Esports team Top-G has emerged as the champion of the inaugural all-female CS:GO qualifiers. With a 2-1 victory against team Purr-ple, the team was competing at the ongoing National Esports Championships (NESC) 2023 organised by the Esports Federation of India (ESFI). Following this result, Top-G has become the first Indian female CS:GO team to qualify for the global finals of the World Esports Championships (WEC).
The team consists of captain Swayambika Sachar (Sway), Shagufta Iqbal (xyaa), Nidhi Salekar (Stormyyy), Dilraj Kaur Matharu (COCO), Aastha Nangia (CrackShot) and Priyanka Choudhary (ALEXAA) as substitute in their squad.
Top-G team captain Sachar said, “Winning the finals was an unreal feeling for all of us. We felt so many emotions before, after, and most importantly during the match and the adrenaline rush was on another level. Triumphing in this tournament and representing India on an international stage is a dream come true for all of us and we aim to prove on the world stage why we deserve this spot. We are grateful to ESFI for providing us with such an amazing opportunity and we truly appreciate the efforts put in by them to uplift women in esports.”
Top-G dominated the first map by 16-10 before Purr-ple made a comeback to win the second map 16-14. While both teams were going toe-to-toe in the enthralling finals, Top-G utilised – with its teamwork and attacking tactics – edged out its opponents and take the last map by 19-15 in overtime.
“It gives us immense joy to see a female team representing India at the World Esports Championships for the first time in history,” said ESFI president Vinod Tiwari. “The electrifying finals were a testament to the ability that our country’s female athletes possess and why ESFI has constantly been taking significant efforts to provide them with opportunities to display their talent and high-quality gameplay.”
The ESFI will now be organising friendlies against distinguished CS:GO teams from other countries for team Top-G before their participation at the WEC 2023 which is scheduled to take place in Iasi, Romania.
With a whopping prize pool of $500,000 and at least 130 countries participating, the 15th WEC is set to be the largest edition of the tournament to date. The global finals of the tournament will take place from 24 August to 4 September 2023.
The ongoing NESC is witnessing the participation of 275 athletes across four different titles – CS:GO, DOTA 2, Tekken7 and eFootball 2023 and its action is being streamed live on ESFI’s Youtube, Facebook, and Glance Gaming channels.
