After a string of competitions in the UK Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) circuit, Tradeit has announced its first female-only tournament: the Tradeit League FE Masters.
The 16-team event will be played in a single elimination bracket – which is yet to be drawn – and every game will be played as a best of three.
Saturday February 24th will play host to the round of 16 and quarter finals, with the semi-finals and grand final taking place the following day on Sunday February 25th.
Since 10 of the 16 teams are set to take part in ESL Impact Season 5, there will be no shortage of big names competing, with the winners receiving £500 in cash, plus £500 in skins split between the team.
The runners-up will receive £300 in skins, while the MVP will take home £75 in skins.
Tradeit hosted their first CS2 LAN in Plymouth in November 2023, where 20 players competed for a £1,000 prize comprised of a mixture of cash and skins.
Teams competing in the Tradeit League FE Masters
ESL Impact Season 4 runners-up Navi Javelins headline the field as favourites after being just one game away from winning ESL’s $50,000 prize and falling short in December 2023.
UK organisation Guild Esports will also participate, and other top Counter-Strike orgs such as Astralis, ENCE Athena, Ninjas in Pyjamas Impact and Virtus Pro Angels will also compete.
Iconic CS2 pro Julia ‘juliano’ Kiran will make her first appearance for BIG Equipa at the event alongside Alexandra ‘kyossa’ Tychanska – the duo were signed from G2 Oya in early February.
GamerLegion Prism will also debut new players Rachel ‘RacheLL’ Kujawa and Svetlana ‘suns1de’ Mevlid at the event after signing them last week.
1win Gang compete after being invited to ESL Impact Season 5, along with NIP Impact, GL Prism, Na’Vi Javelins and BIG Equipa.
Team Spirit will take part as their organisation continues to ride high on a wave of buzz generated by their main roster’s Team Spirit tournament win at IEM Katowice 2024.
Forze will look to bounce back after failing to qualify for ESL Impact Season 5, falling to Astralis at the last hurdle in the second open qualifier. Orgless side Nemesis also took part in that qualifier but were dumped out early on in 5th-8th place, being eliminated by Forze.
Other org-less teams Cupcakess, nonamers, Elite and Astronuts will also compete after joining the event via open sign-up.
Organisers of the Tradeit League FE Masters hope to create regular events for women’s teams
AJ, Chief Business Development Officer at Tradeit’s parent company ZenGaming (pictured above), spoke exclusively to Esports News UK ahead of the tournament.
AJ said: “We have set up the Tradeit League FE Masters to endorse the female side of the industry, our events run during the gaps of other events/qualifications, hence providing even more play opportunities for the female teams to practise before big competitions such as ESL Impact.
“I’d like to create regular events for the female teams. Our events have simpler, shorter formats and smaller prize pools, but we will see to what heights this can be scaled to over time.
“There is a genuine demand for our events, proven by our track record of filling tournaments with the best teams in the scene.”
Elsewhere, French Counter-Strike veterans kennyS and RpK will be making an appearance at Epic.LAN this week, as part of a partnership with Tradeit.gg.
Reece is a sports journalist who has previously worked with the likes of BBC Radio Solent, Southern Daily Echo, Salisbury Radio, VAVEL and many more. He is currently studying a degree in Sports Journalism at Solent University.
