With the Challenger League and Pro League now over, we saw a number of national tournaments in action over the last week in action as well.
Jump to:
- GSA League 2020
- Six Masters 2020
- Benelux League - Season 5
- Spain Nationals - Season 2
- Elsewhere in R6
- Must Watch Games of the Next Week
GSA League 2020 - G2 Takes Charge
This week's biggest game was between G2 Esports in their national league debut and Team Secret (previously known as OrgLess) in their first game under their new organisation -- the latter's first game since qualifying for the European League and their first game against a "pro-tier" team in 2020. The game saw a single best-of-one between the teams take place on Kafe to kick off the 2020 GSA (Germany, Switzerland, and Austria) League, the biggest ongoing tournament in the world.
A promotional image for the event. (Image: G2 Esports)
After starting out strong, OrgLess choked the very first round due to a reckless rush up the White Stairs straight into Kanto, despite the Zofia stuns indicating that he was in that position a few seconds earlier (seen in the clip below). The next round saw Secret manage to get the plant down in a relatively simple Freezer push onto the Kitchen objective, leaving Virtue in a 1v3 situation before G2 secured their first dominant round of their own while defending the Fireplace/Reading Room objective.
G2's lead was increased further as a messy East Windows push onto the Bar objective led to Secret wasting way too much time and CTZN being able to injure the planter with zero seconds remaining, to take the round on time. Six kills in the opening minute left Virtue and UUNO left against Exp0 and Hife, only for UUNO to be picked off from through the floor, leaving Virtue in a 1v2. Virtue deicded to take these gunfights off-site, despite being a defender, which simply caught the two attackers off guard leading to a clutch by G2, increasing their lead to a worrying 4-1.
The half eventually ended in a very one-sided 5-1 scoreline to G2 Esports, giving Secret a daunting task if they wanted a winning start under their new org.
G2's first attack seemed much more organised as they pushed upstairs, took the Piano room, Bathroom, Cigar, new Balcony and White Hallway, before the first kill even came out. This led to a quick execute in the space of ten seconds, as they pressured the defenders who had been forced to retreat to the back of the Bar site.
After losing the opening engagement while on match point, a number of trades back and forth went largely in G2's favour on round eight, right down to a 2v2 situation, before Prano swung out to surprise both attackers to add onto Secret's round count and make it 6-2.
This continued the following round, as both teams seemed always able to get a re-frag with individual plays making the difference each time. Round nine saw double kills by Hife and KS make the difference, while a quadruple kill by Drvn pushed Secret back to 6-4.
After this comeback, G2 seemed to shut this down as they went up in a 3v1 situation. A triple kill by Prano made a remarkable ace clutch seem possible, only for him to kill Pengu and put himself in a 1v1 against Virtue, at which point he was already out of time to defuse:
This meant G2 Esports took the game 7-4 to open the GSA 2020 League.
This week also saw another matchup of note between the league's third Pro-tier team, Rogue, and the very promising qualified lineup of DIVIZON. which had recently added the ex-CR4ZY player of Pacbull. After a close start on Consulate, DIVIZON popped off with three very one-sided rounds running, to put them in a commanding lead over the European champions.
Rogue fought back 5-5, before DIVIZON secured at least a point as Shermi won a 1v2 on time. The final round was Rogue's chance to claw back a point and end with a draw, however DIVIZON couldn't be stopped, and took the map in a flawless fashion to win, 7-5.
With FACT finding a 7-0 victory of their own over Turtle eSport and mYinsanity losing to WarKidZ, 7-2, this are the end of week one standings in the league:
The current league standings after one week played via @RainbowSixDE
Six Masters 2020 - LFO Takes First Points Off Of Wildcard
Wildcard Gaming began their day on Theme Park against the fifth-placed roster of LFO and were expected to win with little effort. After going up 4-2 on their favoured defensive side, they switched to their attack, which they looked even stronger on, losing just a single extra round despite Thatcher being banned to end with a 7-3 victory.
The next map of Clubhouse, however, was much more of a fight. Despite taking the initial offensive lead with a 4-2 half while looking clearly like the better team, they couldn't replicate this on their own defences.
Over the next three rounds, LFO attacked the CCTV, Bedroom, and Armoury objectives, winning all three with just four total deaths as they made a really dominant comeback. Another win on round 10 with just two more deaths put LFO onto match point, before WC ended the streak as EmoRin held off two attackers in the Garage, allowing himself to rush right up to and get behind the Montagne of Soggz, completely cutting out LFO's attack.
Finally, round 12 saw Diesel left in a 1v4, which he lost in a post-plant situation to lose the match 5-7. While this was Wildcard's first loss in the season, it made very little impact to the tables with Elevate and Ōkami (ex-TBD) both only securing three points each, keeping Wildcard's three-point lead intact. For LFO, meanwhile, this amazing result still led to them falling from fifth to sixth in the table as they were overtaken by the Pittsburgh Knights following their 7-2, 7-2 victory over Kanga.
Wildcard's post-match graphic. (Image: Wildcard Gaming)
As mentioned, the final matchups both saw Ōkami secure a draw against Ferox, and Elevate draw against SiNister. The first of these games was as close as it could get, with 29 out of 30 possible rounds being played in the 8-7, 6-8 scoreline. After going up 6-3 on map one, Ōkami looked to close it out, before losing four rounds in a row, including a 1v3 by Deptra on round 10 using a pistol.
After winning the first round of overtime, Todd almost secured a 1v2 victory to end the map on round 14, before Ōkami ended it in Ferox's second 7-8 defeat in a row.
The next map kicked off with just as much action, with the two teams neck-and-neck early on to a 3-3 half, which included a round loss despite a 4v2 situation by Ōkami. After another 3-3 half, the teams went into overtime as it looked to be another 15 round finish, only for a teamkill by JackDaddy onto JKR using Gridlock's Trax Stingers and a double kill by Deptra to send Ōkami home with a 6-8 defeat.
In total, these results mean the only change in standings from last week saw the Knights jump up three spots from seventh to fourth, pushing SiNister, LFO, and Ferox down a spot each. Next week, these teams will have a chance to take back their spots as Ōkami faces SiNister and the Knights face LFO in the fight between the mid-table sides.
The current standings after three weeks of games.
Benelux League: Season 5 - Coaches Take Victory
This week saw two rather odd showings by the coaches of Defusekids and Epsilon who both were forced to play for their roster following a players absence. In DK's case, Sternab played in his highest tier professional game as a player for Next1, who is currently out ill. Their game against second-placed Sector One went pretty well considering they were effectively playing a 4v5, with them gaining a 4-1 lead on their defensive half on Clubhouse.
As sides switched, wins on rounds seven and ten put DK onto match point, however strong Cash/CCTV and Armoury/Church holds allowed S1 to stay in the fight and secure a draw.
While Sternab did end the map with zero kills, he was also awarded the match's MVP title with 79% of the vote, making himself the fifth member of his team to win such an accolade, with just Leonski yet to be awarded one.
The statistics for the DK vs S1 game.
On the other hand, Simon, who previously had to stand in during last season's Benelux grand-final as well, performed much better as his team took down third-placed mCon to push from fourth to second.
After tying up the first half on Consulate, a 1v3 victory by Doggon kicked off a four-round winning streak on their defence to obtain a 7-3 victory on the map. With Doggon securing 11 kills to just three deaths, he was crowned the match's MVP, 10% ahead of Simon, who himself secured an impressive 1.27 rating with eight kills to five deaths.
Elsewhere, the matches saw two somewhat surprise victories by the eight placed Team XY over fifth-placed El Whiz Wranglers (7-2) and by seventh-placed UX Gaming over sixth-placed Mouseplayz (7-0). The first of these matches was defined by a number of 1vX victories, including 1v3s by both Yamaha and Alpha, as both those two and Amibe all secured a 2.0 kill-death ratio or greater.
Finally, the UX vs mouseplayz game was Pangoro's show, as he secured 15 kills -- one quadruple kill, one triple kill and two double-kills across seven rounds -- to just two deaths, leading his team to a 7-0 stomp. On the other team, mouse's top fragger of TW1 secured just four kills to seven deaths in the biggest blowout of the season.
Spain Nationals: Season 2 - Giants Maintain First Place Before Movistar Riders Game
After a month since the first split, the most important Spanish tournament kicked off its second split this Tuesday. To know what happened during the first two months of competition, can read our Spain Nationals first leg summary here, but read on to find out what happened in the first week of the second split.
Flamengo Stars 6-6 AION e-Sports
The first match of the second split saw Flamengo Stars and AION e-Sports take each other on. This was a key match, as both sides were close in the table, with the Brazilian roster in fifth place with 10 points -- just one more than their rivals. Playing on Kafe, Flamengo started things off right, winning three of the first four rounds.
The main standout of the game was Thuunder. The Flamengo Stars player was 8-0 after the first four rounds and he had only been killed once before the side swap. AION, who were 3-1 down, woke up just in time to win two defences (Bar and Library). Nevertheless, Flamengo were in a very good spot thanks to Kafe’s defender-sided nature.
Flamengo’s first defensive round was played on the Mining bomb site -- the least-used bomb site in the whole map. The Brazilian roster also used operators that we don’t usually see in the professional scene, such as Alibi and Kapkan, eventually using 13 defensive operators of a possible 24). After losing their second defence (Kitchen), they won the following two, securing at least a draw.
With a two round margin, Flamengo seemed to have control over the match, but AION comfortably won the eleventh round and finished the match in a successful 1v1 situation to take the draw on Flamengo’s third attempt at defending Kitchen.
Electrify Esports 1-7 Movistar Riders
The second game of the day featured Movistar Riders and Electrify Esports. Their previous match ended in a draw and, as Electrify usually take their matches to the twelfth round, some people expected a long game.
The match, played on Coastline, lasted for 8 rounds as Movistar Riders won 7-1 after winning 5 of their 6 attacks. It must be said, however, that this is one of the Riders’ strongest maps. Much of this strength for the Riders comes from their attack, with the team having won 14 of 18 offensive rounds (having lost three against Team Heretics in their first leg draw).
Cream Real Betis 4-7 Vodafone Giants
The last match of the day was Cream’s first game under Cream Real Betis, as the Spanish organisation had signed a deal with the football team Real Betis. Their opponents were the Vodafone Giants, the leaders of the competition, and the match was played in Villa, one of Cream’s strongest maps as they have won their two matches played there.
Cream’s start to the match was really good, as they won four of their first five rounds as defenders. Wispy and EscrivaZ were the stars of these rounds as they led their team with seven and six kills respectively.
However, things drastically changed after the fifth round. Giants won their last attack after a well planned offence that ended in a 4v1 situation. Now, as defenders, the Spanish Giants roster won the following five rounds, finishing each one with at least three men alive.
Wygers 0-7 Team SinOrg
Thursday’s first game of the day saw Wygers take on Team SinOrg. Viewers expected this game to be a very tight contest as both rosters are in the fight to secure points in order to avoid the relegation zone, with Wygers especially in danger. TSO had a big question mark next to their name as they had undergone two changes in their roster, adding two players -- Nao and Gerba -- without much competitive experience. However, the team was able to hunt the white tigers pretty effortlessly.
Playing on Kafe, and starting from the offensive side, TSO won every round played. Wygers’ main problem during their first leg -- a lack of numbers on site while defending -- seemed to still be persisting at the start of this second half.
Wizards 0-7 Team Heretics
The last match of the week was once again played on Kafe and, once again, the result was a devastating 0-7. The script was exactly the one that we had seen in the previous match. Wizards, who started on defence, lost every one of the first six rounds, with Heretics having no trouble in winning the rounds -- except the fifth one, where barozj had to clutch for his team -- and ended the match after winning their first and only defence.
It must be said that, until this date, none of the previous 45 matches played had ended 7-0, but with two such games on the first day back, more could be following.
After this past week’s games, we can finally say that a Top Three has been established (Giants, Heretics, and Riders). The real fight to avoid the relegation zone -- and to secure a Finals spot -- begins from fourth place, currently held by Cream with 15 points, with TSO close behind with 13 points. Flamengo is in sixth place with 11 points, AION is close behind with 10, and Electrify is eighth with seven points. Wygers and Wizards, who both lost their games by 7-0 margins, sit in ninth and tenth place, respectively.
The table after the Week 10 matches.
Elsewhere in R6 - MNEB, the European Open Clash Qualifier and the Finnish National Finals
After Salamander beat second-placed WiLD 7-1 last weekend in the Hungarian national league, they were kept to a draw this weekend against third-placed Budapest Five after a Maverick ban halted their attacks onto Clubhouse. The map ended thanks to a 2v4 victory by B5's two bottom fraggers of Corvin and HufkY, including a double C4 kills to secure the single point.
This weekend also saw the first of two open qualifiers for the EU Clash Charity tournament in two weeks time. There the top three teams from each single-elimination, best-of-one map qualifier will meet the 10 EU League teams in the streamed playoffs.
This weekend, the qualifier was won by the Polish team of Invicta Gaming led by the ex-Polish champion and CL player Derius with Movistar Riders, the Spanish runners-up led by the ex-Pro League player of weskeRR, coming in second.
Finally, we had the playoffs of Season 2 of the Finnish Esports League, which were won by GODSENT Academy. The team secured 2-0 victories over both KOVA Esports in the grand-final and SJK Esports in the semi-finals.
Leading GODSENT Academy is the two times ex-Nordic champions of Spoit and Ghosty, who are also the only non-Finnish players playing in the playoffs as they hail from Sweden and Denmark. The fourth team to play in these playoffs was Sixth Pick, who currently sits in fifth place in the ongoing Nordic Championship season, two places above the main GODSENT lineup.
Must Watch Games of the Next Week
Keep an eye out here at SiegeGG for coverage of all ongoing leagues during the ongoing off-season. For now, these are the five must-watch games of the next week around the world:
- Ōkami vs Team SiNister in the Six Masters on Wednesday at 14:45CEST
- Granit Gaming vs Sixth Pick in the Nordic Championship on Thursday at 20:00CEST
- Giants Spain vs Movistar Riders in the Spain Nationals on Thursday at 20:15CEST
- G2 Esports vs Turtle eSport in the GSA League on Thursday at CEST
- The Russian Major League Grand-Final on Sunday at ~17:00CEST