The massive gender gap has narrowed in Call of Duty esports: Kelsaroony has become the first woman to qualify for the Call of Duty Challengers Elite tournament.
Kelsaroony and her teammates on Team WaR qualified on Jan. 5 for the upcoming season of CDL Challengers Elite, which will run from Jan. 18 to Feb. 2 in multiple regions, including Europe where WaR is based.
“Firstly, as always, I want to give a shoutout to my teammates who have made this possible,” Kelsaroony told Dot Esports. “It’s great to be the first female to qualify for the Elite, but hopefully that’s just the beginning.”
Kelsaroony has been building a reputation for herself for years by competing at high levels in the male-dominated esport and taking part in offseason tournaments.
She has garnered attention and praise from several high-profile members of the CoD community, including OpTic Hitch, who congratulated her on Twitter. CDL general manager Daniel Tsay also showed her some love for the huge accomplishment, along with several others.
“The outpouring of support and encouragement I’ve received has honestly been incredible,” she said. “Hopefully it encourages other females to get involved and rubbishes some of the stereotypes that people have.”
The 21-year-old Scottish competitor follows in the footsteps of fellow female competitor Squizzy, who qualified for the Call of Duty World League back in 2015. But the CDL is a whole different ballgame, with Challengers Elite teams potentially moving on to face off with CDL pro teams in international competition.
Kelsaroony and her teammates—Genesis, BBConor, and Disarray—will look to earn their share of the $50,000 prize pool for CDL Challengers Elite in Europe this season before potentially continuing to rise through the ranks and garnering attention from CDL organizations and the esports world at large.
