The upcoming 2025 Counter-Strike year marks a big change for the entire circuit. In 2023, Valve announced that tournament organizers may no longer partner with esports organizations starting in 2025. For many years prior, the teams that got invited to the biggest Counter-Strike tournaments outside of Majors were all but set in stone.
This change has mandated that tournament organizers use Valve’s official global standings when determining who to invite. In other words, the CS 2025 calendar is now much closer to being truly open and fully merit based. This will obviously have ramifications in the short term as the scene adjusts. One such occurrence has set the CS community ablaze with discussion. That is the inclusion of Imperial FE in the first two big tournaments of 2025.
Who is Imperial FE?
Imperial Female, shortened to Imperial FE, is an all-female team playing under Brazilian org Imperial Esports. This team is comprised of a mix of European players that have been playing together for many years now. Together, Imperial FE has climbed to the top of the female Counter-Strike scene, the pinnacle of which being the ESL Impact League.
The core has been together since Global Offensive, playing under Galaxy Racer Esports turned Nigma Galaxy before the swap to CS2. This squad has always been one of, if not the top performer in their scene. They’ve won all six seasons of the Impact League and multiple other trophies as well.
Even if there is some competition at the top of the womens’ CS scene (notably from FURIA FE and the previously NAVI Javelins team), it’s fairly safe to say that Imperial FE is the best and most consistent lineup that the Impact circuit has.
So, Why are They Here?
When creating their new global rankings, Valve made the decision to weigh the ESL Impact League and other ESL Impact events similarly to the male-oriented events of a similar perceived tier. Since ESL Impact is technically a high tier series, the highest for the female scene, these were weighed quite heavily.
As a result, Imperial FE is rated by Valve as the 23rd highest CS2 team according to their January 6, 2025 rankings. This puts Imperial FE around the same level as Virtus.pro, Nemiga Gaming, and the new HEROIC roster.
The first two CS2 events of 2025 are the BLAST Bounty Spring Qualifier and IEM Katowice. These events will consist of 32 and 24 teams respectively. As rank 23, Imperial FE has been invited to both.
Now, the aforementioned FURIA FE and NAVI Javelins are both rated in the top 32 as well, with FURIA FE even clocking in at 24th. However, since an esports org can only field one team at a tournament, both FURIA and NAVI have naturally chosen to send their higher rated male team.
Imperial FE happens to outrank their male team, which currently sits at 39th overall. All of these circumstances combined means that Imperial FE will make history as the first and only female Counter-Strike team to ever attend a tier one event.
Introducing 31 of the 32 teams who have accepted their invite to the first-ever BLAST Premier Bounty! 💰
Including the first female team to attend one of our Tier 1 events…
Read HERE 👇#BLASTPremier https://t.co/yBK2FvIlCl
— BLAST Premier 💥 (@BLASTPremier) December 19, 2024
Why is this Controversial for CS2 Fans?
As is always the case when women do anything in a traditionally male-dominated space, the community has been… let’s say “passionate” about discussing this. For context, HLTV’s rankings are the most commonly accepted team rankings in the Counter-Strike scene. They have Imperial FE clocked in at 129th in the world.
Whether or not this ranking is accurate is debatable. As you go lower in the ranks, the lower sample size and lack of direct head-to-heads makes it difficult to accurately portray team strength, especially for an all-female team that doesn’t get many official matches against male teams.
Still, the huge discrepancy between HLTV and Valve’s rankings has been a big contributor to discourse around Imperial FE being “undeserving” of a spot at a tournament like IEM Katowice, one of the biggest events in the entire Counter-Strike scene. Of course, a large part of the hate and flame is likely for a different reason. You know the one.
This Should be a Good Thing
Let’s take a step back for a moment and tune out all of the garbage. First off, this is an amazing opportunity for Imperial FE. They would never turn a chance like this down, and it’s not their “fault” that they’ve been invited to these events. Toss gender aside and realize that this is basically two circuits being merged into one by Valve and that they’ve tried to make the rankings fit based on their standards.
If you have a problem with the way Valve have done the rankings, your complaints should go to their inbox. I could sit here and complain that Team Falcons, despite being awful last year and fielding a completely new roster, has been gifted a top 8 seed and a Play-Ins bypass at IEM Katowice due to poaching three HEROIC players for their core’s circuit points.
Secondly, let’s say that you’re coming at this with good intentions and think that Imperial FE is simply not a top 24, 32, whatever team in the world right now. This is simply the reality of new systems being implemented. In the short term, there will be discrepancies across the entirety of the rankings.
The point is that these will correct themselves and that the new rankings will allow for a much more fair and open invite system compared to the partnership hell that blanketed CS in the previous years. Didn’t like that Evil Geniuses kept getting invites despite not once fielding a competitive team since 2021? Congratulations, you should be rejoicing.
Can Imperial FE Compete?
Now let’s zoom back in on Imperial FE. Obviously, the pressure they will be under is immense. Being the first ever female Counter-Strike team invited to the playground with the bigger teams that are more experienced on a stage of this size is a huge responsibility. As cliché as it sounds and no matter how ridiculous it may be, they really will be representing a whole gender.
The goal is both simple and difficult: prove that you belong. You don’t need to win it all, you don’t need to advance to the next round, you don’t even necessarily need to win games. Just play your Counter-Strike to the best of your ability and make your opponents break a sweat. Be at least a bit competitive.
AWPer Ana “ANa” Dumbravă is the biggest player to watch on Imperial FE. She was awarded “Best Women’s Player of the Year” by HLTV twice in 2022 and 2023, and is a finalist again in 2024. Her rating over the past three and six months is 1.34, showing insane levels of consistency. ANa is the best female AWPer, and likely player in the world. A strong showing from her would be huge.
Imperial FE’s newest member, Zainab “zAAz” Turkie, is also one to keep an eye on. She’s been playing Counter-Strike since 2005 and is the most aggressive rifler on the team. Alongside her experience and game sense are decent entry fragging mechanics. Seeing her pull off openings onto a top team would be amazing to witness.
Even in the Worst Case…
There are many discussions going on about how well, or poorly, Imperial FE is expected to do. The hopeful are thinking that a map may be possible against the lower ranked opposition. There are plenty of calls of 13-0’s and 13-1’s. The hedged bet says anywhere from four to eight rounds, the upper of which would still be really good.
While this may seem pessimistic, remember that the goal is to show that they belong. Even if Imperial FE goes through BLAST and Katowice without winning a match, just showing a decent level of competency would be fantastic for both them and the womens’ scene as a whole.
It may not be a full womens’ team breaking into the upper echelon of the game. Even something like, say ANa getting an invite to join a tier two or three team, would be a massive step towards encouraging more women in Counter-Strike.
We’ve just seen Ava “florescent” Eugene, a VALORNT Game Changers player, get her shot at VCT with Apeks in EMEA to kick off the year. The day may not be far off where something similar happens in CS. And when the day comes that a co-ed, or even all womens’ team breaks into the upper levels of Counter-Strike for real, Imperial FE will still be holding their heads high as the ones that started it all.
