Starfish and U-Turn dream of Dallas
Starfish and U-Turn have qualified for ESL Impact Season 3 North America after both teams won only one series during the second open qualifier. Previously, U-Turn had faltered against byte for a spot in the biggest women's CS competition, and Starfish didn't even play.
The two teams join Chimkins, CLG Red, Evil Geniuses Gold, Saints, Shimmer, and byte, and all eight teams will fight for just two spots in Dallas, where the ESL Impact Season 3 Finals will be played.
In a second open qualifier with just five teams, Starfish, the #1 seed, and U-Turn, the #2 seed, had first-round byes, meaning they would only have to win a single series to qualify. Starfish faced off against SeraFem and comfortably got their spot after winning the series 2-0 with 16-10 and 16-6 maps. U-Turn played against CherryBombs and also claimed their spot in ESL Impact Season 3 confidently, after a 2-0 series result with 16-12 and 16-2 maps.
From the U-Turn squad, two members have previous experience playing an ESL Impact season, as Milla "MamaAlien" Schmidt played in season 2 with Reversal and Krissy "PippySippy" Hendrickson played the first two seasons with Slay and Valkyries, respectively. From the Starfish squad, only Rose "Tippy" R. has previous experience in the competition, having played under ECHO's banner during season 2.
ESL Impact Season 3 North America starts March 8th and ends April 16th. The competition is separated into a group stage and a playoff stage. There will be two groups of four teams, in which all teams in a group will face each other twice, and all games will be BO3. The top two teams from each group will advance to the playoffs, in a single elimination bracket with all series being BO3.
