ATK, a South African professional esports organisation, will represent Africa in Season 2 of the Electronic Sports League (ESL) Gaming women’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) circuit, dubbed ESL Impact.
The competition will feature eight of the world’s top CS:GO women’s teams competing from November 25-27, 2022, at the large-scale gaming festival DreamHack Winter in Jönköping, Sweden.
Megan “m3gz” van der Westhuizen, Christie “Graceyy” Webster, Connie “leafy” Moulder, Christin “2ssb” Brazier, and Kayhla “kayc” Calder of ATK will compete for the competition’s $123,000 prize pool against Nigma Galaxy, NOFEAR5, Counter Logic Gaming Red, Evil Geniuses Gold, FURIA Esports, B4 Esports, and HSG.
ATK won the ESL Impact Cash Cup: South Africa, an all-female Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) tournament that took place from July 9 to August 13.
The team began their competition with a 2-0 win over RE ACCE and would go on to dominate the weekly cash competition, taking on teams like White Rabbit Amaryllis, VYBN, Royalty Esports, and Powered By Copium.
The South African team would defeat VYBN and RE ACCE on the final day of the ESL Impact Cash Cup to claim the first-place prize of $350, bringing the team’s total winnings for the competition to $1,050.
The ESL Impact CS:GO circuit was developed as part of the ESL #GGFORALL initiative, with the goal of providing stability and support to the female CS:GO scene through monthly cash cups and two annual online league seasons.
Since Riot Games launched the VCT Game Changers, a tournament for women in VALORANT, in 2021, the number of women competing in Counter-Strike has significantly decreased. This demonstrates how quickly the esports industry is growing.