Meet the Qualified - ESL Impact Season 5 North America

With Season 5 of the ESL Impact League right around the corner, Dust2.us brings you a two-part guide where teams and players will be the focus, so the readers know who and what to look out for during the competition.

This first part will address the teams that survived the open qualifiers and managed to get a shot at playing in the regional division. WG Bandits and Nouns fe, COVEN, and cleanup crew are the first four teams to enter the league as dark horses, hoping to upset some of the more well-known household names.

Wanted Goons Bandits - Open Qualifier #1

The story is strong with this one. The core of the squad, Milla "MamaAlien" Schmidt (only a substitute at the time), Amanda "Reef" Ruiz, and Kristen "PippySippy" Hendrickson have been together since the start of 2023, when they were playing under the U-Turn name. The team qualified for ESL Impact Season 3 after besting Cherry Bombs in the Open Qualifier #2. One day after, U-Turn had found an organization to call home on Factor Ruby. The organization supported the team throughout Season 3, which ended with Factor Ruby only winning two maps in 12 played.

The team stuck with Factor Ruby until August when they became Loot Goblins and added Jayde “Jaydee" Slabosz with hopes of improving on their Season 3 results. Unfortunately, because destiny would not have it any other way, Loot Goblins were eliminated by Cherry Bombs in the Open Qualifier #2 for Season 4. During that time, Loot Goblins were signed by Wanted Goons, becoming the Bandits in September of 2023. Since then, the team has been getting more and more reps together, culminating in them qualifying comfortably for Season 5 of ESL Impact. Very recently, Reef announced her retirement from CS and the team has registered Lexy "ADK" as the fifth player from Québec.

WG Bandits are:

• Kristen "PippySippy" Hendrickson

• Milla "MamaAlien" Schmidt

• Jayde “Jaydee" Slabosz

• Rose "Tippy" Rolle

• Lexy "ADK"

• Garret "Level1Boss" Sandeen (Coach)

Nouns fe - Open Qualifier #1

Formerly known as Category 5, this squad came together on September 5th, 2023. the team caught the eyes of the Women's CS community during the weekly ESL Impact Cash Cups, where they were outperforming ESL Impact Season 4 squads, even managing to win the event once. Given all the success in such a short life span, the players of Category 5 felt confident enough to make a proposal for Nouns to support them, through a vote. Due to it being a decentralized autonomous organization, every holder of the Nouns Esports Prop House was able to vote, and they chose to support Category 5, which is now known as Nouns fe.

The team went a month without changes when they decided to add former EG Gold player Jessica "jesscas" Ngo, and former Totsugeki rifler Cynthia "katalyyst" Sheerajin. These alterations proved fruitful, as Nouns fe were able to qualify for ESL Impact Season 5 North America with ease. This is the first time playing the event for two players of the squad, Riley "lunari" Luna and Natalie "ashe" Betts, as jesscas has played the league three times, while Cynthia "katalyyst" Sheerajin played it twice and Tig "Rice" Simpson did so only once.

• Natalie "ashe" Betts

• Tig "Rice" Simpson

• Riley "lunari" Luna

• Cynthia "katalyyst" Sheerajin

• Jessica "jesscas" Ngo

• Louis "onter" Contreras (Coach)

cleanup crew - Open Qualifier #2

There is always a mix team that manages to qualify for the regional division, and this time around that team is cleanup crew. Formed by the former Saints player Paula "paula" Ramanauskas, this squad was created after the AWPer didn't receive any offers when she announced she was back to playing, in January. Joining paula are Shelby "Shelby" A., the former Cherry Bombs rifler, Ariane "ARIANARCHIST" Lafrenière, a former VALORANT Game Changers player, and two new players to the scene, Bubzy, paula's friend, and gadfly, ARIANARCHIST's friend.

This team have one of the most intriguing storylines this season, as paula is coming back after a year, despite trying to stay in the game after leaving Saints, but with no luck and after refusing to play CS2 for three months after its launch. This will also be paula's last competitive season, as work commitments will keep her away from the game. As for the rest of the team, Shelby is the only member of the Cherry Bombs squad that was able to qualify for another season, and ARIANARCHIST, Bubzy, and gadfly will experience an ESL Impact Season for the first time ever. With no expectations and a puggy style, cleanup crew will try to create chaos during season 5.

• Paula "paula" Ramanauskas

• Shelby "Shelby" A.

• Ariane "ARIANARCHIST" Lafrenière

• gadfly

• Bubzy

• Tyler "MOOSELFLiES" Miles (Coach)

COVEN - Open Qualifier #2

You might have seen this team around, I'm sure of it, because they have been playing together under COVEN since the start of 2023. But this group of players dates back to even before that when it comes to playing together. Jay "JLee" Lee and Koda "Jundiya" Lee were teammates dating back to June 2022 when they played for Cyclone fe, and the first instance of four of the current COVEN players being together dates back to September 2022, when Vicky "CANNIBAL" Rich joined JLee and Jundiya to form H3llO.

Then COVEN was created, with the intent of giving Jlee "the creative outlet she deserves", according to CANNIBAL. JLee is the IGL of the squad, a role that was given to her due to her different level of understanding of the game. Jundiya and CANNIBAL have been consistent riflers, and are now joined by Shylite "Shivanee" Johnson and Tara-Lynn "tbear" Prevost, who CANNIBAL assures are "absolutely wild". The team comes in with hopes of kicking ass and having fun, while giving their all.

• Vicky "CANNIBAL" Rich

• Jay "JLee" Lee

• Koda "Jundiya" Lee

• Shylite "Shivanee" Johnson

• Tara-Lynn "tbear" Prevost

• Cindy "cy" Ly (Coach)

ESL Impact Season 5 North America kicks off later tonight!