Players furious as ESL Impact removes slots for North and South America

ESL Impact, the women’s league for CS2 esports, has announced its 2024 schedule and roadmap which includes fewer spots for the Americas.

ESL Impact announced its 2024 roadmap on November 30, 2023, which included the schedule for domestic tournaments and international LAN events.

The announcement features adjustments in regional slots for season finals to “ensure that the best talent is given the opportunity to compete at top-tier events.” The Tournament Organizer has also reallocated slots to regions with higher participation rates.

Consequently, North and South America will have fewer slots at international events next year. At both Season 5 Dallas and Season 6 Stockholm the two regions will only have three slots combined.

This has caused much outrage from the North and South American CS2 communities as they have called on ESL to revert the decision.

ESL Impact reduced slots for NA and SA in 2024

Multiple prominent North American players and community members have called out ESL for the slot distribution changes, saying the move makes no sense.

“In my 14+ years competing in 1.6, CSGO, and now CS2…. this is historically the most NA women teams we have EVER seen. To remove 1 NA slot now when the scene is thriving makes absolutely no sense, and will only hurt it in the future. Please reconsider this decision,” Counter-Strike veteran Emmalee ‘EMUHLEET’ Garrido said on social media.

In my 14+ years competing in 1.6, CSGO, and now CS2…. this is historically the most NA women teams we have EVER seen.

To remove 1 NA slot now when the scene is thriving makes absolutely no sense, and will only hurt it in the future.

Please reconsider this decision https://t.co/8HcmkeObrz

— EMUHLEET (@EMUHLEET) November 30, 2023

Others said the organizer should’ve kept the same amount of slots for North and South America, and instead just added more slots to Europe.

“All for more slots where the strongest teams are, but feel it should just be a larger event rather than taking slots from other regions,” caster Lucy ‘LucyLuce’ Eastwood said.

Disappointed to lose Katowice, it felt right having a LAN there to kick off the year – not to mention having it side by side with IEM.

All for more slots where the strongest teams are, but feel it should just be a larger event rather than taking slots from other regions. https://t.co/PgWKiEdCJ6

— Lucy (@LucyLuce_) November 30, 2023

Evil Geniuses Gold player Vanessa “vanessa” Gideon pointed out that this move will further hobble the growth of the women’s scene in CS2, just as it had started to rebound.

“Damn, y’all want NA to die in both scenes so bad lol. I was a brand new player who broke into competing for the first time because of Impact, just like many teams/players that exist now. The majority of NA teams are busy playing catch up in skill and experience just to be shut down,” she said.

Damn y'all want NA to die in both scenes so bad lol. I was a brand new player who broke into competing for the first time because of Impact, just like many teams/players that exist now. Majority of NA teams are busy playing catch up in skill and experience just to be shut down https://t.co/9CjILdnk06

— vanessa 🦋 (@vaoozle) November 30, 2023

Whether this outrage will change ESL’s mind about its slot distribution has yet to be seen.