Just days after getting themselves into hot water over the pricing of the Cologne 26 tickets, ESL once again put themselves in the firing line when they announced that the ESL Impact circuit would be suspended after Season 8 comes to a close at the end of October.

In other words, as with every other controversy surrounding Impact, people suddenly started to pretend they cared about a product they didn’t watch to score some social credit.

And seriously, if you’re one of those people, go f-ck yourself. It’s undeniable that plenty of you exist. Even the players are aware of it, and we couldn’t feel more sorry for them for that. How frustrating it must be.

As for why it’s being shut down, ESL have said that it’s due to the economic model being “not sustainable”. And given the fact that Impact largely had terrible viewership and never grew across its eight seasons, it’s not hard to see why.

Truthfully, we don’t know who should be blamed for this. We know it shouldn’t be solely on ESL, like people have been trying to do, but could they have done more? Possibly.

What about organisations that kept dropping out despite being offered incentives by ESL? If there’s people willing to call the entire circuit “performative activism” after its cancellation, is there not something to be said about the teams who didn’t stick by their rosters?

Or how about Valve themselves? We know we often criticise Valve for getting involved here, but when you look at what Riot have done for the women’s scene over in that other game, could Valve have not done more to legitimise the women’s game by giving them their own Major?

Whoever you want to blame for it, it ultimately doesn’t matter. Not to us, anyway. All that really matters is that we establish the fact that it’s just a bit sad that this happened.

Although people love to sh-t on the players in women’s teams for struggling when they play against all-male teams, Imperial Valkryies did show at points that they might eventually be able to become competitive.

And even if they didn’t, Impact was a melting pot in which players who one day could be competitive were formed. Where coaches could get their first crack at forming a team. Where talent could get some solid experience at high-intensity matches.

Whichever way you look at it, it’s a shame all of that is gone. We’re sure, of course, that the women’s scene won’t die out, but how far will the loss of its dedicated circuit set it back?

Not too long, we hope.