Author: Pedro Romero
The ESL Impact League, in addition to being a springboard for women to formulate a career in professional Counter-Strike, has shown to be the start for others on the talent (i.e. casting and analyst work) spectrum. Of those who were able to start covering CS through Impact is Australian commentator Lucy “LucyLuce” Eastwood.LucyLuce’s trajectory in CS, since starting work in Impact, has helped her land gigs in a variety of B to S-tier events including WePlay Academy League, ESL Pro League, the European RMRs for both the Rio and Paris Majors and more. It’s quite a trail of success for…
2023 has not been kind to China and its Dota 2 teams. After consistently racking up high placements in major international events, the country has suffered its worst performances in nearly half a decade with its best performing team, Aster, finishing in 7-8th place at both the Lima and Berlin Majors. Gone are the days of teams like PSG.LGD dominating the professional scene in seemingly every facet without so much as breaking a sweat. A part of this transition and struggle can be attributed to the massive ban wave handed down by Valve that saw more than 40 players banned…
Prior to the start of DreamLeague Season 20, five professional Dota 2 teams have secured a spot in The International 12, set to be held in Seattle, Washington, for the first time in six years: Team Liquid, Gaimin Gladiators, Evil Geniuses, Tundra Esports and North America’s Shopify Rebellion.After parting ways from EG during the post-TI shuffle, the lineup consisting of Artour ‘Arteezy’ Babaev, Abed ‘Abed’ Yusop, Andreas ‘Cr1t-‘ Nielsen and Tal ‘Fly’ Aizik joined SR for 2023, thus marking the org’s formal entry into the game. Not only that, the team replaced the outgoing Nightfall with Jonáš ‘SabeRLighT-‘ Volek, the…
In the second part of BLIX’s interview with Counter-Strike player Ramona “GFi” Azween during the ESL Impact League Season 3 Finals, she talks about the main reason why she plays the game and continues to do so as a professional and her thoughts on potentially continuing her career in CS2. If you missed part one, you can read it here.BLIX: When it comes to developing and evolving as a player, what was the most important thing that evolved for you throughout your career?GFi: I’ve never said this before in an interview, so I’m gonna give you the most inside scoop.…
By most accounts, when one thinks of Asian women’s Counter-Strike, they think of one person: Ramona ‘GFi’ Azween. Since starting her professional gaming career in 2009, GFi has distinguished herself as one of the best women’s CS players the Asian continent has ever seen. She has played for teams like Orange Esports, TYLOO Female and, since 2021, HSG as its captain.Even so, as far as her career is concerned, and given all the countries she visited throughout her life, she had yet to visit the United States. Fortunately, with HSG’s qualification for the ESL Impact Season 3 Finals, she managed…
If one had told the average Dota fan five years ago that renowned pro Dota 2 player Sumail ‘SumaiL’ Hassan would eventually join a Chinese team, they would have laughed it off as “fan logic”. However, as it ultimately turned out, SumaiL did make the call to play in China after joining Team Aster on loan from Nigma Galaxy for Tour 3 in the 2023 Dota Pro Circuit season.Despite facing the obvious challenge of living in an entirely new country, SumaiL, as a member of Aster, who placed fourth in The International 11 as the best team in China, helped…
Team Secret are currently competing in DreamLeague Season 20 throughout the month of June, which follows with relegation to Division 2 in Western Europe at the end of Tour 3 in the 2023 Dota Pro Circuit.Despite the setback, which effectively forces Secret to have to qualify for The International 12 via winning the regional qualifiers, the team has a chance to build momentum ahead of the qualifiers during DreamLeague Season 20 as one of six teams representing Western Europe alongside Team Liquid, Gaimin Gladiators, OG, Tundra Esports and Entity.Two days before the start of DreamLeague Season 20, BLIX reached out…
As one of two Brazilian representatives in the ESL Impact Season 3 Finals, Black Dragons had a difficult road to the playoffs as they faced their archrival B4 Esports in their opening match of the event. Despite falling to the team in their opener, BD rebounded by defeating HSG in the Group A Elimination Match to set up a rematch with B4 in the Decider Match.In the rematch, Black Dragons were able to force a third map against their dominant rivals before unfortunately crashing back to Earth after dropping ten rounds in a row on their T-side to be eliminated…
B4 Esports reinforced their current position in the world of women’s Counter-Strike by finishing 3-4th in the ESL Impact League Season 3 Finals in Dallas, Texas. Coming off a perfect run to qualify for the event from South America, B4 was seen by most as a prime contender that held the potential to win the Impact League title for the first time in South American history.While B4 reached the playoffs to set up a match against Nigma Galaxy in the semifinals, they couldn’t manage a groove long enough to propel them to victory, losing 2-0 off of a pair of…
Post-Dallas, North America is back in the forefront of the women’s Counter-Strike scene thanks to FlyQuest RED. After a period of mediocre results on the international stage, NA’s de-jure best team finally notched a respectable result in the ESL Impact Season 3 Finals.The team’s performance in the Lone Star State was made possible by first finishing second in Group B off a 2-0 Decider Match win over 9 Pandas Fearless; which was on top of their 2-0 win over fellow NA neighbors Shimmer. This marked the first time since the Season 1 Finals, which also took place in Dallas, that…