More details of ESL Impact announced

The second and final North American Open Qualifier for ESL Impact, ESL's all-women CS:GO event circuit, is set to begin today. The bracket will pit the best female teams in the region for a chance to qualify for the $500,000 women-only circuit featuring two league seasons with live finals, a standalone CS event, and online cash cups. According to ESL, the ESL Impact circuit "is a first important step towards a more diverse CS:GO ecosystem" and will help attract more female talent into the professional space.

The inaugural season of ESL Impact will include 24 teams "spread equally across three core regions", which specifically includes Europe, North America, and South America. Two of the eight teams from each region will be directly invited for the inaugural season, meaning the other six available slots will be determined through two open qualifiers.

ESL Impact will be played live and broadcast every Thursday and Friday over the next six weeks. The eight domestic teams will split into two groups of four and participate in round-robin best-of-three action to determine the two top teams of each group, with the four succeeding teams playing in best-of-three series for the two available slots at the Impact League Global Finals. The league will have a relegation system as well, with each group’s worst teams playing in relegation games from the winners of future open qualifiers.

With the event just a week away, the open qualifiers have already begun. When the first open qualifier reached conclusion, Please send help, Hot Flash and Osadia were the three teams to earn qualification. The second and final North American Open Qualifier begins tomorrow, opening the door for three more teams to qualify for the inaugural season.

Teams can sign up for the event here.