strike: My first steps in competitive CS were a great failure

Hello reader! Are you ready for a new bedtime story from our casters team?

We’ve asked Yury "strike" Tereschenko to share a funny story from the old times when he was starting his esports career. He was trying to become a professional CS:GO player in CIS back when esports infrastructure was pretty much non-existent.

At his prime, strike was known all over the world as a member of team A-Gaming.

Player, caster and cold-blooded tactician shared his fascinating story, that teaches us to respect and never underestimate the opponent. Especially, when this opponent is an all-female team.

A story by strike:

“If my memory serves me right, it happened in 2003. One day me and my classmates stumbled upon invitation to Kiev Esports League (KEL) posted on a relatively unknown website. Being very confident in our abilities, we decided to do it — summoned all the courage we could and stepped beyond the boundaries of our school grounds to challenge the best teams in Kiev.

The registration fee was delivered, and the agonizing wait began. We wanted to find out the drawing results, get the match schedule and start playing!

This glorious moment came, and the KEL website published all the info we needed. Our group had four teams, and one name it stood out — "BgC.CyberСats" (our first opponent). Our worst fears came true! Upon arrival, we realized that the team consisted of girls. Shock! To tell you the truth, I had a mixed impression. We never thought we would have problems with an all-female team.

Ha! Fools! We were destroyed on one of our best maps. The first steps in competitive CS were my biggest failure. The morale was so low that I wanted to kick myself.

Of course, I pulled through, and this story has a Happy End.

Big respect to the girls — Omega, Tesh, Alfa, Kate, and of course Миу! OGs remember! “