With the aim of furthering and encouraging women in esports, Global Esports, India’s leading and Asia’s fastest growing premier esports organisation recently announced the launch of GE.Rayne, it’s all female Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) division. Helmed by the talented Saloni ‘Meow16k’ Pawar as the captain of the team, GE.Rayne participated in the recently concluded Lenovo Legion of Valkyrie 2019 held in Thailand. With a stupendous performance at play, the team secured the second position at the coveted competition and won prize money of USD 3000.
GE.Rayne is India’s best competitive women’s CS:GO team which was formed in November 2019, with an aim of participating in female CS:GO events all over the world. The idea was to dispel the stereotype that the Esports scene is a male dominated niche industry.
GE.Rayne line-up for Lenovo Legion of Valkyrie was as under:
· Saloni ‘Meow16k’ Pawar – Mumbai
· Dilraj ‘COCO’ Kaur – Mumbai
· Neha ‘CaspeRR’ Sottany – Mumbai
· Mansi ‘Matka QueeN’ Sottany – Mumbai
· Pannakarn ‘Angelica’ Udomyart (Stand-in)
· Saharyar ‘Badman’ Shaikh (Coach)
· Vatsal Uniyal (Manager)
Within a few weeks of the team’s formation, their first appearance as team was in the online qualifier round for the Lenovo Legion of Valkyries CS:GO tournament. With their determination and skill, the girls passed the test with flying colours and qualified for the main event in Thailand. Their first challenge was against Team Mako Female from Australia. GE.Rayne won the contest with a 2-0 victory against them.
After this dominating performance, the team went on to face Illuminate Esports in the grand final of the event. The team tried their best, but team Illuminate came through stronger. GE.Rayne gave Team Illuminate from Thailand a tough fight but eventually lost leaving India finishing in the 2nd place.
Expressing their achievement Saloni ‘Meow16k’ Pawar, Captain of GE.Rayne expressed, “It’s a very proud moment for team GE.Rayne as we are the 1st runner up of Lenovo Legion Valkyries 2019. It was a great experience and we performed beyond our expectations with a last moment changed line-up. My team and I take this opportunity to thank our parents who have let us pursue our passion and seize this opportunity to build a career in esports. We’re also extremely thankful to Global Esports who have constantly encouraged us and guided us throughout to achieve this high point as gamers.”
This is the best placement for an Indian CS:GO team (both male and female) in an international CS:GO tournament ever.
Dr. Rushindra Sinha, CEO and co-founder and Mohit Israney, MD and co-founder of Global Esports said, “We are extremely elated with team GE.Rayne’s achievement, though they did not win the tournament but securing a second position at a large scale International platform is very commendable. This is just a beginning for the team and we are sure that with their hard work the team will go on to win different tournaments and make the country proud.”
This is a massive accomplishment and Global Esports couldn’t be more proud of the girls.