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Team Unikrn: Julia “Julie” Strunkowski; Perrine “Lalita” Allesiardo; Melania “Gina” Mylioti; Sophia “Kim” Benfakir; Camilla “ParmaViolet” Hart

Unikrn has been making a name for itself in the world of professional video games with a pioneering platform that lets people gamble on competitive matches.

But now the startup is making a bet of its own — on a group of elite female gamers.

The high-flying Seattle company, along with Australian sports gambling firm Luxbet, announced on Thursday that it has created and sponsored Team Unikrn, an all-female eSports team that will compete in global competitions. Its game of choice will be Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

The team’s players were scouted from across the globe, coming from Greece, Germany, France and the U.K. They’ll compete for a chance to win millions of dollars in worldwide competitions that have grown massive, but still don’t receive much mainstream attention.

On WhiteJust like in the broader technology industry, women have historically been underrepresented in gaming — especially the professional world known as eSports. Unikrn says it hopes to one day build the same kind of support infrastructure, like trainers and staff, around this team as male players have had for years.

“Although there are no impossible barriers for women to get into professional gaming, the communities tend to be male dominated, online bullying is everywhere and sexism does exist,” Team Unikrn manager Neda Samimi said. “Knowing this, the broader community is very supportive of women in gaming, and I’m excited that Unikrn is using our platform to help create opportunities for female gamers.”

Unikrn co-founder Rahul Sood.
Unikrn co-founder Rahul Sood.

Of course, Team Unikrn will raise questions about why men and women should compete separately in the first place. But Unikrn’s strategy for helping to close the gender gap seems to be to start with baby steps.

“In an ideal world, we’d see both men and women competing on the same teams, with and against each other, that’s the future of eSports,” Unikrn CEO and former Microsoft Ventures director Rahul Sood said. “Team Unikrn is all about professional competition and hopefully it inspires other women to take the step and build a career around eSports.”

Team Unikrn has already been training together, and now they’re ready to start competing.

Each professional gamer offers their personal story on the Team Unikrn Web site, and here’s what Perrine “Lalita” Allesiardo had to say about the opportunity.

Gaming is my passion and CS:GO is my favorite game. I can play it for fun or competitively. I started playing Counter Strike in the beginning for fun. When I started to feel more confident in the game and really understood the game, I began to play competitively to be the best. I’m thrilled to be with Unikrn because this will give me an opportunity to achieve my all time goal to represent female gamers professionally.

The sponsorship will be just the latest way the Seattle startup is making a name for itself. Founded in April, it has already grabbed national headlines all year long by signing up investors like Mark Cuban and Ashton Kutcher.

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