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GamingBIG Equipa Become Final ESL Impact Champions With Victory Over MIBR Fe
Five new champions were crowned in the final season of CS2’s ESL Impact, as new champions, BIG Equipa, took down MIBR fe in the grand final, winning 2-1 after three close maps.
This came just weeks after the announcement that ESL Impact, the all-female Counter-Strike 2 league, will be closing down and ceasing operations
BIG Finally Rewarded For Commitment to Women’s Esports
When other top organizations have slowly faded out of the Impact circuit, German organization BIG have always stuck by their women’s team. They’ve been present in the scene since Season 1 of the ESL competition, and prior to winning Season 8, their best placing was 3rd-4th in both Season 1 and Season 6.
BIG began their campaign in Stockholm with a loss, falling 13-8 to NA team Sakura on Mirage. Sent down to the lower bracket, they avoided a last-place exit with a 2-0 win over FlyQuest RED, then confirmed their place in the playoffs after defeating Let Her Cook 2-1.
That playoffs would see them pitted against another mainstay of the women’s league, NIP Impact, where they again won by a 2-0 scoreline. Their grand final opponent would be MIBR fe, who had also gone on a lower bracket run in Group B and booked their spot in the final following wins over Imperial Valkyries, Atrix, and Sakura.
The grand final itself was a close game, with players on both teams looking to finally lift gold now that the dominance of Imperial Valkyries has subsided.
Starting out on Dust2, the two teams were evenly matched in the first half, going into the break all square at 6-6. BIG managed to just narrowly edge out their opponents in the second half, though, sealing the first map with a 13-11 scoreline after Alexandra “kyossa” Tykhonska and Wiktoria “vicu” Janicka combined for big impact on the T side.
MIBR fe then drew level Inferno, despite another 6-6 split at the break. Another map that was decided by the strength of the T side, this time it was the turn of Giovanni “yungher” Yungh Mataveli and one of the biggest stars of Impact, Ola “Olga” Rodrigues, to come up clutch and tie the series at 1-1.
BIG Equipa confirmed their victory on Nuke, closing out the series with a 13-9 win. They started out the map decently enough with a competitive four rounds on their T side, but it was the CT side where they impressed, winning nine out of ten rounds in order to secure their trophy win.
What’s Next For Women’s Counter-Strike?
Although some players and analysts have accepted that they understand why ESL Impact has been suspended, it couldn’t have come at a worse time for the women’s Counter-Strike scene.
No longer dominated by Imperial Valkyries, the final two seasons of ESL Impact saw two new teams crowned as champions, and the level of competition was raised to such a degree that the champions of Season 7, FURIA Fe, didn’t even qualify for the Season 8 finals.
With no new women-only competition on the horizon, it’s tough to see where the women’s scene goes from here. It was an element of CS that was stagnant before the arrival of the Impact circuit, and although many in the scene wouldn’t like to see it return to that way, it’s unclear where the next big event will come from.
