Top-G Creates History: India's First Female CS:GO Team Qualifies for World Esports Championship

The National Esports Championship 2023 (NESC) is currently taking place acting as the qualifier for the upcoming 15^th World Esports Championship (WEC) which is scheduled to take place from 24^th August to 4^th September.

On 20^th March, the first-ever Indian female CS:GO qualifiers for the WEC 2023 concluded with Team Top-G handing a 2-1 defeat to Team Purr-ple in the grand finals.

With this win, Top-G has created history by becoming the first female CS:GO team from India to qualify for the global finals of the WEC 2023, ready to take on international teams for a piece of the $500,000 USD (INR 4,12,90,725) total prize pool.

Top-G defeats Purr-ple to qualify for Female CS:GO Tournament at the WEC 2023

Multiple esports titles like CS:GO, Dota 2, Tekken 7, and eFootball 2023 will be featured in the 15^th edition of the World Esports Championship global finals which will be held from 24^th August to 4^th September featuring a total prize pool of $500,000 USD (INR 4,12,90,725).

The Women’s CS:GO Tournament is one of the events which will witness global participation from multiple countries. Team Top-G will be the Indian representative and has created history by becoming the first female team from the country to do so.

The qualifiers were held as part of the ongoing National Esports Championships and the grand finals were a really close affair going down to the last map of the best-of-three series between Top-G and Purr-ple.

Top-G won the first map with a score of '16-10' but missed out on an opportunity to close the deal on the second map which was won by Purr-ple by a score of '16-14'.

The last map was a thriller and was made more exciting as it went into overtime before Top-G was able to finally close it down with a 19-15 score line, winning the series 2-1 and getting ready to travel all the way to Lași, Romania.

Team Top-G consists of the following female CS:GO players:

1. Swayambika "Sway" Sachar - IGL

2. Shagufta "Xyaa" Iqbal

3. Nidhi "Stormyyy" Salekar

4. Dilraj "COCO" Kaur Matharu

5. Aastha "CrackShot" Nangia

6. Priyanka "ALEXAA" Choudhary - Substitute

"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," said Sway after winning the qualifier, "We are grateful to ESFI (Esports Federation of India) for providing us with such an amazing opportunity and we truly appreciate the efforts put in by them to uplift women in Esports."

It will be interesting to see how the Indian representative goes on to play against international competitors during the global finals. As for the NESC, the qualifiers are still ongoing and are being streamed live across ESFI's YouTube channel and Facebook page.