July 2023, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It’s a scorching 104F as the sun beats down on the city, but it’s the last thing on Vivienne “BiBiAhn” Quach’s mind. She’s about to reunite with her old Counter-Strike team from her native Australia—she hasn’t seen them since she departed for the U.S. back in August 2022 to pursue her CS dream abroad.
She wasn’t planning on linking back up with her teammates of old for a while longer, but when they needed an emergency fifth for the IESF Female Asian Championships, who was she to say no? “They just hit me up, I think it was a month out,” BiBiAhn recalled to me. “They asked me if I was available so I went.”
BiBiAhn and the squad weren’t in Riyadh for an organization, however. They’d be pulling on the jersey to represent their home nation of Australia in their quest to make it to the World Championships—and despite the scorching heat, they barely broke a sweat.
The Aussies blitzed their way through the five-team group stage, recording numerous 16-0 results as they qualified for the World Championships in Romania with ease alongside Team Hong Kong. “Our performance was pretty good,” BiBiAhn said modestly, noting how smoothly everything ran for both the tournament and the Aussie squad who, for the most part, hadn’t competed internationally together for over a year.
The Oceanic scene is on life support, and only its community can save it
To say the Oceanic female CS:GO scene has languished over the past year is an understatement. Just three teams signed up for the latest ESEA Cash Cup in what is one of few offerings for female competition in the region, and the rest of the year hasn’t looked any better. Most Cash Cups see the same two teams play out a single series.
As esports finds itself in a bit of a downturn, nowhere is it hitting as hard as OCE. BiBiAhn pointed out that, while OCE teams can go toe-to-toe with their North American counterparts at the top, the rest of the scene pales in comparison in terms of size and financial backing. When there’s no money coming through to support the players outside of the server, how can they be expected to commit as hard?
“NA’s just larger geographically so there’s always going to be more players,” BiBiAhn said. It’s the pure player count that matters, BiBiAhn believes, and while it isn’t much more, the support on offer by smaller non-tier one organizations in the U.S. is keeping the scene pumping. “The infrastructure in place right now [in NA] is enough.”
As a result, international opportunities—like IESF in Riyadh and Romania—are key to the survival of smaller regions like Oceania. The World Championships’ prize pool of $80,000 isn’t something to shake a stick at when the alternative is a season of little gain.
“Obviously, it puts OCE on the map—it gives another chance for players to show themselves,” BiBiAhn said but added that, despite the opportunity to play once more with her ex-teammates, she wishes she could have seen new players break through instead.
“The problem is I don’t think you could get another full five roster that is as committed to the game that has the experience leading up to the tournament that could have qualified,” BiBiAhn told me.
Her agent Joey “Semtex” Semaan, who has been with BiBiAhn on her journey since he took a chance on her at Carnage, echoed her sentiment, and explained it was this commitment that got BiBiAhn her shot overseas in the first place—but the already-limited infrastructure in place back then just doesn’t exist anymore.
“These opportunities [like IESF] are pivotal, the girls have to fight tooth and nail for the basics,” Semtex explained. “The reason you see the same five players attend the same tournaments is because those are the same five players fighting blood, sweat, and tears for it.”
Without the infrastructure in place to begin with, a Catch-22 arises. “Do we have a shit scene because the effort isn’t there, or is the effort not there because we have a shit scene?” Semtex asked. At the end of the day, he and BiBiAhn believe the only way forward for the region is through the community.
“It’s necessary and important for the community to get behind the female scene irrespective of whatever party is organizing it because it’s important for the girls,” Semtex concluded.
From Melbourne to the States: BiBiAhn’s journey to become the best
BiBiAhn’s esports journey kicked into overdrive with Semtex’s Carnage organization in 2019. The squad upped and moved to Perth for the Intel Challenge Katowice Asian qualifier, where they overcame the competition to book a ticket to Poland. Despite the squad failing to register a win overseas, BiBiAhn—who wasn’t clear on what her first move after school should be—was hooked.
She would ultimately take a gap year from further study as Carnage began to take on the world. They would register their first map win against TYLOO fe at WESG 2019 and then go down swinging with a quadruple-overtime loss to Lazarus in the playoffs, finishing fourth.
Her first move outside Carnage was groundbreaking. BiBiAhn joined Rooster 2, an Australian mixed squad, ahead of the second half of the 2020 season. Participating in ESEA Premier (then the Mountain Dew League), she became the second player to participate in an MDL squad anywhere in the world.
BiBiAhn’s experience with Rooster 2 had her believing it was the path forward, noting that, had ESL Impact failed to get off the ground, she saw herself moving away from the female scene altogether. Her tenure at Rooster 2 would ultimately come to an end after just a few months—through no fault of her own.
“I knew [Rooster 2] was a good team and a great way to improve and learn team CS,” BiBiAhn told me. She was ready to stick with Rooster 2 for a while, but after the rest of the team was banned due to ESIC betting violations in 2021, she found herself without a home. “That was pretty devastating for me,” BiBiAhn remembered. “There was a point where I was pretty emotional when that happened.”
Related: ESIC suspends 35 CS:GO players for up to 5 years for betting offenses in Australia
Her 2021 competitive year was all but lost following ESIC’s sanctions and the dissolution of Rooster 2, but BiBiAhn received a lifeline in the form of a rebuilding Mindfreak in January 2022, shortly before the announcement of ESL’s female circuit.
She had no idea at the time that a return to an all-female roster would result in an eventual move overseas. But, after seven months of dominating OCE and snatching international qualifier spots from North American rosters, the phone rang.
Of course, there was more to the story than a simple call or message. Hints that there was a possible spot in a top NA team were spreading like wildfire following the release of VALORANT, and after chatting with players at IEM Dallas, it seemed like CLG Red was interested.
Mindfreak would leave the Dallas server winless, but BiBiAhn wouldn’t. At the airport on her flight back to Australia, she received a message that would change her life. “It literally came at the gate at the airport on the way home,” BiBiAhn recalled. “It was a few months out from the actual signing of the contract but I knew about it for a while.”
“She was giddy, but the offer was just due, it was so well-deserved,” Semtex said. He would message her ahead of Mindfreak’s DreamHack Valencia run that something official was on the way. Semtex believed there was no better person who deserved it. “She works harder than anyone I know regardless of the field, I don’t know how she does it.”
BiBiAhn got straight to work with CLG Red, finding it easy to adjust to her new surroundings in the U.S., but on the server, adjusting would take a little more time. She put it down once again to the difference in regions and the resources on offer. “Being from a smaller region you just don’t know as many things about the game as you think.”
From default setups to deep-rooted systems the team was already comfortable with, BiBiAhn would need to learn fast that her free-flowing playstyle from past teams wouldn’t work within CLG Red’s structured layout. And being so new to a team that itself had limited offline experience meant there would be some teething issues—something CLG Red would encounter at Sweden’s Impact League finals in 2022 and at Katowice in 2023.
The team was bundled out of both events in the group stage, with Katowice’s exit coming without a series win. BiBiAhn put it down to the pressure of the moment and believes the losses that followed were necessary for the squad to grow. ”As a team, we were all feeling the nerves and not really thinking about the here and now,” she said. “I think that was something we weren’t prepared for.”
The team went heads down and got to work preparing for their homecoming LAN at IEM Dallas. But as the tournament approached, disaster struck. CLG shut their doors and in an instant, BiBiAhn was living a nightmare.
Related: CLG players having a ‘hard fkn day’ after reports of organization shutting down
“There was no build-up to it whatsoever. I was literally in the gym at the time and we got a message saying there was an emergency meeting and that everyone had to show up,” BiBiAhn explained.
Inside of an hour, the entirety of CLG folded. Only the LCS squad would survive the NRG acquisition, leaving players and staff—including the CLG Red division—stunned. As one would expect, the team took days to digest the news. “I knew if I couldn’t secure anything I had to fly back [to Australia],” BiBiAhn said. “That was the last thing I wanted to do.”
Life after CLG and getting back on track
In the days that followed CLG’s disintegration, the team did their utmost to secure a new home together but prepared for the worst regardless—solo free agency. BiBiAhn revealed she had received a number of offers, including a possible European venture, but she didn’t want to make the move again; she had just gotten settled and was willing to commit further with her team.
“There were a few offers from North American orgs but they ultimately didn’t happen because of budget concerns or wanting to split the team up,” BiBiAhn told me, revealing the team agreed that, while they would prepare for life apart, they would first exhaust all options to remain together.
Fortunately, they did find a home together at FlyQuest—and the rest is history. The team rebounded to finish in the top four and established to all NA challengers that their crown would need to be taken by force.
Next up for FlyQuest RED is their ESL Impact season four, and with a spot at Valencia’s finals in December up for grabs, BiBiAhn is ready to shift up a gear—but Valencia is far from her endgame. “I’m working step-by-step but I would love to play at the tier two level, that’s where I’d want to ideally end up.”
I asked whether she believed such a goal could be reached with an all-female roster, and while she believes a female squad hitting the likes of ESL Pro League or a Major was still a pipe dream, the girls aren’t that far off from beating the boys.
“In NA I think a female team would get a chance to compete at a big event in a shorter amount of time compared to how competitive Europe is,” BiBiAhn said, adding that FlyQuest RED is capable of doing it individually—but just needs a little more time as a team.
BiBiAhn believes the team’s progression through ESEA Advanced has proved initiatives like ESL Impact and VALORANT Game Changes are leaving their mark on female esports, but she and Semtex believe there’s always room for improvement—especially given CS2 is just around the corner.
Female VALORANT all but surpassed CS overnight—can CS2 bounce back?
Semtex thinks VALORANT has the edge over CS solely due to the era in which it was released. As the gaming gender gap closes and more girls and women become involved than ever before, newer titles and communities are more inviting to a larger demographic.
Semtex also cites Riot’s micromanagement over each region regarding esports—both for VALORANT and League of Legends—believing that, as a result, the scene at large gels together more cohesively. “They’re just way more involved, and run a smoother ship across the board.”
It’s this involvement, and the support that comes with it, that is making the difference at the esports level. The results speak for themselves: 2022’s Game Changers final peaked at over 200,000 viewers and recorded over five million hours of watch time. ESL Impact season three’s finals, by comparison, fell short of 30,000 concurrents according to viewership site Esports Charts.
The question is, then: Can CS2 bounce back and battle for VALORANT’s limelight? “I think it being new will help but it wouldn’t completely fix it,” BiBiAhn says. “It’s all on the new wave of players. I think it will be refreshing.”
Should CS2 fail, however, and BiBiAhn was given the option to move to VALORANT instead, would she take it? “No,” she said curtly, almost in disgust.
BiBiAhn returns to the server with the Aussie team this week in Romania for the IESF World Championships. She won’t get a chance to take on her FlyQuest teammates unless both Australia and the U.S. make it to the playoffs, but given the form she and the Aussies are in, there might just be a trophy heading down under on Sept. 1.
The wonders that would do for the scene at home, one can only imagine.
Published: Aug 26, 2023 06:32 am