enormous prize pools and no one watched, this was inevitable. Vilga saying how hard it is and how neglected they are at the female scene.... meanwhile men who play at esl impact level of skill dont ever see a paycheck

2025-10-03 17:09

current economic model is simply not sustainable indeed it isnt. its barely for the top of the top

2025-10-03 17:14

This is exactly what happens when a TO has effectively the monopoly on the female VRS circuit. ESL has/had the power to save or kill it. This decision is a catastrophe for the entire female scene. First of all, orgs that recently signed female teams will probably drop then. And current orgs will probably reconsider the project (Imperial, NIP, BIG, ...). A lot of good young talents (Kyossa, AverOna, Zana, the dutch twins, Aim, Sosya, ramziiN, ...) will be wasted... We will probably see those ladies move (back, for some of them) to that s***** Valorant GC, or maybe on Rainbow 6, if Ubisoft implements an international female circuit, with a model closed to the Circuito Feminino. liquipedia.net/rainbowsix/Circuito_Femin.. The more experienced players might also consider quitting CS and even esport permanently (Vilga, Tory, Kat,...). At this point, zAAz will probably announce her definitive retirement. Second of all, the non-VRS circuit will become more fragile, because they are a good opportunity for players to play their games outside of the VRS circuit, in order to prepare it and get stronger. Without a prestigious circuit, it will be hard to justify the support from those small TOs, and even harder to keep those players motivated. Elite FE, TradeIt league fe masters, ESEA and Athena Cup are nice and enjoyable events, but they do not have (yet?) the prestige of ESL Impact. Maybe the South American female scene will survive for a little while because of Ferjee, but for how long? This scene started to see the light with, the Lotus Challenge and the incoming Rainhas do Clutch. For the first time, a south american team won the Impact league, bringing hope for a better development of a struggling SA female scene, and then everything collapses. I already said it in another post. TOs won't come unless Valve puts money on a new VRS circuit (with a female major at the end). Now, I understand why ESL dropped the standalone events, the cash cup, put the grand final of season 7 on the big stage while putting every other matches behind closed doors... @14042210⁣ @Tsigalko9 @poracaso92 @wyndmeer

2025-10-03 17:16

5 replies

This is what we get when Valve does literally nothing. My best expectation is that American orgs and major EU orgs will not drop the project (Flyquest, Furia, BIG, NiP, etc.). Especially that the NA Fe teams are ECL teams. If an org can support an academy team, they can support a female team. NIP, BIG, and Imperial will be more sustainable if they can constantly compete in tier 3 events, but EU is just too competitive. If no more VRS female events prop up, they might have to utilize the VRS that they get from ESL Impact season 8 and fight a way out next January. We will need to wait to see if more events will appear. And thank you for @ing me so that I can jump right into your comment. I deliberately avoided navigating thru HLTV today because I know what people are gonna say.

2025-10-03 18:54

Any "good young talents" that aren't 26 year olds with below or barely 1.0 ratings? Then they will get spots on tier 3 mixed rosters now no problem. If they don't, it means they're not good young talents. So nothing to worry about from your perspective.

2025-10-04 13:15

1 reply

Ok, so based on your logic and this: hltv.org/stats/players?startDate=2025-01.. sakura, ASTRA, xia, AverOna, ramziiN, RacheLL, Hanka and Emmsan for example will get their spot on tier 3 mixed rosters. Yet they don't have it. Does that mean, as an example, ASTRA with a 1.28 rating this year, and a 1.20 rating across every matches played on HLTV is not a good talent? hltv.org/stats/players/21849/astra?start..

2025-10-04 17:48

ESL didnt have a monopoly, they were just the only company stupid enough to burn money for 8 seasons of tier 7 cs.

2025-10-04 20:52

These news are devastating. I wish Valve could do something but we alredy know they probably dont care if 0 girls play their game. And 85% of social media is celebrating this, most twitter/hltv users love to hate women/trans/whatever, so theres not much hope for this. My gf loved to follow PT players on ESL impact, and loved to play CS to try to be like them in-game. RIP to this.

2025-10-07 21:41

As feminists like to think, we are equal in this game, barring the toxicity towards females. So the solution is quite simple >stop needing to be babied. >thicker skin >qualify and compete in the open leagues I get its cozy in their little league clowning on lesser opponents, some dude with a moustache and wig shitting on girls. If it was in an open league it would be all fine and dandy but it isnt. Impact was never a good solution. In my opinion.

2025-10-03 17:16

3 replies

A bunch of the Impact teams already play in open leagues? Most of them are playing in ESEA Main and basically middle of the pack. Realistically without a league like Impact the CS scene is never going to see a female pro make it particularly far. The only female pro I can remember making it to t1 of an esport 'normally' was like geguri in OW so many years ago. Funny enough she was on the team that went winless, but also on the team that won the championship if I remember correctly. There are probably more examples, but I cant really think of one. With all that said, I do agree Impact league wasnt created for the right reasons or a effective solution considering ESL's continuous disinvestment since its creation.

2025-10-03 17:30

2 replies

I know this, I'm saying that is where they belong. Nothing more. Being less skilled isn't a metric that should be rewarded. I love playing with girls, it's nice to get a break from the dick measuring contest. But they shouldn't get leg ups for being worse. They should however be encouraged to play the game, and when the day comes where a female player/team is among the best in the world we will know that they are up there because they are in fact that good. Not because of special treatment for being another gender.

2025-10-03 17:41

1 reply

Yeah exactly this. I don't get what everyone is so worried about. All these ESL Impact defenders have a long list of their favorite female players that are supposedly stars in the making. Those players will be motivated and willing to take on a cheap contract to get into a mixed gender team. Surely if they are as talented as Impact fans say, they will be able to find chances to get onto tier 3 rosters and prove that they belong. I feel like pro-women's scene people are sending mixed signals that are contradictory. They say that Impact was producing top female talent so women can eventually play in tier 2/3 mixed rosters, while simultaneously saying that if Impact dies these women will have nowhere else to play. So which is it? If I was a huge fan of women's CS with players I love and think are extremely talented, I would be EXCITED to watch them branch out from Impact and get spots on mixed rosters and prove themselves to the world in unsegregated tournaments. It's like being a donk fan but wishing he had stayed at Spirit Academy for his entire career. I mean even I was hyped for Imperial FE at Blast Bounty and wanted them to do well and I barely watch female CS. And I think the truth this reveals is that a lot of these supposed women's scene fans don't actually have confidence in these female "superstars" ability to perform outside Impact, but they don't want to admit it.

2025-10-04 13:32

U knew this was going to happen eventually with Saudi ownership

2025-10-03 17:16

Saudi really are tightening the budgets big time. The realities of esports have hit them hard. I wonder how much longer until they just try to sell off faceit/ESL and stop trying to make it profitable.

2025-10-03 17:18

Very Sad

2025-10-03 17:21

This was always going to happen eventually, female esports is not gonna become a profitable thing anytime soon I don’t think, simply not enough eyes on it and sometimes that’s just tough shit

2025-10-03 17:23

Biggest L ever

2025-10-03 17:30

Let's hope someone steps up to take over. This is very bad news.

2025-10-03 17:33

Let me say it again: Valve does bare minimum while making 1+ billion a year

2025-10-03 17:37

3 replies

People think girls flock to Valorant just because. Meanwhile Riot invests heavily into their GameChangers tournaments, getting tens of thousands of viewers. I wish valve would wake up

2025-10-03 17:44

1 reply

RIOT can afford to go negative because tencent is funded by the chinese government. In sports, the entirety of female sports is funded by their respective governments. Valve is a private company, them alone cannot sustain this. Valuation is pretty volatile, they can lose it far more than what they spend to fund it. Besides, its simply against the company 101, invest in what is profitable. Like sports, if you want to have a fe scene, you need state money.

2025-10-03 17:56

not throwing money into this pit is just about the one thing Valve have been doing right.

2025-10-03 17:51

Was only a matter a time after new owners took over, surprised it made it this long tbh

2025-10-03 17:43

RIP

2025-10-03 17:50

>step forward and invest in this community it's only investing if can expect a return. if you know the money is going into a bottomless pit that's called charity. she's asking for charity, not investment.

2025-10-03 17:50

4 replies

We already exist in an esports scene that is not designed nor expected to produce profit directly. It has been backed extensively over the last decade by VC money that risked returns and was disappointed, and now by Saudi (and to a smaller extent Chinese, UAE) sovereign wealth funds. Applying this rudimentary logic of direct immediate profit would bankrupt most of esports already. Since our scene's current investors don't expect profits, then it hardly offends to demand they spend on womens cs, which, like mens cs, isn't profitable.

2025-10-03 18:28

3 replies

the path to make it profitable is obvious though, that's why they keep investing. gain market dominance in a game with growing viewership. then once you have it you make the money back via ads, mostly from gambling sponsors. now try to paint the same scenario for women CS. no viewership. it's a non-starter.

2025-10-03 18:36

2 replies

esport sponsorship is certainly profitable for gambling advertisers, though this doesn't indicate stability. The route to making things like the ESL circuits profitable for ESL themselves only exists when they can promise growth. They can't do the TKO holdings method of obscene merch and ticket prices, our demographic is young men who have infamously low purchasing power. The viewership translating into profitable advertisement can't work because esports fans simply don't spend. There may be a benq or secretlab etc that makes profits on their ads since they advertise the right niche, but we will never see large ESPN broadcasting deal, or etihad airlines advertising campaign. Things that traditional major sports have, and even they have fallen to the gambling trap!

2025-10-03 18:49

1 reply

whether gambling investors are a "trap" or not, the investors behind CS esports BELIEVE they can one day make a big profit off their investments into CS somehow. that's the point. with the female league the justification has been somewhere between "DEI initiative" and covid funny money blowing up things that make no economic sense for years and years. if female esports was ever going to be something it would have succeeded by now. at least one of these female leagues or tournaments or even just one of the games behind them would have become popular with girls or women. didn't happen, never will. yet the stakeholders behind female esports kept their brave faces and pretended until earlier this year that they are running an "investment".

2025-10-03 19:50

Saudi owned company don't believe women should be playing video games or become professionals in the scene? Say it ain't so I'm so surprised.

2025-10-03 17:51

At least let them compete in men's events without having orgs choose between their male or female lineups. It'd be something, and who knows maybe a few years down the road a female team might get enough vrs to qualify for the rmr and eventually the major

2025-10-03 18:08

1 reply

there is no rmr and its impossible they make it to top vrs rankings they cant beat top 200 teams

2025-10-03 23:20

Honestly this will be a good thing in the long run, now they’ll be forced to grind in T3 like everyone else and improve by playing tougher competition. They were never going to grow in a closed circuit like that.

2025-10-03 18:15

1 reply

they are not nearly good enough for tier 3, they will simply have no competition / hltv matches without dedicated female leagues bumping them

2025-10-07 21:43

800€ cologne tickets and no impact league, wp esl

2025-10-03 18:24

The CS culture hasn't ever existed at a point where a woman can: 1. Play amateur/ recreational CS without excessive discrimination 2. Transfer this hobby to professional play without discriminatory behaviour by potential male teammates or practice partners 3. Be a public person in the CS scene to promote this route for other women without usual hate comments like "slept her way to the top" etc.

2025-10-03 18:37

Sad for the ladies but it makes sense. It’s not profitable

2025-10-03 18:53

Academy league please like weplay

2025-10-03 18:55

Sad but expected

2025-10-03 19:02

At least they did something, Volvo ain't done Jacksquat

2025-10-03 19:48

1 reply

I mean volvo made cs and women are allowed to qualify to the majors same as men

2025-10-03 23:06

Heartbreaking news for girls,arabian oil dudes better should give importance to woman tournaments and improve them more than making porta potty parties.

2025-10-03 20:04

too bad..

2025-10-03 20:23

mandatory mixed pro teams being that you and the toxic fans ruined it

2025-10-03 23:42

finally

2025-10-04 00:30

So basicly ESL realised noone gives a shit about women cs?

2025-10-04 00:51

Man, the thread I commented on got deleted. Congrats to the idiot who can’t handle a proper discussion and just acts like a dick. Anyways, women do need their own events, at least some female-only matches between big tournaments (showmatches sucks). That’s all I’m gonna say

2025-10-04 01:19

end of an era

2025-10-04 01:34

That's a shame but, BiBi to main roster?

2025-10-04 02:05

Sucks for the players and it's a shame but 8 years is a long time to not turn in a profit. This is on ALL OF YOU because you didn't watch.

2025-10-04 02:45

Let’s be honest… who car?

2025-10-04 03:09

huge tragedy, maybe we'll one day have a serious female scene. one day...

2025-10-04 04:25

finally girls get a real chance to grind all the way through faceit & esea leagues straight to low-tier male teams you have to WORK to be successful in this game instead of stagnating on 2k elo and farming endless impact tournaments

2025-10-04 06:26

Those thinking of infinite money glitch and saying about profitability been an issue, let me tell you one thing, it is not. Their model has never been about making money with goverment money, their idea is to link all kinds of sports to their brand, be it Dubai or Emirates etc. This gives them more positive image or even more so, more progressive and modern image. When people associate them with nicer things, it is way more easy to deal with other matters. They have so much of the sports right now in their pockets and to think about the scale of money, they actually paid something around 130m€ to Canelo Alvarez alone for one match, and while a big name it is not about making money but get those people to show up with you. Yeah, Impact league does not have the name value to do the same, but never claim it is a money issue. Its got to be way more about it been women`s league and that people here has been thrashing women league forever and very few of you actually watches the matches. It is really sad that in this day and age this is happening it is not 1950`s and this generation does not need to make all the same stupid misstakes previous generations did with just another sports...

2025-10-04 07:33

makes sense honestly because they get no viewership

2025-10-04 07:45

lost instead of profit=end i am not suprised of that because i have to say that women cs is much worse to watch than men tier1. It s like esea advanced nothin more and on esea level i prefer to watch emeritos banditos

2025-10-04 08:29

big W

2025-10-04 10:21

They could have done so many things to prevent this from happening. Banning guys from playing in the league and putting out an annual bikini calendar would have been a great start.

2025-10-04 11:07

8 seasons. Literally no development/improvement whatsoever. Better use that money to cultivate actual good players. Though I love getting money for being mediocre as well, this cannot go on. They are free to join any open qualifiers as well as normal tier 3 4 tournaments though, it's not the end of the world. The end of the world is when the league is "growing" only because more people want pieces of that free pie.

2025-10-04 12:27

gg womans cs

2025-10-04 13:13

infinite money and cry bcs of non profit, cya in irl jail if i speak what i think

2025-10-04 14:05

Even women don't watch it, how do you expect to make a profit of it

2025-10-04 14:35

oh thank god no more men cosplaying as women

2025-10-04 17:27

People are talking about gender equality, but still want to have a separate league for women when there is no such thing for men.

2025-10-04 19:43

Shame. I get that women are still allowed to play in the normal T1 events, but with nowhere to play they’ll never be good enough to do it. Saudis weren’t getting enough good optics to be worth losing the money plus their religion is not a big fan of giving women equal rights. I hope the ladies can mesh well into T2 and such to keep playing. Even if they aren’t the best or most profitable they still deserve to have somewhere to play.

2025-10-05 01:02

Good riddance, W move

2025-10-05 12:50

Women need to earn their place on their abilities, not from pity.

2025-10-06 02:26

Getting harder and harder to money money where none gives a damn for your matches, huh ? Maybe there is no reason after all for making a gender unique format ? Its Esports! No physical difference or whatever...

2025-10-06 02:54