ESL Impact is BACK for Season 3 and it kicked off with a storming start. As with last season, I'll be recapping what went down each week in these blog posts, to keep you up to date with the results and storylines as the season develops.
As this is the first recap of the season, I'll quickly dive into what's new before going over the matches of the week. As always, here's the quick recap vid if you're more of a visual person!
What's new this season?
While the format remains relatively similar, a few key changes have been made - particularly to the European region. The amount of teams participating in the group stages has been increased from 8 to 12, with two groups of 6 teams. Additionally, these group games are now single round-robin, with the top teams from each group automatically qualifying for the LAN finals, and the 2nd placed team from each battling it out for the newly added 3rd EU spot. NA and SA remain unchanged, with 8 teams in each region competing for 2 spots in a double round-robin format. All up to speed? Cool, let's talk new teams!
Already there's been a few headlines about the teams competing this season. Most notably, G2 enters the scene with G2 Oya, their new team headed by the ex-XSET trio of juliano, zAAz, and kr4sy. UK-based org GUILD also signed their first ever CSGO roster, and Flames Shieldmaidens make their first appearance within ESL Impact. In North America, two new orgs enter the fray, Team Factor Ruby, and Detonate, who signed the up-and-coming Chimkins squad. All South American teams are returning teams from prior seasons, save for LRV, the first fully Argentinian squad to be represented in the tournament.
Okay, that's the quick rundown, now let's talk all the craziness that came out of week one!
Europe
The new-look format means we have 6 games taking place each week in Europe. That's a lot of action! I'll try my best to recap the key highlights without overwhelming you. Let's jump in.
Match of the day for day 1 saw the debut of G2 Oya against group favourites NAVI Javelins. It was always going to be a tough one against NAVI, who come into the season off the high of 2nd place at ESL Impact Katowice. NAVI took G2's map pick of Mirage decisively, with their new addition of LETi showing why she's been brought into the Polish squad, showing off a 27-12 KD, and a 1.60 rating on the map. The excitement picked up on Nuke, a map that until Katowice NAVI looked undefeatable on (and we'll let Nigma Galaxy have that one). G2 Oya showed their strengths here, taking the map off the back of an incredible performance from young gun kyossa, who went 35-18 to take the map 16-14. The Javelins ultimately proved too much for G2 on the decider, but the series showed a lot of what both squads have to offer, and it was great to see the new additions coming in clutch.
The other two opening games saw world number one Nigma Galaxy take on MVP, and Aces clash with BIG EQUIPA. Both matches proved to be closer than expected, with MVP almost taking their pick of Mirage against the favourites, as a strong CT run got them to 13-13 before Nigma Galaxy kicked it up a gear to close 16-13, and then decisively took their pick of Inferno. The BIG EQUIPA v Aces game followed a similar pattern to NAVI and G2, with BIG EQUIPA looking in great form on their opponents pick, but unable to close on their pick of Nuke, where Waldee and Potya shone for Aces. BIG EQUIPA took the dub on Anubis, and with that both favourites won their opening matches.
Which brings us to day 2, and the headline match-up - Nigma Galaxy vs NIP Impact. You've no doubt by now seen the news, but going into this series Nigma Galaxy were on a 38-series win streak against women's teams, picking up the championship trophy at every single LAN they have attended since ESL Impact began. On the other side, this was the first serious outing for the revamped NIP roster, with the Ninjas adding this season the former Flames Shieldmaidens Dutch duo (and twins) Nayomy and Qiyarah, and young Israeli talent pauliiee. Surely this would be a walk in the park for the undefeated queens of Counter Strike?
The answer was anything but! Forgoing picking their usual favourite of Inferno, NGX picked into Mirage, which proved to be a fatal choice, as NIP AWPer ASTRA put on an astronomical performance, coming out ahead in the head-to-head with the best of the best in ANa, and sporting a 1.70 impact ratihng. Despite winning both pistols and their subsequent conversions, NIP's CT side proved too strong, and from a 11-14 deficit they fought back into the map to close it 16-14. Vertigo proved to be just as tightly contested, with strong CT sides from each. Once again Nigma Galaxy found themselves up 14-11 after an almost flawless CT side (and again, both pistols and conversions!) before NIP finally cracked the code of the T side, pushing the map to OT. In overtime, their momentum flourished for a flawless T side, and they closed the map out 19-17. History was made as NIP Impact became the first women's team to beat Nigma Galaxy in a best of three since ESL Impact began! A fantastic start to the season for NIP, as the new format means they'll not have to face Nigma Galaxy again during groups.
Our final two matches of Europe saw MVP again, this time against Astralis in their opener, and GUILD also got another run, this time against Angels. Despite the best efforts of MVP's AWPer xia, Astralis took their pick of Vertigo 16-14, and while MVP bounced back on Mirage with a dominant 16-8 win (again led by xia), the decider of Overpass was a masterclass from Astralis veterans aurora and kezziwow to take the series. A great win for the squad on the debut of their new 5th player ManeschijnX, but a frustrating loss for MVP, who came so close on Vertigo and almost took the series 2-0. It was a similar 3 map affair for GUILD and Angels, with Angels taking an unexpected overtime win on GUILD's pick of Mirage, helped by a great showing from Katherine and uulis. However, GUILD were able to reverse sweep the Angels, taking Nuke 16-11 off an almost flawless CT side led by Minnie with a 30 bomb, who continued to dismantle the opposite on Vertigo in a quick 16-3 win.
North America
Over in NA our first game of the day saw EG Gold clash against Detonate SparX. The big talking points going into this match have been the signing of 7licious to EG Gold, replacing empathy. This shift has seen role changes throughout the team, as PiggyKiki has picked up the AWP, and m1lky is now calling. On the other side, the Detonate squad come off a high of just being signed by the org, following a great run in ESEA Open. Things kicked off on EG's pick of Mirage, where Chowdzz went to town for Detonate, running over EG with a 27-11 KD, and 2.09 rating on the map. Detonate's pick of Inferno proved to be a closer affair, though EG were hampered by a slow CT start and losing both pistols. Despite this, both 7licious and m1lky put on a great showing for EG with 25 kills apiece, but were once again outmatched by Chowdzz and co, with Detonate's star again leading the pack with 26 kills to take the map 16-14 and the series 2-0.
Thursday's game of the day was a highly anticipated match-up between NA's titans CLG Red and Saints, who come into the season following their first international LAN at ESL Impact Katowice. Albeit, that was with a stand-in, and following the event the squad made two additional changes, with daria and eychesdot replacing JKranny and paula. Such dramatic changes put them at a disadvantage going into the series, and despite decent CT sides on both their pick of Vertigo and CLG's pick of Overpass, it was too much against the favourites, with regular rifle superstar BiBiAhn running riot across both games.
The B stream games in NA were between Shimmer and byte, and Team Factor Ruby and Starfish. In the former, shimmer shone brightly, with a domination on byte's pick of Anubis, picking up 12 T rounds and a flawless CT side to close, and while Inferno was more competitive, across both maps the former EG star empathy proved her mettle, going 62-30 across the series. The second match-up was the first time we've seen Starfish within ESL Impact, and they certainly made an entrance, taking the series 2-0, led by great performances by Tippy and kichu.
South America
Our opening match for South America pit FURIA against MIBR. With FURIA now without their superstar Olga they fielded a stand-in, and MIBR have been in a roster shuffle of their own since the benching of LyttleZ and Arkynha, and transfer of josi to BIG EQUIPA. This match saw the return of gabs to the side of FURIA, who previously played for the team in 2021 before moving into content creation, and despite the huge hole left by Olga, the rest of the stars of FURIA stepped up, with GaBi running over MIBR on their pick of Inferno with a 26-7 KD, and izaa doing much the same on Mirage, with kaah a consistent force across both maps. Unfortunately MIBR were unable to find their footing on either map, posting single digit round wins across both, it was truly a trial by fire for the 3 new additions to the team this season.
On the other side, B4 Esports wrestled with Black Dragons. B4 by now need no introduction as they have firmly established themselves alongside FURIA in the region - and could potentially even overtake them in ranking now FURIA have lost their X factor. It certainly seemed that way in this match at any rate, as B4 absolutely dismantled Black Dragons. Inferno, the pick of BD, looked anything but, as they were demolished 16-1, with nani and goddess leading the charge for B4. Nuke looked more competitive for the underdogs (underdragons?), with AWPer cAmyy putting up an impressive 16-4 CT scoreline, but with only 5 rounds on the defence it was never going to be easy when sides switched, and yungher's sniping showed itself superior in the server to take the map and series.
On the B streams Black Dragons at least found solace in a victory over LRV, with the latter looking solid in their ESL Impact debut, especially valulu and lulitenz, who each 30 bombed on Overpass and Nuke respectively, but it wasn't quite enough against BD, who took both maps 16-14 - despite LRV finding themselves up 14-11 each time! W7M and Parabellum had two wildly opposing maps, the first being a blowout victory for W7M off the back off hera and mari, picked up by the team from MIBR and FURIA respectively, and who have hit the ground running in the new squad. Parabellum's pick of Overpass was much closer, going all the way to overtime off rare 10 round T side halves from both teams. Good performances from xuliana and kati were not quite enough for Parabellum, as W7M closed out the series in OT.
Storylines begin...
That was certainly a lot to break down, as we now have so many games taking place each week. Which means there's aways exciting CS to see on your screens! Most of the games went the way of the favourites, save Detonate's win against EG, and of course, the HUGE upset of NIP taking down Nigma Galaxy. This season's storylines are already spicing up, and I can't wait to see how the rest of the weeks unfold!
