Lea is an esports journalist with too many interests and too little time. Covering esports stories for more than 3 years, she likes to spend her days (and nights) watching and analysing competitive VALORANT. Lea is also deeply invested in DEI issues and promoting mental health awareness within her industry.
Olivia Richman is a seasoned esports journalist who has worked with Inven Global, Esports Illustrated, Esports.gg, and more. As an editor and writer at Esports Insider, she loves telling unique esports stories, especially within the FGC. When not working and gaming, Olivia loves collecting Kirby plush, eating sushi, and driving her cars at the track.
Image Credit: HLTV/Radosław Makuch On August 8th, one of the most prominent players in the women’s Counter-Strike 2 scene, Mayline “ASTRA” Champliaud, made waves by announcing her transition from CS to VALORANT esports.
According to HLTV’s Women’s Player of the Year 2025, “the recent news of female CS falling apart and the lack of tournaments coming up” led to this decision. Nine days later, ESL Impact League Season 7 champion FURIA moved its entire CS roster to VALORANT.
In light of such recent developments, uncertainty has seemingly reached a new high within the women’s CS community. “I’ve never witnessed such a massive downgrade to a women’s scene,” posted former Imperial Female player Zainab “zAAz” Turkie on social media .
I’ve been around esports for 24 years and competing for 20. I’ve watched CS grow from the very beginning to what it is today. I’ve never witnessed such a massive downgrade to a women’s scene. Valve should be ashamed. I’m speechless. @CounterStrike
Esports Insider sat down with FlyQuest Chief Operating Officer (COO) and FlyQuest RED Director Stephanie “missharvey” Harvey , as well as esports broadcast talent Leyna “Affinity” McQuillin , to discuss the current state of women’s CS and why the scene is struggling.
To make one thing clear, women have always been part of the CS esports community, whether as competitors, production crew, or fans.
However, the ESL Impact League launched in 2022 to give women and other marginalized genders a safe space to compete on a completely new scale: better funding, higher production value, and, most importantly, a structured circuit to incentivize investment from esports organizations into the women’s ecosystem.
The start of 2025 was somewhat of a highlight for the scene, with Imperial Female making massive headlines as the first women’s team to qualify for Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) Katowice. But only nine months later, ESL Impact organizer ESL FACEIT Group (EFG) announced the indefinite suspension of the league.
“From having talked to them, they still wanna do something at some point. But […] they have big projects, and they have to take their priorities somewhere,” missharvey told Esports Insider. “That format was costing them a lot of money. It wasn’t the ideal format in my book […] for money, for cash flow, for stability, to make sure it would last a long time. […]
“It was perfect for us competitors, but, you know, without massive partner investments, it wasn’t a sustainable circuit.”
Image Credit: missharvey missharvey has been deeply involved with women’s CS for over two decades. Starting out as a professional player, she transitioned to coaching in 2019, and has taken on various esports roles ever since. Today, she works as the COO at North A…