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Guild Esports celebrates International Women’s Day with news of all-female Counter-Strike team

Published: 07:30 08 Mar 2023 GMT

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Guild Esports is a global fan-focused team organisation and lifestyle brand that fields professional players in gaming competitions

Guild Esports PLC (LSE:GILD, OTCQB:GULDF) said it has launched an all-female team to compete in first-person-shooter game, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO), the leading team-based first-person shooter.

This represents the company's first entry into the eSport, in a push to encourage greater female participation in eSports amid growing interest from brand owners, young fans and players.

It marks Guild's second all-female team, complementing a similar roster for another FPS, VALORANT, launched in 2021. The VALORANT Guild X team has been a competitive success for the AIM-listed company since launching, notably winning the VCT Game Changer EMEA Series 3 in October 2022. 

The new CS:GO team, which has extensive experience playing together, will compete under the name 'Guild', and all five players have signed one-year contracts with the option of extending for an additional year.

The members are:

  • Team Captain Kaia 'KiKi' Holmen (Norway)
  • Marita 'Minnie' Sørensen (Norway)
  • Thea 'Pullox' Evensen (Norway)
  • Linnea 'Nea' Claesson (Sweden)
  • Anna 'Ann4' Laurinoviča (Latvia)

CS: GO eSports tournaments accumulated 450 million hours watched in 2022, an increase of 8.8% on 2021, according to data supplied by Eports Charts.

Guild believes its entry into CS:GO will contribute to the growth of its owned audience and open multiple new revenue streams in the long term. 

The team will kick off by competing in the ESL Impact Circuit, a women-only CS:GO League with a combined annual prize pool of US$500,000 (£414,000), run by esports organiser and production company ESL. The tournament was created to provide a competitive environment for the top women's CS:GO teams as part of ESL's '#GGFORALL' inclusion and female empowerment campaign.

In a statement, team captain KiKi said: "We intend to compete at the highest levels of Counter-Strike and Guild is the perfect place to achieve this. With leading facilities, high-quality coaching staff and a state-of-the-art headquarters, Guild gives us the opportunity to learn and grow as a team in a supportive environment.

Jasmine Skee, chief executive of Guild Esports, commented: "This International Women's Day, we're delighted to launch a high-flying, all-female team to spearhead our entry into the CS:GO arena. 

“With female participation rapidly growing in many other competitive sports such as football and rugby, we feel this is the right time for us to recruit top talent for CS:GO. It will enable Guild to grow its audience, reach new demographics and continue to provide high-level opportunities for women in the esports space.

“Guild's long-term commitment to supporting women in esports reassures us that we will be a close cultural fit. We're excited to bring Guild into CS:GO for the first time and hope to make the whole company proud."

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on 31/1/24