We don’t want to be a bunch of Debbie Downers. We really don’t. Usually we are, so we understand your skepticism.

But sadly it feels like the end – or at least some sort of inflection point – for women-only Counter-Strike is nigh.

Wow. For a bunch of people not trying to be doom-mongers, we didn’t half sound like doom-mongers.

A few organisations have left women’s CS in the last year or so, but today’s harbinger is NAVI, who have dropped the Javelins team that was inarguably one of the three best teams in the scene. They weren’t Imperial fe, but they weren’t far off.

If even that team isn’t sustainable, as NAVI mentioned, then who is? Nigma Galaxy dropped out too, and they had the multiple-time winners of ESL Impact.

With Impact having fewer events this year and ESL being forced to dial it back a little bit, it seems that side of the game is one of the first casualties – perhaps unsurprisingly. It was the newest addition, and the business cynics in us think it probably wasn’t making any money either.

However, there is a positive spin. NAVI Javelins are pretty high up in the Valve Rankings, and there’s a non-zero chance that they get a shot at a big event this year, which wouldn’t have been possible under the NAVI banner if the male roster was playing too.

All we’re saying is that if they have a good showing once at an event against men, there will be organizations falling over themselves to have the first women’s team that plays at big events.

But if they don’t… it’s hard to see a way back for women’s CS, at least for the time being.