With the Pro League back in action for Season 11 in APAC, and games spread all across the four subregions, there was much excitement for the first week of play back. It was, however, also the penultimate week of play for the region. Find out what happened and what to expect from this final week below!
Australia-New Zealand (ANZ)
In this penultimate week, it seemed that the new-organisation curse was well and truly active in ANZ. Team SiNister, with its newest recruit Vincere in tow, did just that against the newly-signed Pittsburgh Knights. 7-3 and 7-4 read the map scores at the end, but many would have been more surprised by the next game when TBD beat Wildcard Gaming 7-3 before drawing the second map.
Wildcard’s woes did not continue onto the next day, though, as the newly-signed team lost once more -- this time Elevate -- with Wildcard announcing a spectacular return to form with 7-2 and 7-3 victories. FURY rounded things out, maintaining its gap to SiNister by beating Kanga Esports 7-4 and 7-3.
This week, catch games from Tuesday to Thursday as the APAC Pro League comes to its conclusion once and for all prior to the pivot to the APAC North and South divisions.
Fnatic is in action thrice, with games against the remaining top four teams of TBD, Elevate, and Wildcard Gaming on each day. Alongside them, SiNister takes on Kanga on Tuesday, while FURY will look to climb into the top half of the league through its Wednesday game against the Pittsburgh Knights.
All the teams will be in action on Thursday, though half will be off-stream, with the Pittsburgh Knights taking on Kanga Esports, FURY playing this new-look SiNister, and Elevate clashing with TBD alongside the aforementioned Fnatic and Wildcard Gaming match.
The current ANZ Pro League standings.
Catch the games on the 24th, 25th, and 26th of March on the Rainbow6 Twitch and YouTube channels, starting at 7 PM AEDT (UTC+11) each day.
Southeast Asia (SEA)
Southeast Asia was not shy of the surprises too, kicking proceedings off with the highly anticipated Thai derby. Xavier Esports drew first blood, taking the first map 7-4 against bitter rivals Qconfirm, but lost the second map 3-7. Giants Gaming was then surprised by Lese Esports by a draw in the first map, but came back with a fearsome 7-2 victory on the second.
The next day, the newly-signed Polar Ace Esports gave the sinking 200 Degrees its first-ever Pro League point, though managed to win 7-3 on the second map to make amends. Scrypt E-Sports, for its part, did not fare any better, managing to win the first map against Team 1122 by a score of 7-2, but losing the second 5-7.
This week, catch the greatly exciting top-two clash between Giants Gaming and Qconfirm to kick things off, while Xavier Esports takes on 200 Degrees after on Tuesday. Team 1122 will then face the tough opponents of Lese Esports, while Polar Ace and Scrypt will fight to climb above one another on Wednesday.
Like ANZ, Thursday will see two of the four games off-stream, with Giants Gaming taking on 200 Degrees, Xavier Esports facing Team 1122, Qconfirm going up against Polar Ace, and Lese closing things out against Scrypt.
The current SEA Pro League standings.
Catch the games on the 24th, 25th, and 26th of March on the Rainbow6SEA Twitch and YouTube channels, starting at 7 PM SGT (UTC+8) each day.
Japan
Over in Japan, play restarted with a double-Villa that somehow yielded completely different results. While Takumi Festival LBX crushed YOSHIMOTO Gaming Lamy (YGL) 7-0 in the first attempt after starting on attack, YGL struck back with a 7-5 victory in the second attempt.
NORA-Rengo then struggled to clear Unsold Stuff Gaming (USG) in the first map, ending with a draw, but won the second 7-4. However, the biggest surprise was on Thursday when Cyclops Athlete Gaming (CAG) first drew with DetonatioN Gaming, then picked Theme Park as the second map only to get demolished with a 1-7 scoreline.
FAV Gaming then took on GUTS Gaming prior to both teams’ qualification for the APAC North division, winning 7-5 on Consulate but only managing a draw on Villa. Sunday, however, would in fact see GUTS come out on top in a tight, 2-1 affair in the APAC North qualifier.
This week, catch repeats of the APAC North qualifier games between USG and Takumi Festival and DNG and YGL on Tuesday, before the exciting NORA-Rengo vs FAV Gaming and Cyclops Athlete Gaming vs GUTS Gaming matchups on Wednesday.
Thursday will have FAV take on YGL, DNG play USG, NORA-Rengo go up against ex-sister team GUTS, and CAG close things out against Takumi Festival.
The current Japanese Pro League standings.
Catch the games on the 24th, 25th, and 26th of March on the Rainbow6JP Twitch and YouTube channels, starting at 7 PM JST (UTC+9) each day.
Korea
Down to three teams after TRIPPY disbanded, Korea will only be playing two sets of double-Bo1s this week. Wednesday will see the APAC North qualified team of SCARZ needing just three points against a new-look, APAC North invited Cloud9 to cement its place as the top seed. Axiomatic, with its new members, will try and steal second place from Cloud9 as it is now within just three points of the far more experienced squad.
This is thanks to all the TRIPPY games played being rendered null and void, and points won by other teams against TRIPPY being rescinded. This has had a knock-on effect of reducing Cloud9’s points to a mere five, while SCARZ still has 14 points even after the reduction, and Axiomatic has two.
The current Korean Pro League standings.
Catch these games on the 25th and 26th of March on the Rainbow6KR Twitch and YouTube channels, starting at 7 PM KST (UTC+9) onwards each day.
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For more coverage on APAC’s competitions including and beyond the Pro League, check back here at SiegeGG regularly as we bring you what’s in store for the week ahead.