Nigma Galaxy has won the first edition of the women’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive league ESL Impact League.
The organization, which is otherwise known primarily for its Dota team, prevailed in the final against Furia 2:1 (14:16; 16:5; 16:7).
“We don’t care who we play against. We just do our best and put 100 percent into it,” said Nigma player Ana “ANa” Dumbravă in an interview after the game. The Romanian was also recognized as the Most Valuable Player.
BIG female CS:GO team in the semifinals
The ESL Impact League took place for the first time. A German organization, BIG, was also represented in the final tournament, which was held parallel to the IEM Dallas. By taking over the Portuguese-Spanish line-up Equipa, the team made it straight to the semi-finals, but BIG Equipa were defeated by eventual winner Nigma.
Furia had beaten one of the longest running female teams in the semifinals, CLG Red. In the final, too, the first card went to the Brazilians, but the Nigma Galaxy can no longer pose a threat afterwards. The organization thus won its first title in the league.
Although it wasn’t enough to win the final, Furia’s games became a crowd puller: during the broadcast of the final by streamer Alexandre “Gaules” Borba, the audience counter was at times over 70,000. Many Furia fans also loudly cheered on their team on site.
At the same time, the English-language production only attracted around a tenth of the viewers.