Women in esports

Isurus Gaming roster:

Julieta “khizha” Grillia, Evelin “chjna” Acuña, Florencia “Flossie” Gaitán, Irene “lady” Giménez and Sol “solxiz” Checa

Women in esports Isurus Gaming

Regardless of gender, you can be a good player. An interview with Isurus Gaming.

AUTHOR Pablo Monti  @PabloMMonti

surus Gaming is one of the biggest organisations in LatAm and, besides having the best League of Legends team in the region alongside a top male CS:GO team, it also has a highly competitive female CS:GO team. But what is it like being a woman in esports in LatAm? I

The goal of this article is to address the current state of female competitive gaming in Latin America. With this in mind, we focus here on the Argentine organisation Isurus Gaming.

Known as “The Shark”, their League of Legends team won the second split of Liga Latinoamerica and qualified for Worlds 2019. Their male Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team is based in Brazil and is one of the best teams of the country.

“We are very proud of what we are doing and what we have accomplished. It is such a massive work that is hard to explain it”, says Isurus’ CEO, Facundo “Kala” Calabro. The organisation’s Sports Director, Juan Cyterszpiler, adds that “we always innovate and we keep targeting excellence and professionalism.

We love to face new challenges and we feel comfortable doing so”.

They faced a new challenge one and a half years ago when Isurus Gaming launched their female CS:GO team. “We wanted to help female CS:GO to grow so it can reduce the gap with male CS:GO” says Calabro. Regarding sponsorship, “Kala” notes that “brands are starting to pay more attention to women in esports and we want to increase its popularity. Our teams compete in several tournaments in Brazil”.

Julieta “khizha” Grillia, Evelin “chjna” Acuña, Florencia “Flossie” Gaitán, Irene “lady” Giménez and Sol “solxiz” Checa make up Isurus’ roster. The team has already won several tournaments in Brazil and is one of the top female teams in the entirety of LatAm.

“Playing with Isurus helped a lot to kickstart our way into professionalism as players and to see esports as a job. We realised that our goal was to become a top team in LatAm and that it wasn’t going to be easy. The organisation was crucial to reach that goal” says khizha, team’s captain.

Chjna explains that “Isurus made it possible for us to participate in more tournaments since we were invited and also because we could afford to travel and play the main events”.

Women in gaming and esports have been struggling with discrimination for years. Almost every female player has experienced it, and it remains rare to see a male team with a woman on it. “It doesn’t bother me that we had to gather together a female team. Everyone that has dedication, responsibility and patience to train and compete can succeed. You can play good being a man or a woman” says Grillia. The creation of female tournaments helped girls to keep playing. Acuña explains that “we were always left aside and we started to feel without motivation to play. Luckily, new tournaments appeared and a lot of women headed back to the servers”.

It is clear that there are a lot more men than women playing video games at a competitive level, but the success of organisations, such as Isurus Gaming,

Juan Cyterszpiler Sports Director

Julieta “khizha” Grillia Isurus Gaming captain

Evelin “chjna” Acuña

illustrates the growing market for female-led competitive gaming in LatAm. Khizha adds that “if you work hard you can achieve your goals, and ours is to play at an international tournament”. Chjna goes even further: “my goal is to be the best team in the world and represent Argentina everywhere”.

Facundo “Kala” Calabro CEO