Imperial Valkyries at PGL Cluj-Napoca 2025 Shows Female CS Needs Time

After another six comfortable map losses at PGL Cluj-Napoca 2025, Imperial Valkyries have bombed out of their third consecutive Tier 1 LAN without posing much threat. I’m sad, but not exactly surprised.

As the best female CS team in the world by some margin, there was some hope that Imperial Valkyries would show some solid signs of life over its last few events. No one expected anything earth-shattering, but perhaps a little more than they’ve had to offer.

But why is that? I want to look at the expectations surrounding Imperial Valkyries: how they came to be in the first place, and what they can teach us about integrating female Counter-Strike going forward. It’s an interesting one.

Were the NAVI and FURIA matches a false dawn?

To start, it’s impossible to ignore how Imperial Valkyries’ first couple of matches went in 2025: they were competitive. They put up an admirable fight against NAVI, picking up 15 rounds across two maps against one of the best teams in the world. Then, at IEM Katowice 2025, they took FURIA to overtime on a map they actually should have won. With these matches coming back to back, it actually seemed like Imperial Valkyries could take a map from one of the lower-end Tier 1 teams, given the chance.

Then, PGL Cluj-Napoca 2025 came along. They had their full lineup, after coach bubble filled in for IGL tory at IEM Katowice. Despite this, the performances got worse. Against all of Eternal Fire, MIBR, and Complexity, the team never managed to take more than five rounds on a map (despite the latter of the trio coming into their series on a 10-map losing streak). It’s a shame to admit, because I really wanted to see these girls make a huge splash, but it appears that those competitive early matches were something of a false dawn.

Could a mixed team come first?

Even if it’s abundantly clear at this point that female CS needs a little more time to cook, there’s no denying that the girls from Imperial Valkyries are history-makers. As a team, they might not be ready to make the leap to Tier 1 permanently, but their status as trailblazers and barrier-breakers is secure for all the girls who follow in their footsteps.

Perhaps that “leap” should be a step. If we’re ever to get a competitive female team at the top level of CS, then it will likely come once several individuals have made the jump alone as part of a mixed team. We’re already seeing that with Apeks’ florescent over in Valorant. The right pieces could then be put together later down the line, but it’s my belief that we’ll need mixed teams to come first.

It could even be some of the Imperial Valkyries girls who pull this off! At PGL Cluj-Napoca 2025, twenty3 gave a decent account of herself on some maps, and looked mechanically solid. It would be interesting to see what she could do if she committed to the Tier 2 grind with a mixed team. The peak is there – she then just needs some consistency. Of course, twenty3 is just one example, but there are certainly others who would be capable given the chance.

The next steps for Imperial Valkyries

It’s unlikely we’ll see Imperial Valkyries at a Tier 1 LAN for a while now. It all depends on whether ESL Impact events count towards the VRS rankings, for which no one can seem to muster a concrete answer. In the meantime, all they can do is keep grinding.

My hope is that some of their showings so far will convince better teams to practice with them than were previously willing, thus helping them raise their own levels in the process. This means that whenever the rankings allow them to appear at a big LAN once again, they’re better suited to give a strong account of their abilities.