As announced last Wednesday during the Ubisoft Forward digital event, summer next year will see the very first "Rainbow Six World Cup", as 20 national teams will compete for their nation and title of World Cup champions.
The format sees the 14 nations below invited directly to the tournament, with the remaining six coming from online qualifiers next year -- two from Europe, one from LATAM, one from South-East Asia, one from South Asia, and one from the MENA Region.
The 45 nations competing to become the World Cup 2021 champions
The teams competing must have all five players be citizens of the country they are representing and the lineup can't include more than two current teammates -- so the whole of BDS can't represent France for instance.
With these rules in mind, for this article we asked both the community and a representative of the eight biggest nations in European Rainbow Six about which five players should represent their country. The full results of the community poll can be found here.
Jump to:
- France (featuring Scok and FuriouSG)
- The UK (featuring Dezachu)
- Russia (featuring Cthulhu)
- Germany (featuring verdi)
- Spain (featuring AlexPolo)
- Italy (featuring Etrurian)
France
While the fully French reigning European champions of BDS Esport would likely be the dream French lineup, the rules of the World Cup means a maximum of two players from a single team can be in a national lineup. This would mean players from other French teams such as Tempra or PENTA would need to be included, creating a very long list of possible players.
The number one player in Year 4 of Stéphane "Shaiiko" Lebleu, the top-rated player in Europe during Stage 1 of Loïc "BriD" Chongthep, and the in-game-leader of the most consistent French lineup in R6S history, Bastien "BiBoo" Dulac, top both the fan and caster lineups for Team France.
The two casters of Guillaume "Scok" Beck and Sébastien "FuriouSG" Guérineau decided together that their ideal team would be:
Shaiiko, BriD, BiBoo, P4, and Shiinka
With two players picked from BDS and BiBoo selected from Vitality, this leaves just Tempra with French players in the EU League to select from. The two players picked by the casters were, therefore, Tempra's top performing players during stage one with P4 and Shiinka also topping their teammates on the fan votes.
Other notable players include the PENTA player of BlaZ, who topped last season's Challenger League as the only player above a 1.0 KPR, the three remaining BDS players of Elemzje, Renshiro, and RaFaLe and the North American League player of Alphama who, while being a top-tier player, would struggle to practice with his Team France teammates before the event itself.
France and Europe's top team, seen here at the OGA PIT Minor.
United Kingdom
These picks were made prior to pacbull's move to Secret or ASTRO's move to ex-LowLandLions.
Over the last year and a half, the UK scene has seen an explosion of talent, with the Team Secret roster disbanding and spreading out to multiple new teams, and the Natus Vincere roster rising to win the Pro League. This means that British talent and players are currently a part of seven different top-tier lineups -- G2, Na'Vi, Chaos, Secret, Rogue, eU, and Giants -- giving Team GB a wide range of talent to chose from.
Despite this, it seems pretty clear who most of the players would be, with both the fans and the European League and Six Invitational caster of Derry "Dezachu" Holt choosing CTZN, LeonGids, Doki and Kendrew:
CTZN, Doki, LeonGids, Kendrew, and Kayak
While there are currently seven British players in the EU League at the moment, four of these are on Natus Vincere, of which only two can be chosen. The overwhelming consensus on that was the greatly experienced duo of Jack "Doki" Robertson and Luke "Kendrew" Kendrew. Joining them are the two remaining players of Leon "LeonGids" Giddens from Rogue and Ben "CTZN" McMillan from G2, locking out four spots.
I think there are a few gems from the UK that could do great in this team but I’ve gone with the obvious ones... imagine the memes.
This leaves one open spot for player number five, with a huge range of players being suggested for this spot. The most favoured player seems to be Secret's new pickup of pacbull as he's the final eligible EUL pick. Besides him, there are also MnM Gaming's British players of Nathan, Dats, and ex-LLL's newest pickup of ASTRO, all in the Challenger League. Dezachu, meanwhile, went for the current Challenger League player for Cowana Gaming of Kayak:
... [Kayak's] long been a stalwart in the UK and a solid support player. I've heard good things about him in a team environment.
Another standout option, however, is the Pro League grand-finalist, two-time Six Major semi-finalists and the victor of both DreamHack Valencia 2018 and the Allied Minor of Matthew "meepeY" Sharples. While he currently works as the coach of eUnited, he is still based in the UK and has expressed an interested in a return to playing for Team GB if offered an opportunity:
One of Britain's most consistent teams at the Paris Major.
Russia
With two EU League and one Challenger League team, Russia is another serious contender for the Six World Cup title. The two players per current team rule may, however, seriously hinder the nation's chances, with the top two teams only providing a few key players each.
To start with, both Virtus.pro and Team Empire will provide two players each. This is pretty much an open contest between the ten of them, with seven members of these rosters all receiving over ten picks by the community.
While virtually any of these players are in with a shot of being picked, Pavel "p4sh4" Kosenko is very likely to be one of them after a standout performance for his team during Stage 1, while the Raleigh Major MVP of Artur "ShepparD" Ipatov will be a likely pick from Team Empire.
The Russian born ANZ caster of Konstantin "Cthulhu" Nuridzhanyan, meanwhile, picked this Team Russia as his lineup:
Dan, Scyther, p4sh4, Shockwave, and SmashByAsh
This means instead of Empire's Raleigh Major MVP, he instead opted for their Season 9 Finals MVP of dan, alongside the top-performing Russian player during Stage 1 of Scyther. From Vp, alongside p4sh4, he picked Shockwave, a player who has played in the Pro League on both Empire and Vp. Finally, rounding off the lineup is the Challenger League player of SmashByAsh, who led Winstrike to a win over Empire during the last Russian Major League Finals.
Pretty much every other player of note is a current or ex-member of these two EUL rosters, making them possible alternatives.
Germany
Similar to the UK scene, Germany has also seen a major resurgence over the last year with Team Secret finally requalifying for the Pro League, Rogue turning from a French to German roster and, most recently, two German players filling the otherwise Swedish Chaos Esports lineup.
Due to there being nine German EU League players as well as three more in Europe's Challenger League, there is no shortage of players to pick from, with fans opting for a lineup of AceeZ and korey from Rogue, Cryn from Chaos, Hungry from Vitality, and Prano from Secret. The German caster of Marius "Verdipwnz" Lauer, however, went for a very different lineup:
Hungry, Cryn, Drvn, ripz, Jonka, Sua (analyst), Reaper (strategic analyst), and Zeus (coach)
While Hungry and Cryn are included, ripz gets picked from Rogue instead of korey and AceeZ, Drvn gets picked over his teammate of Prano ,and the MnM Gaming player of Jonka is picked as a true wildcard selection.
Two other players in the running is the two-time Pro League champion of KS and his brother Exp0 who both previously played on Team Secret, as well as the two unlisted Challenger League players of BaasheD from Orgless and Haze from Team Fedora.
Spain
Similar to Mexico, the Spanish scene has just a single top-caliber player of note in Daniel "Goga" Mazorra Romero who previously won four Pro League titles, two Six Invitational cabers, and both a Six Major and Minor while playing for G2 Esports. Now on Team Vitality, he will be a guaranteed pick for Team Spain.
Joining Goga will likely be two players each from the Challenger League team of Heretics and the runners-up of Movistar Riders. These teams include most of the country's top talent, including both baroz and weskeRR who are the only two currently-signed players from the only Spanish team to ever qualify for a Pro League Finals.
The Spanish caster of Alejandro "AlexPolo" Polo chose these three players in his ideal lineup:
Goga, Kuriboh, Baroz, Foskito, and weskeRR
Joining them are two newer players of Oscar "Kuriboh" Puerma and Jordi "FOSKITo" Bodro, who both have had minimal high-level experience but are on track to do so soon:
Goga is the best Spanish player ever. He is the one who has more experience at the top level and every national roster that you could make in Spain has to have Dani. I think Goga can play in Support/Flex position in my team. Kuriboh is the "new Goga". Same role and great potential. In the FACEIT Pro League he was second best to Shaiiko and playing with Heretics he has demonstrated that he is the best player in the Spain Nationals. For me he would play as Breacher/Anchor. Baroz, the Spain Nationals finals MVP, has top level experience, both with gBots and with NiP as a stand-in at the Season 10 Finals. He is great fragger and the most aggressive anchor that I've seen before. For me he is Entry/Anchor. Foskito is 19 years old and has attended two Spanish Finals in a row. He is the best entry and no doubt when I say that is one of the greatest young talents in Spain. Foskito is entry/roamer. WeskeRR is a war veteran. 30 years old and more than 10 in his esports career. He is one of the best IGLs in Spain so we need him in the first World Cup. I have to say that I would pick Iluzjonist if I can, but it is probably that he signs for an org that have two players in this team so I take weskeRR in his position. WeskeRR would play as a Flex/Roamer. Also, my perfect IGL is Kuriboh and weskeRR. They played together in x6tence and it could be great to see them again.
The one notable exception in this team is another ex-gBots player in David "p0Lo" Gómez Urrea who also represented NiP at the Season 10 Finals. While AlexPolo didn't include him on his lineup, he would be a strong possibility for the final Team Spain roster.
Italy
Italian Rainbow Six saw a single team win six national titles in a row from February 2016 to December 2019, with their record only broken last season as Samsung Morning Stars took the title. Across all these wins the two consistent players were Alation and Torok making them clear picks for the Team Italy lineup.
Joining them will certainly be another ex-Italian champion best known for his time on Tempo Storm in the North American League of Sloppy to create a solid core lineup for the team. The Italian caster of Filippo "Etrurian" Burresi picked these players to make his ideal team.
Alation, Sloppy, T3b, Aqui, Torok or Fratelli
So I will start to say that choosing the five Italian guys is quite difficult. You need to understand how the chemestry will work and everything. We no longer have any player in EUL or NAL etc. and so you can imagine that at one point the team will start to train to make everything more smooth and play as a team! I will start with my first pick and I think that it would be Alation. Alation is a mastermind and a great IGL. He can really understand many possibilities of the game and is a great gunner too My second pick would be Sloppy: I can't imagine in one point that Sloppy would not make in the top five. Great gunner and you saw in the NAL that he would do everything to make it happen. If this mindset will continue I can see just bright things on his path. As my third choice would be T3b: in my opinion the young gunner of Macko Esport can really benefit a lot from this opportunity. I have the idea that T3b would grow up and be a big actor on this tournament. My fourth choice would be Aqui. The guy is so freaking good and I think his stability would help many many times the team. I think this guy can really help a lot the stability of the team and he always try to grind to be better! My fifth choice would be... Torok or Fratelli. I would be frank, these two can really be here and be so good. Fratelli won the last Italian champions and he always be so good either in germany! Torok....is Torok! great players and great shotcalling can really change everything
With five notable ex-EnD Gaming players and three current Italian Challenger League players, there is a very large range of players to choose from making any lineup a fairly notable underdog team.
The national "managers" will be chosen in a few month's time with these people, in turn, selecting the lineups ahead of next year's competition. Keep an eye out for further news on the tournament's progression as we learn more here at SiegeGG.