CS2: ESL Impact series to be suspended after Season 8 due to unsustainable model

The women’s CS2 esports scene has been steadily growing over the past few years, with many teams gaining recognition and even making appearances in S-tier events. However, a recent announcement has left the community shocked, as the ESL Impact series, the biggest female CS2 competitive event since 2022, is coming to an end after Season 8. The sudden news has taken the community by surprise.

On that note, here’s the official statement and a brief look at the ESL Impact League's journey so far.

Also read: Who won CS2 BLAST Open Fall 2025?

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Everything you need to know about the recent CS2 ESL Impact League announcement

ESL has posted an official statement titled The Future of ESL Impact, confirming that the league will be suspended after Season 8. This latest season begins with the South American Division on October 9, 2025, and will conclude with the Stockholm Finals on November 30, 2025.

In their statement, the ESL officials shared that while the Impact series had achieved its mission of raising the profile of women's CS2 scene, it wasn't sustainable. They thanked the teams, players, and fans for all the support so far.

For those unaware, the ESL Impact League started in 2022 as an initiative to support and grow the female Counter-Strike competitive scene. In just over three years, it was able to attract hundreds of thousands of viewers and featured a total prize pool of over $1.2 million. The growth became noticeable as more and more all-women teams started forming each year, with teams like Imperial Fe even managing to compete in S-tier events.

Interestingly, Season 7 in particular recorded the best viewership since the league began. As such, this latest decision by ESL could potentially lead to the disbanding of many notable female teams and put the careers of many players at risk.

That's everything you need to know about the ESL announcement regarding the Impact series.

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About the author

Harshit Singh is a gaming journalist at Sportskeeda, with Fortnite, Counter-Strike 2, and Marvel Rivals being his areas of specialization. A final-year B.Des (Visual Communication) student at Delhi Technological University, he is always eager to pursue creative endeavors. Harshit aims to deliver news and up-to-date content promptly to players around the globe. To that end, he acquires information from reliable forums and social media pages and religiously tracks the latest coverage of Fortnite — a game he has been playing since 2018. He is often found testing the new meta in-game or spectating competitive tournaments.

Harshit holds a deep love for video games, which stemmed from the hours he spent playing GTA Vice City, NFS Most Wanted 2005, FlatOut 2, and Total Overdose in his school days. Currently, he is veering towards story-driven, single-player games, with Red Dead Redemption 2 being one of his favorites.

Harshit is an ardent fan of esports titles like CS, Rocket League, and Valorant, with Fnatic, EDG, G2, and Astralis being a few of his favorite orgs. Counter-Strike pro Xantares and Benjifishy, an esports athlete who has mastered both Fortnite and Valorant, are inspirational figures for him.

Harshit works as a music producer under the alias Hysaze. He is extremely passionate about EDM and has garnered over 40 million streams across all platforms. He is also a regular contributor to Fandom’s EDM Wiki.

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