FURIA fe leave Counter-Strike for VALORANT: the women's scene is bleeding out
The hemorrhaging continues. FURIA has announced that its women's Counter-Strike team, FURIA fe, is leaving the game entirely to compete in VALORANT, in Riot's VCT Game Changers circuit. The roster will be renamed FURIA Inclusivo.
The move carries a historic footnote: it's the first women's roster to switch games while keeping its structure intact. It isn't dissolving so the players can find teams separately; it's moving as a block, with its chemistry and staff. All five players — kaahSENSEI, izaa, gabs, bizinha, and lulitenz — stay together.
The organization announced it with a message blending pride and farewell: they came, they saw, and they conquered in Counter-Strike, and now face a new scene with the same strength as always.
This isn't just any team
It's worth underlining who's leaving, because this is no filler roster. FURIA fe spent six years competing under the organization, with several South American titles and, above all, a notable international record: runners-up in three separate ESL Impact League Finals before finally lifting the trophy in Season 7.
In other words, one of the world's best rosters — the reigning champion of the sport's flagship circuit — is walking away at the peak of its competitive form.
The second blow in two weeks
And it isn't the first. Barely two weeks ago, ASTRA, HLTV's best female player of 2025, announced exactly the same move to VALORANT, with a diagnosis that left no room for doubt: female CS is falling apart and there are no tournaments on the horizon.
Both departures share the same root cause. At the end of 2025, ESL placed its Impact circuit on indefinite hold, citing an unsustainable economic model. Impact was the competitive backbone of women's CS: without it, players were left with no calendar, no qualifiers, and no showcase. Since then, the list of organizations dropping their women's rosters has kept growing: NAVI quit the discipline, BIG paused the EQUIPA project that had won the last Impact season, and now FURIA joins them.
Why VALORANT and not something else
The answer lies in the direct comparison. Riot's VCT Game Changers has been running since 2021 and remains a structural pillar of the game, with its own calendar, qualifiers, and a visible route to international events. It's exactly what women's CS had and has lost.
For FURIA Inclusivo, the challenge is real: they'll need to adapt quickly to a different shooter and compete against teams with years of Game Changers experience. But at least they'll do so knowing there will be tournaments to play — something they could no longer take for granted in Counter-Strike.
The question that remains
Each individual departure can be explained. The sum of them can't. When in two weeks you lose the world's best player and one of the circuit's best rosters, and both leave for the same place for the same reason, the problem stops being a series of personal decisions and becomes a structural diagnosis.
Women's CS isn't losing talent for lack of skill or lack of interest from players: it's losing it for lack of a place to compete. And while the circuit stays paused, every passing month makes it harder for the next generation to choose Counter-Strike.
Source: HLTV, FURIA, Dust2, Dot Esports.