Banner image: Kiril B.
The European League came to an end this weekend with the conclusion of the top-flight Finals and the relegation match.
BDS demolishes Empire, Natus Vincere rubs more salt into G2’s wound
The European League’s final day began with a very interesting clash between Na’Vi and G2 for third place.
The match followed a script similar to the one seen in last weekend’s game between G2 and BDS, as the Berlin-based team won the first map but lost the following two.
This defeat comes a few days after knowing that G2 Esports won’t be at the Six Invitational 2022, since the team was knocked out of both online qualifiers.
Later on, BDS Esport and Team Empire played in Europe’s Grand Final, a match that could go down in the books as one of the quickest best-of-five series in the history of Rainbow 6 Siege. The French squad speed ran through the Russians on three very one-sided maps, 7-3, 7-0, and 7-2. This means that Empire only won 19% of the rounds played in the series.
BDS dominated every aspect of the match, but it is worth noticing that the French squad was successful in 12 of their 13 attacking rounds.
Stéphane “Shaiiko” Lebleu was the best player of the match, racking up 36 kills throughout the series. The Frenchman was also announced as the best player of the season.
Team Secret pulls an insane comeback against HellRaisers
Although the European League Finals were the jewel of the crown, Saturday’s game didn’t disappoint. The clash faced off the ninth-placed in the top-flight division, Team Secret, against the Challenger League Grand Final loser, HellRaisers.
The series’ first two maps saw an incredibly clumsy side from Team Secret, with the European League roster making many mistakes that would eventually put the team between a rock and a hard place. Alexander “flaers0” Kroshkin’s Echo clutch in Bank’s round eight is the visual representation of Secret’s problems through the first two maps, with Keenan Dunne running by the Russian while he was controlling his Yokais.
HellRaisers would eventually win the map by 7-4 following five back-to-back successful rounds on defense.
Chalet was the second map of the series, this being much closer. However, the Russians would once again win it after Anatoly “eXoduSS” Martynov disabled the defuser in the very last overtime round.
Nevertheless, the match was about to experience an incredible U-turn -one that nobody could have anticipated considering Secret’s poor showing throughout the first two maps.
Following the disasters seen in Bank and Chalet, Secret was back in the game after a very one-sided win in Oregon (7-1) and a well-deserved victory in Villa (7-4). Kafe, a map that Secret had only played two times in this year’s EUL, would decide the team’s future.
Luckily for Secret, the team had a rock-solid showing on the final map. Four successful defenses were followed by three well-planned attacks.
Secret will be in next year’s EUL season.