This season, Sydney will host the two Southeast Asian teams of Xavier Esports and Aerowolf as the Thai and Singaporean players seek to push towards their first appearance at an international Pro League Finals event.
The Season 9 APAC Finals bracket
Xavier Esports, for their part, will be feeling very confident. Placed up against 0RGL3SS first, and then either NORA-Rengo or Ageless, they have a very real possibility of making it to Italy for the Pro League Finals. After all, they finished this season undefeated once again, repeating the feat from last season, and only dropped two points in total (against Aerowolf on the final day).
In fact, many had been even picking Xavier to be the third APAC team at the Six Invitational 2019, but visa issues after winning the online qualifiers meant that they forfeited their place at the Six Invitational APAC Qualifier LAN to Aerowolf. Now, though, the visas have been settled, and the the Thai will be ready to make their mark on the APAC stage once again, and possibly on the international stage too.
Aerowolf’s roster was significantly volatile in Season 9, but finally settled down on the above six
Their regional rivals, Aerowolf, will be having a very different outlook. Fortunate to play at the Six Invitational Qualifier LAN without having qualified, the stars had to align for them once again to make it to this season’s APAC Finals. On equal points with Scrypt E-Sports, and behind thanks to an inferior head-to-head record, Aerowolf had to play the top-seeded Xavier Esports who themselves had yet to drop a point.
Even if they beat Xavier 2-0 -- a feat they had only accomplished the very first time they had met -- they were not guaranteed to go through, as all Scrypt had to do was beat the lowest-placed Generic eSports 2-0 to guarantee themselves a spot. After Aerowolf only secured a point against Xavier, it seemed that their qualification dream was over. Generic eSports, though, played the game of their lives, beat Scrypt 2-0, and in so doing sent Aerowolf through to join Xavier in Sydney.
Xavier Esports in Japan for the Season 8 APAC Finals
SiegeGG spoke to players from both teams, Glen “Lunarmetal” Suryasaputra from Aerowolf and Sillapakorn “Lycolis” Dokmaikhaw from Xavier, to talk about their year so far, and their goals for this LAN and beyond.
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What does a typical day of practice look like for your teams?
Lycolis:
Lunarmetal:
Who do your teams really wish to avoid at the APAC LAN, and why?
Lycolis:
Lunarmetal:
NORA-Rengo at the Six Invitational (via ESPN)
To Lunarmetal: You guys all but squeaked through to this season’s APAC LAN after losing three maps this season. Something’s evidently off with the team -- is it chemistry, raw skill, or something else?
Lunarmetal:
How do you think APAC can grow further?
Lycolis:
Lunarmetal:
If you had to choose one other APAC player to play for your team -- forgetting the issue of replacing someone on your team -- who would it be?
Lycolis:
Lunarmetal:
Could we see your teams joining Phase 2 of the Pilot Program soon?
Lycolis:
Lunarmetal:
Is franchising the way to go for Rainbow Six?
Lunarmetal:
The Overwatch League runs on a franchising model where organisations hold the seat in the league rather than the players like in Rainbow Six
To Lycolis: This will be your second international LAN event (after you missed out on the Six Invitational 2019 Qualifier LAN) -- how have you guys improved since Season 8?
Lycolis:
To Lycolis: When we previously interviewed you guys, you did not scrim teams at all. Now that you do, what have been the biggest benefits you have seen?
Lycolis:
Despite not scrimming then, Xavier Esports beat mantisFPS (now Cloud9) in Season 8
Do you have anything to say to your fans, locally and internationally?
Lycolis:
Lunarmetal:
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The Season 9 APAC Finals schedule (graphic generated prior to mantisFPS’ pick up by Cloud9)
Catch all the action from the event from 10AM GMT+10 onwards on the Rainbow6 Twitch and YouTube channels to see which two of the eight teams will be making it to the Pro League Finals in Milan this season.
Xavier Esports: Producerboom, Lycolis, Hajime, HealthcareOG, redsun
Aerowolf: Lunarmetal, Ysaera, HysteRiX, MentalistC, SpeakEasy