Karma destroyed; Nouns fe and Shimmer steal the show | ESL Impact S5 NA Week 2 - Highlights and Recap

The second week of ESL Impact Season 5 North America is over, and it brought some exciting matches and performances. cleanup crew got their first ESL Impact win ever, Shimmer is on the board after a very close series, FlyQuest RED are apparently in a league of their own, and Limitless Angels are looking to reach for the sky.

In this article you can find a recap of the four series of the week, the top three highlights and performers of the games.

Starting off with FlyQuest RED v. Karma, this was a series that many believed would be closer. Not necessarily close, but no one was expecting Karma only to win three rounds in the whole series. The score lines were 13-2 on Anubis and 13-1 on Vertigo, as RED looked to be in a hurry to travel to Philly. Over on the community stream, Limitless Angels continued to impress, mainly through Mira "mira" Luna, who has been topping the fragging chart with incredible numbers. WG Bandits put up a fight, but when your opponent has a player getting 28 kills on a map and another getting 30 on another map, it's hard. 13-5 on Anubis and 13-8 on Ancient were the winning results for the Angels.

Day two started with a clean sweep from cleanup crew against COVEN, with a 13-2 Ancient and a 13-4 Mirage. COVEN were playing with a stand-in, Angela "angil" Helmstetler, who topped the team's fragging list during both maps. On the winning side, Lilith "gadfly" Mize put together a great performance and has earned the nickname of "godfly" by the community. Shimmer v. Nouns fe was the last game of the week, and it was delivered, as both maps required all 24 regulation rounds. On an Ancient riddled with tech issues on the Shimmer side, Nouns fe couldn't capitalize despite having an 11-8 lead on the CT-side, as Shimmer would take the map win 13-11, before doing the same on Overpass, this time with barely any tech issues.

Top 3 Performances

#3 Coline "Kaoday" Le Floc'h - FlyQuest RED

I would include the whole team here, but that's not how this works. Kaoday was really on top of her game during the series against Karma and let me tell you that you are going to see her again down below in the highlights list. The AWPer ended the series with a 2.03 average rating, 123.5 ADR and loads of highlight plays. A series that, much thanks to Kaoday, became an easy win.

#2 Phoebe "phoebe" Winter - Shimmer

What if I told you that two of the best ESL Impact NA players are Aussies? Not really a hot-take after phoebe's yesterday's performance, where she stepped up after Lucy "empathy" Verkaik had to, reportedly, play without a mouse for a map. phoebe went up a gear against one of the best teams in the league, Nouns fe, and led her team to a comeback win on Ancient. Oh, I failed to mention that she also played a huge part in winning the second map despite finishing with a negative K/D but still managing to have the most ADR in the server, as well as the second-highest impact rating, with 1.17. Big time performance from a big time player.

#1 Mira "mira" Luna - Limitless Angels

To be fair to mira, she was close to being featured on this list last week, but the rest of the field also had huge performances. This time, there's no one else that came close to the level of mira's game. 28 frags in the first map alone, with 147 ADR, coupled with a second map where she had 22 kills and a 1.70 rating is more than enough to take the top step of this Top 3. The difference maker for the second week in a row.

Top 3 Highlights

#3 Marissa "madss" Dasta (Shimmer) - 4K Clutch, 2K post-plant situation

It was not just phoebe who stepped up during the first map. madss was very much putting together a stellar performance, and she topped it off with this amazing clutch: She opened up the bombsite with two kills and played the post-plant situation perfectly, making two other victims.

#2 Lucy "empathy" Verkaik (Shimmer) - AWP 4K A-site hold

Long time no see, empathy. The Shimmer leader did not have an easy first map due to some mouse problems, but she stepped up hugely in map two. An example given is this amazing 4K in a crucial round, as the score was tied 11-11. Safe to say, no mouse problems during this play.

#1 Coline "Kaoday" Le Floc'h (FlyQuest RED) - 1v4 Ace Clutch

After not including last week's Vanessa "vanessa" Gideon's Vertigo play, I hope this one makes up for it. Kaoday showed that there's not a single round that cannot be salvageable with an incredible 1v4 ace clutch holding an AK-47, instead of her usual AWP. Cool, calme et serein, as they say in France. To watch, rewatch, and watch again.

Shot(s) of the week - Coline "Kaoday" Le Floc'h (FlyQuest RED) - 3 Clean USP-S One Taps

Kaoday, again. This time you can see the French player hit three amazing one taps during the CT-side pistol round on Anubis, putting a quick end to that round.

Week 2 Results

Limitless Angels 2-0 WG Bandits
FlyQuest RED 2-0 Karma
Shimmer 2-0 Nouns fe
COVEN 0-2 cleanup crew

Week 3 Schedule

FlyQuest RED vs. Limitless Angels - March 20, 2023 08:30PM
cleanup crew vs. WG Bandits - March 20, 2023 08:30PM
Shimmer vs. Karma - March 21, 2023 08:30PM
COVEN vs. Nouns fe - March 21, 2023 08:30PM

Standings after Week 2

1st - FlyQuest RED - 2-0
2nd - Limitless Angels - 2-0
3rd - cleanup crew - 1-1
4th - Nouns fe - 1-0
5th - Karma - 1-1
6th - Shimmer - 1-1
7th - WG Bandits - 0-2
8th - COVEN - 0-2