ptkovsky
Julia Kiran, who is better known in the gaming community as juliano, is one of the most recognizable female figures on the esports scene.
The 27-year-old Swedish is considered one of the strongest female Counter-Strike players in the world.
juliano has recently made an important announcement in her Twitter post. She is set to retire from playing professional CS in favor of the Riot’s FPS title — Valorant.
This is my official announcement that i’m no longer playing CSGO professionally. Thank you for this journey & to everyone who supported me all these years??
— G2 juliano? (@juliakiran) September 15, 2021
Kiran started her professional career playing Counter-Strike 1.6 and then transitioned to CS: GO in 2012. juliano played for various CS: GO teams, such as female roster of Besiktas Esports, which is associated with the eponymous football club, also Team Originem, and XSET. She usually plays the in-game leader role on the team.
Juliano triumphed with her teams multiple times at different CS: GO tournaments, such as Intel Challenge Katowice series of events in 2015, 2016, and 2017. Kiran won the Katowice event in 2017 and Copenhagen Games 2017 tournament playing for Team Secret.
She also notably competed in the 1v1 HTC event in 2016, where the Swede was playing against top CS: GO players and managed to showcase her excellent mechanical skills, beating famous players such as Casper “cadiaN” Moller, and fighting against Kenny “kennyS” Schrub, and Shahzeeb “ShahZaM” Khan.
Her biggest achievement was earning a $50,000 prize at the DreamHack-related event, the DreamHack Showdown Valencia in 2019, where her Turkish organization Besiktas Esports finished first, beating their opponents — CLG Red of America‘s Counter Logic Gaming, 2:1 in the finals.
She finished first at one of the DreamHack Showdown events in 2020, such as DreamHack Showdown Summer 2020: Europe, where her team beat Galaxy Racer Female CS: GO team with the 2:0 score in the final match.
In the Showdown Summer tournament, Juliano played for the Team Originem‘s international female CS: GO roster, which was then signed by the North American multigaming esports organization XSET.
The US organization features rosters in various esports titles, such as Valorant, Rocket League, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege, Call of Duty: Warzone, Fortnite, CS: GO, Apex Legends, iRacing, PUBG MOBILE, Madden, and also produces content with the help of various creators.
In five month after the previous DreamHack event, playing for the organization from the US, Kiran managed to once again beat the same opposing team, Galaxy Racer’s female CS: GO roster from the United Arab Emirates‘s organization, with the 2:1 score in the finals of the DreamHack Showdown Winter 2020: Europe tournament.
Juliano also recently played a showmatch, which was organized by local activists and organizations such as Esportal. The event was dedicated to the 22 years date since the first Counter-Strike beta version release, which happened on June 19, 1999.
During the special showmatch event, Kiran played on one of the participating teams, featuring famous CS personalities, such as former CS 1.6 and CS: GO professional player, who was part of prominent Swedish organizations such as Fnatic, SK Gaming, Begrip, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Dignitas — Christopher Alesund, better known as GeT_RiGhT, and also juliano’s fellow teammate, Zainab “zAAz” Turkie.