Image via Ubisoft
Even after a strong year from APAC, it seems like the region was still underestimated coming into the Six Invitational. Now, following wins by DWG, SB, and Elevate over oNe, NiP, and DZ respectively, CYCLOPS will begin their SI 2022 campaign today against Rogue in an effort to make the region four-for-four in opening games.
Ahead of this game, CAG exuded confidence in their pre-game press conference with the team’s coach, Fumiya "Fuji3" Fujisaki, stating that he’s “confident they’re better than SANDBOX and [DWG] KIA”.
This is a strong statement, not just because of Korea’s dominance, but also as CYCLOPS previously failed to even qualify for the Six Sweden Major. Now, these fighting words will likely need a semi-final finish or better here at the Six Invitational if they hope to prove them to be true.
In their hopes of achieving this, over the last four months, the team has been doubling down into their hyper-aggressive playstyle. This is a gamble as it didn’t work out in Stage 3, however, they seem to believe it's the right call regardless due to their much more promising Mexico Major appearance.
One tool they’ll have this time around is Osa for whom CAG has been the first and most prominent users of so far. Through day one we didn’t see Osa come into play, however, the shield coupled with the strong guns and smoke grenades could definitely play into their strengths and add to their aggressive pushes.
After day one, CYCLOPS has a lot to live up to, however, the strength of the rest of APAC seems to be driving them forwards. If CYCLOPS is any bit as good as they believe themselves to be, Rogue better be prepared.
The CYCLOPS vs Rogue game is at 4 pm CET this afternoon on the b stream. This will be the third APAC game of the day following DWG vs MIBR and SB vs MNM.