Diamonds in the rough: The story of the most remote CS:GO organization

Counter-Strike truly is a global phenomenon. The game has brought communities together from various places around the world, some more developed than others, some warmer than others. This story talks about HOTU, an organization operating from the coldest inhabited region on Earth, the Republic of Sakha, in the Russian Far East, along the Arctic Ocean.

HOTU was founded on February 5th of 2022, by Valery Iakovlev, and it currently represents two Counter-Strike teams, one male and one female, and a PUBG squad. Beyond the normal obstacles when running an esports organization, HOTU has problems that players and organizations from less remote locations don’t even dream of. Power and Internet in the Sakha region are a privilege, therefore its prices are very high, just like the prices of computers, due to the markets not having well-established freight routes to the region. If the players want to practice against European teams, they have to do so with 150-200 ms worth of ping.

Yakutia, another form of designation for the Republic of Sakha, is mostly known for the low temperatures recorded, particularly in Oymyakon, the coldest permanently-inhabited place on Earth, where it was recorded a -67.7ºC (-90ºF) lowest temperature on February 6th, 1933. Verkhoyansk, another Yakutian city, shares the same record, although there is some controversy around that.

Despite the international fame the region has regarding its cold temperatures, nationally, Sakha is known due to producing 99% of Russian diamonds and being responsible for more than 25% of all diamonds mined around the globe.

According to the Russian Census of 2021, the Republic of Sakha has close to 1 million habitants, despite its 3,083,523 km2, making it the largest area in Russia and the 4th least dense region of the country in terms of population, at the same time. Despite the low population number, there lies HOTU, an organization with indigenous roots that is attempting to bring attention to Yakutia.

In hopes of shifting the focus of Asian CS:GO to the Arctic Ocean, both the women’s and man’s CS:GO teams have been fighting for the spotlight. The male team started its journey almost qualifying for the PGL Major Antwerp 2022 Europe RMR, losing the final series of the Far East Russia Qualifier and missing out on the RMR. Recently, the team managed to win SCL Season 8, a tournament with teams from Eastern Europe and Asia, and just a few days ago they managed to almost beat NIP, yes THE Ninjas in Pyjamas, in a BO1 series for the IEM Dallas 2023 European open qualifiers, but they ultimately lost 16-14.

The all-women’s squad, HOTU Diamonds, is looking to make a name for itself in the Asian women’s scene. Valery Ikovlev the owner of the organization is very happy with the state of the women’s scene in the continent now that ESL announced the qualifier for ESL Impact Season 3 in the region. According to Valery, the women’s CS:GO scene in Asia is “not dead at all”, stating that multiple tournaments are held and even streamed on the Chinese streaming platform Douyu. Just over a month ago, the platform streamed the finals of Let's Aim! Goddess Season 3 Finals between world-famous HSG and less-known ALLU, not the Finnish AWPer.

Before the announcement of the ESL Impact Asian Open qualifier, teams in the region were frustrated that despite the level of competitiveness there being high, they would not get to fight for a spot in the biggest all women’s tournament. HOTU then wrote a collective letter to ESL in hopes of being heard, which worked, but Ikovlev revealed that they did not get an answer from ESL, despite the qualifier being announced.

HOTU Diamonds have been “burning with the dream of playing” professionally, and so, with this Asian qualifier for ESL Impact Season 3, Viktoria “KaRaVella" Dektyannikova, Valeriya "llvet" Ryabova, Alexandra "Saschch3n" Tarasova, Alina "formalina" Kozheguldinova, and Valeriya “valencia” Kogai can still pursue their dream of making a name for themselves while coming from a very remote region and having indigenous roots coming from Yakut, Korea, and Kazakhstan. Despite every trouble, an objective that’s been brewing inside of the players individually for more than five years, is now possible to achieve collectively thanks to the development of the women’s scene and the sheer willpower of the players. The journey will start on the 15th of April, and nobody knows where it’s going to lead the team, but being able to have that journey means a lot for HOTU Diamonds and all the women’s teams in the Asian region.

The story of HOTU, and particularly HOTU Diamonds, comes to show how Counter-Strike is able to bring people together, even from the most remote locations, with just one goal in mind, play CS with their friends and try to make a name for themselves.