ESL Impact Season 4 North America viewer guide

ESL Impact Season 4 starts tomorrow features a brand new format for the competition. Alongside the format, there are a bunch of new teams and players hitting the servers, in a season that can be seen as one of the strongest the North American women's scene has ever had. We've broken down all of the dirty details as the premier women's competition comes back into the fold.

Dates and Format

For the uninitiated, ESL Impact is an all-women's circuit that runs weekly Cash Cups and, more notably, the ESL Impact Season (previously known as ESL Impact League).

The ESL Impact Season 4 North America will start on September 13th and will run until October 29th, after which the qualified teams will have to wait until December 8th to play the LAN group stage.

Contrary to the other editions, Season 4 NA features only a single group and only a group stage, despite the number of teams being the same eight as the previous seasons. This group stage uses a single round-robin format where all teams play each other once in best-of-three series. There are no playoffs.

Out of the eight teams, the top two will advance to the LAN event in Valencia where they will join the best teams from SA, Asia, and EU, and will guarantee a spot in the next season's North American group stage. The third and fourth-best teams will also guarantee a spot in the next season but don't advance in the tournament. The bottom four teams will have to play the open qualifiers for Season 5.

The Teams

ESL Impact, since Season 2, has invited four teams to play in the North American division and has hosted two open qualifiers to select the other four teams who would join that season's league.

This season, the invited teams were FlyQuest RED, Shimmer, Evil Geniuses Gold, and Hyperion. The first two teams to qualify were Karma and Totsugeki, and the final two teams were Tsunami Sirens (former FLUFFY AIMERS White) and Cherry Bombs.

Storylines

FlyQuest RED - Invited

Let's start with the best. FlyQuest RED is, inarguably, the best North American women's team, the results show that. In the three seasons gone by, the team has always qualified for the LAN Finals, despite some roster changes, and an organizational change. Also, they didn't just barely qualify, they always qualified first in their group and have only lost ONE map during the past seasons combined. One map loss in 43 played. Everyone is expecting to see FlyQuest RED in Valencia, but can they handle the rise in skill and game quality in the scene?

Shimmer - Invited

Shimmer is the only team to ever win a map from FlyQuest RED in ESL Impact domestically. They also qualified for the LAN Finals last season, coming all the way from the first open qualifier to placing second in the group behind FlyQuest RED, and beating Detonate SparX in the final match to secure a ticket to Dallas. The team has suffered some changes right after coming back from Dallas, losing Vanessa "vanessa" Gideon and now, just a day before the start of Season 4, they have lost Andrea "Andrea" Bracewell and Lynn "Lx" Clarke is back with the team. This season the task will be harder, as some legendary names have re-joined the scene and the team has gone through some changes. Can Shimmer hold their own and show a solid game plan?

Evil Geniuses Gold - Invited

EG Gold is an interesting case. The team qualified for the LAN Finals in Season 2 with no losses, but in Season 3, much thanks to Detonate SparX, they couldn't do the same. Since then, the team has gone through some changes, bringing Tilde "7licious" Byström from Sweden to Seattle after playing a full season with 100+ ping, bringing Juliana "Juli" Tosic back to the scene after a year off, and acquiring vanessa from Shimmer, one of the best players that had no organizational support at the time. With all these new amazing talent in the team, and everyone playing with acceptable ping, EG Gold are looking to fight for the top places for sure. Despite having incredible players, the team is still new and hasn't played a lot of official matches together.

Hyperion - Invited

Hyperion inherited the invitation spot left open by Detonate SparX and its disbandment. Hyperion features one player who was active for SparX before the end of the team, Megan "Kionetta" Kirkland, and Kimberly "Kimmy" Nelson also had represented the organization previously. The team also features the five-time world champion Carolyn "artStar" Noquez, and Natalia "Natty" Jackson and Anna "lyeku" Lu. According to the team, they have been grinding for a few months now, and although I believe they will hit the ground running, but without enough competitive matches, it remains to be seen how they will perform.

Karma - #1 Open Qualifier

Karma also have two returning legends from the early days of women's CS. Emmalee "EMUHLEET" Garrido and Amanda "rain" Smith, artStar's former teammates, have returned to Counter-Strike causing some waves. Alongside them, are Olga "olya" Kryvulych, and two former VALORANT players April "bungee" Haight and Elena "Ellie" Garland. Karma was the first team to qualify through the open qualifiers and the team did so with incredible performances. Although the team is new, from what we have seen, including their 8-0 ESEA Open record so far, they are one of the squads that will be fighting for that #1 spot.

Totsugeki - #1 Open Qualifier

Totsugeki is also a new team with previous experience in CS:GO. Anna "buhnny" Cheung, the former Saints' IGL, and Cynthia "katalyyst" Sheerajin, from Factor Ruby, are joined by three unknown but strong players, "toasty", "MegaGeese", and Robin "rbNN". Not much is known about the team, but what is public is that they are very capable of getting results, having qualified comfortably and consistently placing high during ESL Impact Cash Cups, despite always playing with a stand-in. I'm expecting this team to be fighting for a top-four spot.

Tsunami Sirens - #2 Open Qualifier

Tsunami Sirens, until recently known as FLUFFY AIMERS White, is one of the best teams out there. They have been consistent, they have won a Cash Cup recently, and although they did not qualify in their first attempt (it was against Karma), they looked good during both tries and during the recent Cash Cups and their ESEA Intermediate season (5-3 record, at the moment). This is a team that I believe can be fighting for a LAN Final spot, but I won't be surprised if they place fourth or fifth.

Cherry Bombs - #2 Open Qualifier

Cherry Bombs were the last team to qualify, and unfortunately have a tough road ahead of them. With the derth of competition before them, it will be an uphill battle for this squad as they look to make a miracle run to playoffs. I like this team and their style, not to mention that they have the best logo, but that doesn't help them get wins. Not everything is bad, as I mentioned, the team has shown a lot of improvement since last season's qualifiers and I believe that this season will bring a lot of experience to their table.

Predicted Standings

1st - FlyQuest RED
2nd/3rd - Shimmer
2nd/3rd - Karma
4th/6th - Hyperion
4th/6th - Evil Geniuses Gold
4th/6th - Totsugeki
4th/6th - Tsunami Sirens
8th - Cherry Bombs

Week 1 Schedule

Totsugeki vs. FlyQuest RED - Today 07:30PM
Shimmer vs. Tsunami Sirens - Today 07:30PM
Evil Geniuses Gold vs. Cherry Bombs - Wednesday 07:30PM
Karma vs. Hyperion - Wednesday 07:30PM