Weekly Re-Peek: Week 6

The final week of the group stages has wrapped up, which means we now have our 12 teams going through to the regional playoffs!

Many of the favourites from each region made it through, but there's also a few teams that may surprise. I'll be breaking down each of the regions and how the teams got to playoffs. We also have an update on the two wildcard teams - so check that out down below!

As always, the weekly recap video has the highlights 🙂

Europe

Nigma Galaxy will once again be going into the playoffs with a 6-0 record! They capped off their group stage run with a clean victory over NOFEAR5. It kicked off on Dust II, usually a confident pick for NOFEAR5, but NGX got their revenge from their overtime loss back in week 3, with everyone chipping in for the 16-4 domination. Victoria put up a great showing for NOFEAR5 on Inferno, but it wasn't enough to slow down the reigning champs.

Unfortunately for NIP, despite a convincing win over Entropiq Queens, their late season resurgence was not enough to lock in the second playoff spot. Both NIP and NOFEAR5 sit at 3-3 on the table and have an equal head to head (2-2). However, the overtime win over Nigma Galaxy mentioned above puts NOFEAR5 ahead on total maps won, which means they will be the team progressing to playoffs. Commiserations to NIP who had a fantastic second half to the season, and I am sure we will see plenty more from them in future.

Group B was even more hotly contested! NAVI Javelins stand head and shoulders above the rest, with another impressive win over BIG EQUIPA to cap off their 6-0 group stage. Vicu in particular had an incredible series, topping the board for NAVI on both maps (21K on Vertigo, 30K on Nuke). Interestingly, on both maps it was a BIG EQUIPA player topping the server - Mariam on Vertigo, and Zana on Nuke, but it was the team effort surrounding the star AWPer of the Javelins that enabled their win.

I noted last week how complex the scenarios could play out this week for Group B. And naturally, the most complex one took place! With BIG EQUIPA, MostValuablePlayers, and Astralis all ending the season with a 2-4 standing. In a statement to the competitiveness of this season, each team has a win and a loss against each other! However BIG EQUIPA come out in front in the head to head of total maps between each team, and will progress to playoffs.

South America

South America was also very exciting this week, as each group had a match-up that would decide the nature of the playoffs. In Group A, FURIA had already locked in their spot at the top, and this week only solidified their position with a win over Parabellum. The game everyone had their eyes on was between w7m esports and Black Dragons. The former had started the season strong, sitting second behind FURIA in the standings every week, while Black Dragons just lagged behind, taking both w7m and FURIA to 3 maps on different occasions. This was a key factor in this last matchup, as if Black Dragons could win they would steal away the second placing in the final week!

And you better believe they did it! It took some individual heroics, with cAmyy stepping up on Inferno, and annaEX doing the same on Ancient to take the series 2-0 and lock in a spot in playoffs. They also go into the playoffs as the only South American team to take a map off FURIA (across both seasons)!

In the other group, the two playoffs teams had already been decided, and it was just a matter of which seed they would be progressing as. This is hugely important, as FURIA will be the opponent of the lower seed. Going into the final week, B4 Esports sat 5-0, but had previously dropped a map to MIBR, who sat at 4-1. This set us up for an absolute brawl between the two teams, as there was a chance for MIBR to steal away the top spot with a 2-0 victory.

Their best chance to do it was on Dust II, the map they had won against B4 on previously, and had yet to drop against anyone during the season. MIBR got off to a slow start on the T side, finding just 5 rounds at the half, but stormed away on the CT side to sit 13:10 in the lead. At that point, B4 Esports kicked it up a gear and didn't drop a single round, with nani and julih leading the way. The momentum carried over to Ancient where they put up 12 rounds on the T side for a nice and easy 2-0 victory and a first seed spot in playoffs!

North America

It was a different story in NA, as all the playoff teams as well as seeding were decided in the prior week. Valkyries victory over Saints in Week 5 confirmed their spot over the latter in playoffs, as they come out a map in front in the head to head. In the final week they matched up against CLG Red, and the Queens of NA had no mercy. madss and BiBiAhn took turns taking Valkyries to task, in blowout performances on Vertigo and Overpass. The win has CLG Red sitting flawless, establishing them as the only team across all regions to not drop a map!

Group B had a bit more competition at the top, but Evil Geniuses had no issues in their final match against Hot Flash, blazing them in a 2-0 fashion to finish the season 6-0. It was a closer match-up between second seed Please Send Bocks and ECHO, with the latter reaching double digits against the Bocks on both Dust II and Overpass, but a sensational performance from Senna on both maps made it all too easy for PSB to take the win.

*Wildcards!

Over the weekend the wildcard qualifiers also took place in South Africa and Asia, with each region battling out for a spot each at the Season 2 finals. Both regions had a great showing in the qualifiers, with higher turnouts than any of the previous cash cups or qualifiers!

In South Africa, the favourites of ATK Female prevailed over VYBN Female in the final to take the spot. M3gzz (you may remember her as Meggy Weggy...) and leafy were key factors in their success on Vertigo and Dust II respectively. It was an impressive performance from VYBN, who had also upset White Rabbit Amaryllis, a stalwart of the ZA scene, on their path to the finals.

For Asia it was a bit more dominant, and it was no surprise to see HSG come out as the qualifying team! They ran over HaloQueen in the finals, with superb showings from GFi and Hazel helping them on their way there. You may recognise these two names from their tenures on Tyloo Female, and GFi in particular is a long standing veteran of the Asian women's scene.

Keep an eye out on the blog in the lead up to the finals, as I'll be going into a bit more a deep dive on these two teams later on!

Playoffs

We now enter the regional playoffs, where the fates of who will be going to the ESL Impact Season 2 LAN finals will be decided! The playoff games will be taking place on the weekend of 22 and 23 October, and all playoff games will be streamed.

All the match-ups are shown below, with the top of each group taking on the second of the opposite group, and vice versa. With every single group having a team yet to drop a series, there are clear favourites in each playoff match, but there's certainly plenty of room for upset!