Women CS2 Pros Write Open Letter, Seek More Free Female Characters

On 28th February, Astralis' female Counter-Strike 2 team wrote an open letter to Valve seeking the addition of free female character models. According to them, having only male characters available for free discourages women from picking up Counter-Strike 2 and playing the game.

The letter was penned by Astralis' player Josefine "Josefine" Jensen and signed by herself and her four teammates. The letter also explained that it was a follow-up to a message they had sent Valve privately last month on 24th January.

Women CS2 Pros Write Letter To Valve, Seek Addition of Free Female Characters

In the letter, Josefine and her teammates said that they love the game and acknowledged how it is a part of their lives now. The pros also stated that they shared the passion for Counter-Strike with millions of other gamers worldwide and that they love being a part of the global community.

However, the letter said, "Unfortunately, we currently feel we are only guests at the party. Using a female agent skin costs extra, while default skins are all male. We don't know why it is so, but we know that it strikes us as being both unfair and a bit unwelcoming."

The Astralis players also opined that it felt that in some way it supports sexism that they encounter as female players. They argued that there should be no difference between agents and that there should be as many free female agents as free male agents.

"We believe more women would start playing the game if there were default free female agents, and at least those of us playing now would feel more welcome," they believed.

Concluding the letter, they asked Valve to take the step towards diversity and inclusivity together with them, and by first freeing the female agents in Counter-Strike 2.

The pros who signed the letter are as follows:

• Aurora "Aurora" Lyngdal

• Josefine "Josefine" Jensen

• Marie "Marie" Toft

• Anja "Anja" Soelberg

• Isabella "Ismo" Ferslev

The response for this open letter by the Astralis women Counter-Strike 2 team has been a mixed bag. Under the tweet, Counter-Strike streamer Dona said, "I couldn’t care less about female default skins. Valve should focus on improving the game, fix their subtick issue alongside making a proper anti cheat. THIS would attract more new players."

Another similar comment said, "I mean, why not, but let's not pretend like adding default female agents is going to bring in players. Optimizing the game and fixing the cheating problem is how you bring in more players, I have never heard anyone say 'I dont play CS because there's no default female agents'"

Meanwhile, Garrity Gaming CS2 player xDiorCS tweeted, "Literally nothing bad can come out of this idea. Like why not?"

One Twitter user also called out people who were disagreeing with the open letter. They wrote, "i see no issue with this suggestion. a lot of sad people in the replies, y'all should get therapy or something."