ESL Impact League Season 2 NA playoffs start today

Today is the day the North American organizations field their women in search of a spot in the ESL Impact League Season 2 Finals in Jönköping, Sweden.

The competition only has four teams participating. CLG Red, the #1 women's team in NA; Evil Geniuses Gold, recently rebranded two months after the org signed the roster; Please Send Bocks, which counts with the core from Little Bocks; and Valkyries, which is the result of the Slay rebrand.

Mounira "GooseBreeder" Dobie and CLG Red come into the competition as the heavy favorites. The org has been the best in NA for some time now but with some recent shuffles, this is the time to attack the throne occupied by GooseBreeder. CLG Red qualified for the semifinals after ending the group stage 6-0 with a round difference of +105.

From the same group come Valkyries. This roster was the only one to have a competitive map against CLG Red during this stage, in a match where they lost 16-13. The team ended the group with a 3-3 record, tied with Saints, but it was the Valkyries who came through.

EG Gold, in the other group, nearly replicated what CLG Red did. The women from EG also ended with a perfect record, but "only" with a +94 round difference. If they manage to overcome Valkyries in the semifinal, they will get revenge against CLG Red, against whom they lost the most recent ESL Impact Cash Cup NA.

Please Send Bocks was the only team able to win a map against EG Gold, which happened did twice, but in different games. As previously mentioned, this team is made of three members from Little Bocks, Julie "Bouchard" Bouchard", Somalie "smiLey" Audet, and Kimberly "Kimmy" Nelson. The rest of the squad is one former member of the Please Send Help team that reached the ESL Impact Season 1 Finals, Charissa "Senna" Hoang, and one former member from Slay, Vanessa "Vanessa" Gideon.

This is shaping up to be a competitive ESL Impact Season 2 NA, with hopes of having the Jönköping winners come from this qualifier.