Guild signs up second all-female esports team

Blue Star Capital (BLU) investee company Guild Esports (GILD) has launched an all-female team to compete in the popular team-based first person shooter video game Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO), marking the company’s first entry into the esport and its second all female team to complement its successful VALORANT team, which won the VCT Game Changer EMEA Series 3 in October last year.

This move is part of Guild’s strategy to encourage greater female participation in esports and to tap into the growing interest from brand owners, young fans, and players.

The new team is comprised of leading international players signed on one-year deals, and will compete in the ESL Impact Circuit and the ESEA Open, with the aim of being promoted to the Intermediate Division by the end of the year. Launched in 2012, CS:GO notched up 450m hours watched in 2022, up 8.8% over the year.

The CS:GO team complements the company’s existing teams competing in FIFA, Fortnite, Rocket League, and VALORANT

Jasmine Skee, CEO of Guild Esports, commented: “This International Women’s Day, we’re delighted to launch a high-flying, all-female team to spearhead our entry into the CS:GO arena. With female participation rapidly growing in many other competitive sports such as football and rugby, we feel this is the right time for us to recruit top talent for CS:GO.”