The esports organiser ESL Gaming has announced the first women’s league for Valve’s enduringly popular shooter Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
The competitive circuit, which is launching in partnership with Intel and DHL, aims to “increase awareness, provide new opportunities, and improve the representation for all women CS:GO players”. It will also kick off ESL’s new #GGFORALL program, which wants to make gaming and esports “an inclusive, respectful, and all-empowering space”. The slogan for the effort is “it’s not GG (Good Game) until it’s GG for all”.
The circuit will offer a combined prize pool of $500,000 (£377.8k), split across regions and various events. The new league will feature eight European and eight North American teams battling it out for a combined $150,000 (£113.3k) prize pool. Three teams from each bracket, plus a South American team and Asia-Pacific team – each determined through open qualifiers – will then compete in the Global League Finals.
These finals will be held at DreamHack Dallas from June 3-5, 2022, and DreamHack Winter from November 25-27, 2022. These and other DreamHack events throughout the year will offer all-women teams to compete in standalone events, with a $100,000 (£75.5k) prize pool, while smaller ESL Cash Cup competitions will run from January 2022, with a $4,000 (£3k) pool.
Interestingly, the organisers aren’t just setting the Counter-Strike women’s league up as a platform, but also planning a women players council that will “aid in defining further details around the CS:GO ecosystem for women and that provides women a platform for consolidated feedback towards ESL Gaming and other Tournament Organizers.” ESL also aims to increase the representation of women in the broadcasting side of esports, and will launch a talent development program and says it is “opening up additional job opportunities within the company to enhance the new product further”.
