ESL Impact Season 4 NA Week 7 - Highlights and Recap

Rather than the usual schedule, Week 7 of ESL Impact S4 NA had all the teams playing simultaneously, which meant plenty of Counter-Strike. This was a crucial week for four teams, with some fighting for a ticket to Valencia and others hoping to get a direct invite for next season.

The only game where both teams had nothing to fight for was between Cherry Bombs and FlyQuest RED, as the former already knew they would have to fight through the qualifiers next season, and the latter had already won the league. RED didn't take their foot off the gas, however, as they ran over the Bombs 13-2 and 13-6. One series that didn't have much power in the rest of the standings was Karma vs. Totsugeki, as Karma had to win to keep their hopes up of receiving a direct invite in Season 5. Despite beating Totsugeki 13-10 and 13-5, Karma would not keep their spot.

Tsunami Sirens were in the same position as Karma, where they would have to win their series against Hyperion but would still depend on other results to know their fate, in this case, to know if they would be the ones to go to Valencia. Sirens easily won 13-3 and 13-2, with the fate of four teams in the hands of EG Gold and Shimmer. If EG Gold won versus Shimmer, Karma would not be relegated, and Sirens would go to Spain, but Shimmer ruined everyone's hopes as they beat EG Gold 13-3 and 13-11.

With this set of results, Shimmer claimed the last spot in the Valencia LAN Finals, pushing Tsunami Sirens and EG Gold to third and fourth place, respectively, and sending Karma to the open qualifiers of Season 5. This shows how Season 4 of ESL Impact North America was the most competitive in the competition's history.

Top 3 Performances

#1 Abigail "abby" Deters & Lucy "empathy" Verkaik - Shimmer

This duo completely dominated the series against EG Gold and was crucial in securing the Valencia spot. empathy led the team in Ancient with 20 kills on the CT-side to start the map, and ended Ancient with a 2.07 rating. abby was also very important during Ancient, but she shined the most in Mirage, a very close map where the rifler proved to be of capital importance with a 1.73 rating and 111.7 ADR.

#2 Marissa "madss" Dasta - FlyQuest RED

madss and FlyQuest RED asserted their dominance against Cherry Bombs and it all started on map one. madss had an unbelievable 26 kills with just three deaths during Ancient. She was on fire with 15.4 ADR and a 2.48 rating.

#3 Kate "Kate" Toth - Tsunami Sirens

Kate had an amazing map one against Hyperion, with a 2.14 rating coupled with 133.2 ADR. She is not usually the one making headlines for Sirens, but she knew she had to step up during that map. Her teammates acknowledged that and let her chill during map two, that's teamwork.

Top 3 Highlights

#1 Kiki "PiggyKiki" Long (EG Gold) - situation

This could have gone down as the most important clutch in EG Gold's history, truly. Unfortunately for them, it's just the highlight of the week. PiggyKiki played a calm 1v2 clutch with just 15 seconds left on the clock.

#2 Shimmer - Almost flawless round

Counter-Strike is a team game and this round showed why certain rounds matter more than others. Coming from a round loss with that PiggyKiki clutch, Shimmer played the very next round almost perfectly, which put them back on track mentally. This round started the team's comeback that netted them the map win.

#3 Abigail "abby" Deters & Lucy "empathy" Verkaik (Shimmer) - 2v4 clutch

The map was almost decided but with this clutch, Shimmer put the final nail in the coffin. abby and empathy played an amazing 2v4 clutch, as abby got three kills and empathy hit two incredible shots.

Shot of the week - Abigail "abby" Deters (Shimmer) - One tap Deagle

During Week 4 we mentioned how satisfying it is to hit a one tap with a Deagle on Banana. Week 7 brings us another one of the most satisfying positions to hit a one tap on, Mirage's Middle. abby hit a crisp headshot as the opponent was jumping out the window.

Week 7 Results

FlyQuest RED 2-0 Cherry Bombs
Tsunami Sirens 2-0 Hyperion
Evil Geniuses Gold 0-2 Shimmer
Karma 2-0 Totsugeki

Season balance

As it has been said many times during the whole season, this has been the most competitive one yet. Four teams fought for the last spot in the ESL Impact Season 4 LAN Finals, while a fifth, Totsugeki, showed promise many times, winning maps against Shimmer and EG Gold. The highlight of the season surely was Tsunami Sirens, being very close to going to Spain despite the competitiveness and experience of the rest of the field. The lowlight was, without a doubt, Hyperion, as the squad, which didn't manage a single map win, was expected to be much more competitive after "grinding the game quietly the last few months as a team".

All in all, the future is bright for these teams, as returning legends of the scene are getting more comfortable with the transition to CS2 and new stars appear every week. Here's hoping the next season will be the most competitive to date.