tory on the future of women’s CS: “I think girls just need a little more time.”
Clutchain Female rifler Victoria “tory” Kazieva appeared on a podcast on Artem “malik” Arkhipov’s YouTube channel, where she discussed her invitation to a men’s tournament, her match against Natus Vincere, and shared her thoughts on the future of women’s Counter-Strike.
On the invitation to a men’s tournament
I remember, it was early 2025 when our coach messaged us. We already had a new coach by then—his name is Bubble, and he’s Bulgarian. He wrote: “We’ve been invited to Katowice.” Oh, not Katowice—it was the first BLAST tournament back then, online, when we played. It was BLAST. <…> You know, my goal was specifically to qualify for tournaments like that on my own. So I always tried to play more in the men’s qualifiers—you know, participate in the qualifiers and somehow qualify on my own. But then Valve just introduced a new system, and it turns out we got an invite for free. And so, you know, my first thoughts were: “No, we have to turn it down.”
On the emotions after the match against Natus Vincere
After the match, the emotions were intense, because, first of all, we had a really great atmosphere during the match. That’s probably thanks to Zainab, because she kept saying—she was shouting the whole match: “Come on, guys, don’t think you’re playing against NAVI—just play your own game, enjoy the match.” And after every kill, we were screaming on TeamSpeak like crazy. And that’s why we had such a great vibe, you see. And even though we lost, we knew that, well, we put on a good show.
On Women’s CS
I think the girls just need a little more time and more tournaments to grow and reach at least Tier 2. Because, man, if you compare the level of women’s CS from three years ago to the level during the most recent ESL Impact League tournaments… Back then, we played a lot of games at the CCT, and by the end, we were actually starting to take matches away from HLTV-ranked teams. That had never happened before.
Read also: tory announced that she is putting her esports career on hold and has lost her motivation
Earlier, Viktoria “tory” Kazieva listed stereotypes about women’s CS, explained why it’s hard for girls to break into esports, and offered advice on how to deal with hate.
Photo by Helena Kristiansson, ESL.
