What’s subsequent for feminine CS? A have a look at 2026 and past for ladies’s Counter-Strike

Within the wake of 2025, we have been left with many unanswered questions concerning ladies’s CS2: What would occur when sponsors dropped out, and occasions closed down? It appeared everybody had misplaced religion within the scene. Most feminine brokers have been left with out a sponsor or staff, uncertain the place they might compete within the scene. 

Feminine CS is at present in one of many worst states it’s ever been in, with the suspension of ESL influence final season in 2025. One of many solely and largest female-only CS tournaments within the recreation, it left us feeling like now we have nowhere to go. Fortunately, we had an announcement of a brand new League for the 2026 JB Professional League Feminine.

This options solely feminine CS groups, with 4 rounds of qualifiers resulting in a primary occasion in February. That is an try and fill the outlet left by ESL Influence. Sadly, the prize pool just isn’t sufficient to maintain these gamers. They’re already getting far decrease salaries than male gamers, with no actual prize pool on prime, how can we count on them to make this a profession? 

As well as, we noticed many sponsors drop their gamers final 12 months, citing profitability as the primary cause, forcing many of those proficient ladies to finish their careers early as a result of it was not financially sustainable for them to proceed as feminine CS execs. Though was noticed Imperial Valkyries qualify for an enormous combined match, this nonetheless wasn’t sufficient to make clear the feminine scene.

Skilled Feminine Counter-Strike stretches again practically so far as the origins of Valve’s tactical shooter itself. The primary feminine CS staff to actually acquire prominence within the scene was Les Seules (The Outsiders), who have been fronted by Sofi “Sophie” Byström. She was joined by outstanding Swedish and Danish gamers like Anna “aNNa” Nordlander, Malin “Malla” Ohman, and Emily “Vixen” Clewett as early as 2004 for the Digital Sports activities World Cup. 

They positioned fourth within the occasion, dropping out on the $18,000 prize pool, however they led the best way for ladies in Counter-Strike alongside LadieS, All for One, and EIBO. The bracket of 16 groups could have been a shadow of what was seen within the 41-team ESWC male league (and $100,000 prize pool), nevertheless it confirmed there was promise in letting the ladies face off, too. 

Feminine CS has been steadily supported because the mid-2000s, with a wealth of tournaments all through that decade and past, together with DreamHack Summer time 2007, ESL EMS Feminine Finals, ASUS Open Autumn, and G3XCUP, which closed out the last decade. The explosion of Counter-Strike: International Offensive in 2012 noticed renewed vigour for the ladies’s esports scene, particularly in 2015, which noticed its greatest push up to now. 

Intel Problem Katowice 2015, the Copenhagen Video games 2015 Feminine Event, and the ESWC for 2015 have been among the many greatest female-led esports tournaments of this time. Prize swimming pools now go as excessive as $30,000, a notable enchancment over these of a decade earlier. Issues solely scaled all through the back-end of the 2010s and approaching the 2020s; XSET, CLG.Purple, FURIA Fe, Originem, and GXR.fe grew to become mainstays that followers loved seeing recurrently seem (and win) on the dozens of tournaments now taking place year-round. 

It brings us to 2022 and the ESL Influence League, promising “GG for All” with its staggering cumulative prize pool of $1.2m. Lastly, after 18 years since feminine CS had arrived on the professional scene, it was being taken severely. Nigma Galaxy would go on to attain first place within the first 4 seasons from 2022 to 2023, earlier than 2024 noticed Imperial Feminine knock them off the highest spot. The staff would maintain this place once more for the Stockholm Finals on the finish of this 12 months, once more accumulating the $123,000 money prize. 

Final 12 months noticed the ultimate two ESL Influence League tournaments. Season 7 and Season 8, which noticed FURIA Fe and BIG EQUIPA reign respectively. Sadly, in October 2025, ESL FACEIT Group introduced that it had suspended the Ladies’s CS circuit. It was claimed that its “present financial mannequin” was “merely not sustainable”. The place does that go away us now in February 2026? Nicely, there’s solely the JB Professional League Feminine Season 1 introduced up to now. At a time after we normally have the total roster forward of us, it’s bleak. 

Whereas the skilled CS ladies’s division seems to be in limbo, feminine Counter-Strike gamers are nonetheless supported by way of just a few official means. Most notably, this contains the FECS (Feminine Counter-Strike) hub on FACEIT, dubbed the “greatest feminine group,” which hosts group occasions, updates, and memes for ladies within the scene. Leaderboards showcase a few of its greatest Degree 9 and Degree 10 gamers competing, and it stays lively proper now. 

That’s it for so far as safeguarding ladies in Counter-Strike goes now. Valve itself doesn’t have a filter by way of both its Aggressive or Premier official server internet hosting for ladies who play the sport. Contemplating how very important communication is, and the open channel of anonymity as folks disguise behind Steam usernames, the broader CS group isn’t at all times probably the most welcoming for us.  

Ladies’s VALORANT is the closest potential comparability to feminine CS in 2026, and the VCT Recreation Changers are main the cost for good cause. Riot Video games’ main VALORANT esports match reveals {that a} tactical, hardcore shooter may be inclusive and nonetheless garner traction. The 2025 model of the occasion, held at LoL Park in Seoul, noticed 10 groups compete for $500,000 and was watched by practically 230,000 folks. 

That’s to say nothing of different standard shooters and the way they assist their feminine playerbase as nicely. EA’s Apex Legends had the Her Galaxy Event with its $100,000 prize pool, or the Logitech-sponsored TSM Ladies’s Invitational B-tier occasion providing $10,000 in money prizes, too. Then there’s the Celestial Cup, a month-to-month women-only Rainbow Six Siege match which has gone robust as lately as November 2025. With marginalised teams, it typically comes all the way down to the group to push earlier than sponsors take discover. 

All Valve actually must do to assist feminine Counter-Strike is show its viability for sponsors and promoters by pushing the ladies’s groups at a few of its largest Counter-Strike tournaments. ESL FACEIT Group could have pulled the plug on the finish of final 12 months, however Valve itself, as the sport’s developer, has the ability to offer credibility and its backing to a great portion of the participant base on the increased degree. 

Are we prone to see money prizes as excessive as $123,000, as ESL FACEIT Group provided by way of the Influence League? No. That’s a core cause why feminine CS has wound down in 2026, however much more may be achieved for females within the area than the obvious lack of care we’re at present seeing suggests. Similar too with the inclusion of women-only servers throughout Aggressive and Premier, even when that might be difficult to “show” to admins at a bigger scale. 

Feminine Counter-Strike has had a wealthy and storied legacy over the past 20 years, even when Valve (and the sport’s match hosts) appear bored with supporting it. The sport arguably peaked in reputation within the mid-2010s and had a short resurgence with the transition to CS2 in 2023, nevertheless it grew to become a tough promote to the likes of ESL FACEIT Group, and the plug was pulled. Whereas different builders are immediately backing ladies of their video games, akin to VALORANT’s VCT Recreation Changers, the identical can’t be stated for Valve, which has left it to third-party hosters to make the sport safer for ladies.