With the North America League 2024 Stage 2 kicking off tomorrow, we decided to have a look at all of the teams while also giving you all the information you need to know before the start of the second split:
Format
The North America League 2024 Stage 2 will be divided into two: group stage and playoffs.
The initial group stage will see the nine teams in the league facing off in a round-robin league with BO1 matches. The best six teams by the end of the group stage will qualify for the playoffs, where all of the games will be BO3s. The first and second seeds will advance to the semifinals, while seeds three to six will start from the quarterfinals. Eventually, the best three teams will qualify for the BLAST R6 Major Montreal.
Matches and calendar
The North America League 2024 Stage 2 will include eight playdays, with the group stage kicking off on September 5. Here’s a look at all of the matches that will be played during the upcoming three weeks:
September 5
- Soniqs vs. Wildcard
- M80 vs. Cloud9 Beastcoast
- Luminosity Gaming vs. LOS
- Spacestation Gaming vs. Oxygen Esports
September 6
- Wildcard vs. M80
- Oxygen Esports vs. LOS
- Soniqs vs. DarkZero Esports
- Luminosity Gaming vs. Spacestation Gaming
September 12
- Soniqs vs. M80
- DarkZero Esports vs. Spacestation Gaming
- Luminosity Gaming vs. Cloud9 Beastcoast
- Wildcard vs. Oxygen Esports
September 13
- LOS vs. DarkZero Esports
- M80 vs. Luminosity Gaming
- Cloud9 Beastcoast vs. Wildcard
- Spacestation Gaming vs. Soniqs
September 19
- Wildcard vs. DarkZero Esports
- Oxygen Esports vs. M80
- LOS vs. Cloud9 Beastcoast
- Luminosity Gaming vs. Soniqs
September 20
- Spacestation Gaming vs. M80
- Wildcard vs. LOS
- DarkZero Esports vs. Cloud9 Beastcoast
- Soniqs vs. Oxygen Esports
September 25
- LOS vs. M80
- Oxygen Esports vs. DarkZero Esports
- Wildcard vs. Luminosity Gaming
- Cloud9 Beastcoast vs. Spacestation Gaming
September 26
- LOS vs. Soniqs
- Cloud9 Beastcoast vs. Oxygen Esports
- Spacestation Gaming vs. Wildcard
- DarkZero Esports vs. Luminosity Gaming
September 27
- LOS vs. Spacestation Gaming
- M80 vs. DarkZero Esports
- Oxygen Esports vs. Luminosity Gaming
- Cloud9 Beastcoast vs. Soniqs
Teams
Here are the nine teams that will compete in the North America League 2024 Stage 2:
Cloud9 Beastcoast
The BLAST R6 Major Manchester champions are back to action after missing out on the Esports World Cup. Although the roster remains unchanged, the team had to go through multiple staff changes as Eric "Fettuccine" Tong and Anthony "Froshii" Nassar parted ways with the organization. Instead, the team signed the former Luminosity Gaming staff duo of Charles "Vivid" Stahelek and Forrest "Mossy" Perkett.
M80
In March 2024, M80 unveiled the team's new super roster including the signings of Ben "CTZN" McMillan, Gabriel "cameram4n" Hespanhol, and Adam "nudl" Hryceniak. The trio had joined William "Spoit" Löfstedt and Leonardo "Kyno" Figueiredo.
In the first split of the season, M80 finished in second place after the team's defeat against Beastcoast in the North America League 2024 Stage 1 grand final. However, the team's biggest achievement was making it through a Swiss Stage for the first time after failed attempts in Copenhagen and Atlanta. In Manchester, the green roster finished among the best eight sides.
Despite the team's recent results and after missing out on the Esports World Cup, M80 decided to part ways with Adam "nudl" Hryceniak to sign the Six Charlotte Major champion Paul "Hyper" Kontopanagiotis.
DarkZero Esports
Although DarkZero Esports reached the BLAST R6 Major Manchester semifinals and the Esports World Cup quarterfinals, the purple organization decided to let Troy "Canadian" Jaroslawski go. Instead, the team added the former Mkers player and back-to-back ELEMENT champion Elian "Kobelax" Rodríguez.
Curiously enough, the team's first match of the split will be against Soniqs, Canadian's new team. Therefore, the region fans have already labeled their clash as the match to follow in the second playday of the week.
Spacestation Gaming
After going winless in Manchester's Swiss Stage, the astronauts announced the departure of David "iconic" Ifidon. Later on, the player decided to "take a step back" to go through "corrective surgery" after detecting "two isolated cysts" on his mouse wrist.
To replace the American, Spacestation Gaming unveiled the signing of the Six Invitational 2023 champion Benjamin "Benjamaster" Dereli. The Dane made his debut with Spacestation Gaming at the Esports World Cup, where they were one round away from reaching the semifinals as they lost to FURIA Esports.
Soniqs
Soniqs stole the show in the summer transfer window after signing the two-time Six Invitational champion Troy "Canadian" Jaroslawski and the former Beastcoast player Damian "Surf" Medina to replace Adam "Atom" Gutiérrez and Bryan "Merc" Wrzek. Additionally, Lauren "Goddess" Williams stepped down from her coaching role as Seth "supr" Hoffman replaced her.
With these changes, Soniqs expect to qualify for the BLAST R6 Major Montreal after missing out not just on the BLAST R6 Major Manchester but also the Esports World Cup.
Luminosity Gaming
Luminosity Gaming shocked everyone in July after clinching a spot to compete at the Esports World Cup following victories against M80 and Spacestation Gaming despite having just added Adam "Surf" Medina to replace James "Hat" Hatfield, who had signed for Oxygen Esports after the conclusion of the first stage.
However, the team's positive results through the summer saw some other North American top-flight teams becoming interested in Luminosity's pieces. First, Soniqs signed Surf as Luminosity Gaming replaced him with the former Mkers player Wesley "Woos" Beeson. Later on, Cloud9 Beastcoast swapped staff teams as Charles "Vivid" Stahelek and Forrest "Mossy" Perkett joined the BLAST R6 Major Manchester champions while Anthony "Froshii" Nassar and Jean-Luc "sooblick" Débarbouillé signed for Luminosity Gaming.
Oxygen Esports
Since Oxygen Esports' last international appearance, which was at the Gamers8 2023, a lot has changed inside the roster. Following the departure of Mitch "Dream" Malson, Ethan "Nuers" James is the only remaining player from the squad that finished among the best three sides at the Six Invitational 2023.
Heading to the second split of the season, Oxygen Esports have only made one change as the former Luminosity Gaming player James "Hat" Hatfield joined the green roster in June 2024.
Wildcard
At the beginning of the season, Wildcard announced what could have been the region's new super team. With players with plenty of international experience and even two world champions in the former Spacestation Gaming players Nathanial "Rampy" Duvail and Dylan "Bosco" Bosco, a lot of expectations had been put around Wildcard before the start of the first split.
Unfortunately for the team, the expected results didn't happen. A sevent-place finish in the group stage was followed by a quarterfinal exit from the region's Last Chance Qualifiers. As a consequence, Wildcard decided to let go Franklyn "VertcL" Cordero and Nathanial "Rampy" Duvail to add the former Astralis player Chris "Spiff" Park and Jacob "Bae" Dowling.
LOS
The Brazilian organization's performance during the first split was extremely underwhelming, as the team's ninth-place finish at the North America League 2024 Stage 1 was followed by a defeat against Spacestation Gaming's academy roster in the Qualifier Playoffs.
To get back to winning ways, the Brazilians decided to sign Gustavo "Wizard" Gomes and Arthur "Ar7hr" Arantes from Ninjas in Pyjamas and E1 Sports, respectively.
Prize pool and SI Points distribution
Here's how the tournament's prize pool and the Six Invitational Points will be distributed across the North America League 2024 Stage 2 teams:
- 1st: US$62,000 and 100 SI Points
- 2nd: US$30,000 and 95 SI Points
- 3rd: US$25,000 and 90 SI Points
- 4th: US$25,000 and 85 SI Points
- 5th: US$21,000 and 80 SI Points
- 6th: US$13,000 and 75 SI Points
- 7th: US$9,500 and 70 SI Points
- 8th: US$7,500 and 65 SI Points
- 9th: US$6,500