GOLD.GLORY.GAME ON.

Meet Grills Gaming, the all-women Dota 2 team breaking the glass ceiling to make a name in the Southeast Asian esports arena and beyond

- Kiran Pillay

In the predominantly male-centric realm of multiplayer online battle arenas (MOBAs), Grills Gaming stands out as an all-women Dota 2 team that has achieved remarkable success—securing gold in the Global Esports Games 2023 (GEG 2023) and Commonwealth Esports Championships 2022.

Dota 2, developed by Valve, is a real-time strategy game between two teams of five players on a square field separated diagonally by three lanes. The Radiant faction occupies the bottom left, while the Dire faction is on the top right of the game map. The objective is to destroy the opposing team’s main structure, known as The Ancient, in their respective base. It is from this aim that the preceding game adapts its name: Defense of the Ancients.

Grills Gaming was founded in 2016 by Tiffani “Oling” Lim, Stephanie “auroraa” Lim, and Bette “iStarx” Chia, with the team undergoing a pivotal transformation in 2022. After Tiffani retired from competitive gaming in 2018, she assumed the role of team manager when new opportunities arose for the team to participate in international female tournaments.

Under Tiffani’s management, Grills Gaming welcomed fresh talents, including Melissa “Lynnie” Lim, Tiffany “Hishiko” Teoh, Adeline “velnaoh” Anak Foki, and Vanessa “Butterfly” Hii, some recruited just three months before their noteworthy performance in the recent GEG. Despite describing themselves as a “parttime, non-sponsored, zero-budget team,” Grills Gaming has had a phenomenal showing, securing second place at the Global Esports Games Istanbul in 2022 as well as the Female SEA League Open I that same year.