Banner image: Ubisoft / Kiril B.
With the arrival of BLAST to the Rainbow Six Siege esports ecosystem, new leagues were created to give the game's different regions chances to send teams to Six Majors and the Six Invitational.
As exciting as it may sound, opening the doors to some regions started a debate: Are these teams worth a spot at a major international competition?
While we are not here to discuss that today, these new-born competitions have allowed some exotic rosters to shine; for example, REVEN ECLUB's European-majority roster stole the show in the LATAM League throughout Stage 1 and reached the BLAST R6 Major Copenhagen Phase 2.
So far this summer, we have seen a handful of shocking transfers, including Jang "RIN" Byeong-uk's move to Varrel (Japan League), the return of Richard "blk" Rodríguez (LATAM League), and Luiz "Miracle" Abrantes and Kaique "Fallzz" Stephano arrivals to Europe (Team Secret).
However, the latest upset came in August as Geekay Esports announced the team's roster for Stage 2, which included the former KOI and Heroic player Adam "nudl" Hryceniak, and the arrival of Alonso "ALO" Díez and Óscar "WaZo" Llano to the staff department.
While ALO is well-known in the community for his path in Natus Vincere during the 2022 season, WaZo's popularity mainly comes from his work at Movistar Riders and Rebels Gaming in the Spain Nationals and Challenger League.
Before the team's official announcement, SiegeGG had the chance to interview the Spanish duo as they gave us an insight into what's to come in the upcoming months from Geekay Esports.
"This is maybe the team with the most potential I have ever been part of, including Natus Vincere," ALO started briefly.
As Team Falcons have taught us in Gamers8 and the BLAST R6 Major Copenhagen, MENA's playstyle is very aggressive. According to the coaches, it's their identity and it won't change.
"Obviously, there are some things that can get better, but the essence of their game is theirs, it doesn't make sense for us to come and try to change that they are always pushing and playing aggressively, and it's very difficult to win the trades when they play like this; it's about knowing how to work around it," WaZo said.
"I think people have yet to see how aggressive these players can be," WaZo laughed.
"There's not much tactics but there's a lot of good communication, that leads to great plays between two players, for example," ALO explained.
While the staff team won't stop the players from playing with their hearts, the Spanish duo will work around fixing the system. According to them, they will try to "professionalize" multiple aspects that can only be seen off-camera, including "training sessions, efficiency while training, scrims, and try to get the most out of the chaos seen in MENA."
Both members highlighted the importance of passion, an element some European and North American players may have lacked for the last few months. Disagreements with how the game is run, the state of tier two and tier three nowadays, or the creation of a five-month off-season have affected many professional players, which ended up in retirements.
However, in MENA, Ubisoft's changes have been welcomed with open arms. The reason is simple: they can now fight internationally.
With the MENA League now having a spot to compete at the BLAST Six Major, European teams are open to practicing against them not just to train but also to understand the region.
"Top-flight teams are interested in us, we mainly play against European tier one teams," both coaches said. "We are not their rivals in EU so they are fine with it."
Similar to LATAM where the community feels like it's them against the world, having a door that leads to international competitions is a fresh start for everyone.
"We have found people that are very similar to us, they love to play the game, they are very passionate, and they have fun while playing, that's what can make us more comfortable," explained WaZo.
"Passion gives these guys a bit more than other teams, you are playing some Rankeds with them and they tell you that they want to win the Six Invitational or compete at a Six Major," WaZo admitted.
"They now have a competition so they put everything in the scrims; when training with European teams, the players aren't playing at their 100%, but you see these scrims from the last few weeks and you can tell how passionate and motivated they (MENA players) are," concluded ALO.
Who is Geekay Esports?
While the community knows Team Falcons after the roster's multiple appearances in the Gamers8 and their performances in the BLAST R6 Major Copenhagen, not many viewers know about Geekay Esports. "They are all aggressive and their playstyle is very cool to watch," WaZo explained.
The former Rebels Gaming coach described each player in the squad excluding Adam "nudl" Hryceniak, who hadn't been announced yet by the time the interview was done.
According to the Spanish analyst, X.Ke is the support but he "sometimes grabs Ash and can kill." Regarding Ahmet "SRSLy" Hasan, WaZo defined him as the "guy who leads, more serious, who also spends a lot of time looking at VODs and angles after the training."
Meanwhile, Hashem "Hashom" Al Jafri and Osama "Tr1ixd" Al Zahrani are two of the main firepower of the team. "Hashom is crazy, he's a very passionate guy, while Tr1ixd is a bit more serious and more flex."
It's also worth noting that all of the members are studying, so we are not talking about people who can invest all of their time into getting better and achieving their gaming dreams.
According to ALO, all of the players are "studying engineering, X.Ke is studying medicine, they have that balance of studies and Siege that maybe makes them play better."
Geekay Esports will debut in the MENA League Stage 2 later today as they will face Sumar eSport.