ESL Impact Finals NA viewer guide
ESL Impact League Season 3 is coming to a close with the LAN finals in Dallas, as part of the DreamHack Dallas event. This is the second time that the ESL Impact League Finals will take place on North American soil, and the two NA teams will do their best to keep the trophy in the USA.
With LAN events few and far between for women's Counter-Strike, the Impact Finals are considered to be one of the more important events within the circuit. As such, there are also some major storylines and narratives to talk about.
Starting at home, FlyQuest Red, formerly known as CLG Red, completely dominated the regional qualifier, only dropping one map. Meanwhile, Shimmer managed to upset Detonate SparX, who had not dropped a single map at that point, to also claim a spot in Dallas.
FlyQuest Red are NA's big hope, in the sense that this team is the one with the most experience. However, Shimmer are also coming in as a strong contender thanks to their showing against SparX, who were dominating the region at the time.
On the individual level, there are some players that can make a lot of impact on the server. From FlyQuest, Vivienne "BiBiAhn" Quach and Coline "Kaoday" Le Floc'h have been tearing apart their opposition in NA for a while now. From the Shimmer side, Lucy "empathy" Verkaik and Abigail "abby" Deters are the ones to look out for if you are looking for great plays and stats.
Things won't be easy for North America in Dallas. Both teams ended up in the same group with the Women's Team of the Year award recipients, Nigma Galaxy, and another Russian squad, 9 Pandas Fearless. Nigma Galaxy, the home to the women's best player of 2022, Ana "ANa" Dumbravă, haven't lost a single game on LAN, making them a team to fear, but also puts a target on their back, everyone wants to dethrone them.
In the other group, the storylines are very interesting as well. To start off, both Brazilian teams are there (and neither of them are FURIA!), giving South America further representation in the international scene. B4 are, arguably, the best BR women's team at the moment and that narrative started to take shape ever since Nadjila "poppins" Rodrigues entered the team. The 17-year-old player is one of the biggest hopes for Brazilian women's Counter-Strike. This team came together after they disbanded from Black Dragons, who are the other BR team in their group.
Black Dragons have been trying to overcome FURIA as the top women's team in Brazil for quite some time. This is a great chance for BD to claim the throne by getting a statement win over B4 in the opening match of ESL Impact League S3 Finals. The team is able to combine experience and innovation, driven by their two star players in Ana "annaEX" Dias and Bruna "Babs" Nycoly.
In group A there is also HSG, who have recently added Olga "Olga" Rodrigues from FURIA. The move was one of the biggest transfers in women's Counter-Strike in recent memory as the Brazilian shockingly transferred to an Asian team. The expectations are high for the debut of this roster that also has Ramona "gfi" Zaharuddin - one of the best Asian players in the scene. NAVI Javelins round out the group and are one of the favorites to win the competition and therefore dethrone Nigma Galaxy. The Polish squad come into Dallas with an unspoiled record since February.
ESL Impact League Season 3 Finals start today at 10:30AM with the opening game between NAVI Javelins and HSG. The competition has a prize pool of $123,000, with the winner taking home $50,000.
Today's BO1 series are:
NAVI Javelins vs. 
HSG fe
Black Dragons fe vs. B4 fe
FlyQuest Red vs. 
9 Pandas Fearless Nigma Galaxy vs. Shimmer
