With the Siege X Esports World Cup kicking off tomorrow, we have had a look at the five teams that will represent the Europe and MENA League 2025 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Keep on reading to know more about them, including stats, most banned maps, storylines, and more!
To check our Europe and MENA League 2025 Stage 1 stats click on here.
G2 Esports
G2 Esports have improved massively since the ending of RE:L0:AD. While it was a controversial decision initially, signing the young former controller content creator Zach "Stompn" Lamb to replace the Finn support Aleksi "UUNO" Työppönen has proven to be the right move.
With the American on the team, and with Karl "Alem4o" Zarth back to the IGL role, the European powerhouse surprisingly stole the show in the Europe and MENA League 2025 Stage 1. From struggling to qualify for international competitions throughout 2024 to becoming regional champions, the expectations around this roster have heavily increased in the last few weeks. After all, G2 Esports' legacy will always demand more and more trophies. Nevertheless, the samurai are on the right track.
For more information about G2 Esports, check out our interview with Stompn and Doki here.
Player stats
G2 Esports' individual stats in the Europe and MENA League 2025 Stage 1 gives us a solid idea of how complete the team's performances have been throughout the first months of the season. However, it's interesting to see the team finished with a negative entry balance of 92-106 (-14) after 17 maps played.
G2 Esports' frontline in Stage 1 included Jack "Doki" Robertson and Roberto "Loira" Camargo, the team's most aggressive players. Depending on the map, Stompn would swap roles with both. The Frenchman Alexandre "BlaZ" Thomas was the team's most flexible player and Alem4o clearly focused on communication tasks, with the player mainly using shield operators on attack and Smoke on defense.
Results
All in all, here's a look at G2 Esports' results in the EML 2025 Stage 1:
- G2 Esports 7-4 Wolves Esports
- G2 Esports 8-6 Team Secret
- G2 Esports 7-2 WYLDE
- G2 Esports 7-8 Team BDS
- G2 Esports 7-2 Gen.G Esports
- G2 Esports 8-7 Virtus.pro
- G2 Esports 7-3 Fnatic
- G2 Esports 7-4 MACKO Esports
- G2 Esports 8-7 Team Falcons
- G2 Esports 2-0 Virtus.pro
- G2 Esports 2-1 Team Secret
- G2 Esports 2-1 Team Falcons
G2 Esports' only defeat throughout Stage 1 was a maximum overtime loss against Team BDS. In the league's playoffs, the team won all of their BO3 series. The team's run included victories against Virtus.pro, Team Secret, and Team Falcons, arguably the rosters that complete the region's current Top 4.
Map bans
G2 Esports' most banned ban in Stage 1 has been Clubhouse. The samurai have banned it in all of their matches, being their first map ban in 11 of their 12 matches. The following map on the list is Border, with G2 Esports banning it in 10 of their 12 matches.
Team Falcons
Coming from a season where the now Team Falcons roster reached four international grand finals, the expectations around the French-majority lineup are extremely high — especially when playing in Saudi Arabia. Considering the players are the current Esports World Cup champions and that they will play in front of their organization's home crowd, the pressure around the team's result in Riyadh is even higher.
In RE:L0:AD, the Europeans made their debut under Team Falcons as the were knocked out of the competition by w7m esports in the quarterfinals. It was a good experience to adapt to Rainbow Six Siege X and explore the new operator ban phase, as explained by Théo "LikEfac" Mariano in our interview with the team's IGL. You can check our talk with the Frenchman here.
Meanwhile, Team Falcons performance in the Europe and MENA League 2025 Stage 1 was strong, with a third-place finish in the group stage and an overall Top 2 finish. However, if we focus on the results, the truth is that the Europeans lost five matches only in the first stage — they only lost twice in Europe's top flight last season. While this isn't concerning, especially considering they still qualified for the Esports World Cup, we can definitely say other teams have caught up on Team Falcons, which is good news for EML fans.
Stéphane "Shaiiko" Lebleu was Team Falcons' best player with a SiegeGG rating of 1.08, with Josh "Yuzus" Pritchard and Fatih "Solotov" Türker being behind him with ratings of 1.06 and 1.05, respectively. Not surprisingly, Loïc "BriD" Chongthep was one of the league's best two planters with 18 plants, the same as Gen.G Esports' Rahian "Asa" Ramos.
With 22 clutches, Team Falcons was the best team in these situations, with four of their five players securing five clutches each. The Turkish player was the only member in the team with two clutches.
Results
Here's a look at Team Falcons' results in the EML 2025 Stage 1:
- Team Falcons 2-7 Virtus.pro
- Team Falcons 7-3 MACKO Esports
- Team Falcons 7-1 Gen.G Esports
- Team Falcons 7-2 Wolves Esports
- Team Falcons 7-2 Fnatic
- Team Falcons 7-4 Team BDS
- Team Falcons 7-2 Team Secret
- Team Falcons 3-7 WYLDE
- Team Falcons 7-8 G2 Esports
- Team Falcons 2-0 Gen.G Esports
- Team Falcons 0-2 Team Secret
- Team Falcons 2-0 MACKO Esports
- Team Falcons 2-1 Virtus.pro
- Team Falcons 2-0 Team Secret
- Team Falcons 1-2 G2 Esports
As previously mentioned, Team Falcons lost five of their matches in the Europe and MENA League 2025 Stage 1. Three of these came in the group stage, including Virtus.pro, G2 Esports, and WYLDE. Meanwhile, the team lost two playoff games, including Team Secret and G2 Esports.
Map bans
Team Falcons' most banned maps in the Europe and MENA League 2025 Stage 1 were Border and Chalet, as they banned them in 10 of their 15 matches each.
The lineup has yet to play on Border this season, with their last performance there being a 4-7 defeat at the Six Invitational 2025 against Spacestation Gaming. Meanwhile, their only match on Chalet was on the first playday of the season, which ended in a 2-7 defeat against Virtus.pro. It's also worth mentioning that Team Falcons banned Chalet in all of their playoff matches.
Their third most banned map has been Consulate, with eight times, although they won three of their four matches there in Stage 1.
Team Secret
In 2024, Team Secret finally solidified themselves as a Top 4 roster in Europe's top flight. Not only that, but the team also secured back-to-back BLAST R6 Major Top 8 finishes, and played in the Six Invitational 2025. Now, the European mix is seen as a consistent team in the region with potential to make deep international runs.
Following Boston, Team Secret added Yanis "Mowwwgli" Dahmani and Noah "NoaUrz" Urwitz to the roster. The team's new lineup made its debut in RE:L0:AD, were they took down Team Liquid, LOUD, and M80. Unfortunately, due to the bullet system used in the competition, those results weren't enough to qualify for the playoffs. Nevertheless, Team Secret's performance was quite positive, especially ahead of the start of the BLAST R6 2025 season.
As expected, Team Secret was one of the Top 4 rosters in the competition, although they did slightly better than what many fans had expected. The European mix finished in second place in the group stage, only behind G2 Esports, and surprised Team Falcons with a 2-0 win in the Upper Bracket Quarterfinals. The team was one map away from reaching the region's grand finals, but G2 Esports ended up pushing them to the Lower Bracket. Finally, Team Falcons victory in the Lower Bracket Final meant the European mix would finish in third place.
Marc "Jume" Steinmann was the team's best player in the Europe and MENA League 2025 Stage 1 with a SiegeGG rating of 1.14. He also averaged the highest KOST in the competition (73) right ahead Yuzus (72) and his teammates NoaUrz and Lucas "Savage" Alves — 71 and 70, respectively.
It's also worth mentioning Yanis "Mowwwgli" Dahmani's contributions in the entry department, finishing the stage with an entry balance of 36-22 (+14), the second-highest in the competition. All in all, Team Secret averaged the highest entry numbers in the competition, with a combined average entry balance of 105-75 (+30).
Results
Here's a look at Team Secret's results in the Europe and MENA League 2025 Stage 1:
- Team Secret 7-4 Team BDS
- Team Secret 6-8 G2 Esports
- Team Secret 7-5 Wolves Esports
- Team Secret 7-4 Fnatic
- Team Secret 7-1 MACKO Esports
- Team Secret 7-1 WYLDE
- Team Secret 2-7 Team Falcons
- Team Secret 6-8 Gen.G Esports
- Team Secret 7-5 Virtus.pro
- Team Secret 2-0 Team Falcons
- Team Secret 1-2 G2 Esports
- Team Secret 0-2 Team Falcons
Team Secret showed great consistency against the mid and low-table teams, with their group stage run including one-sided wins against WYLDE and MACKO Esports, while also beating Team BDS, Wolves Esports, Fnatic, and Virtus.pro in regulation. However, the European mix struggled against Team Falcons and G2 Esports, with an anecdotal loss against Gen.G Esports in the group stage's penultimate game.
Map bans
Team Secret's most banned map in the Europe and MENA League 2025 Stage 1 has been Nighthaven Labs, as they banned it ten times. However, the Europeans played it against Team Falcons in the Lower Bracket Final, and almost managed to upset the French-majority roster, as the game ended in a 7-8 defeat for Secret.
While Team Secret's second-most banned map is Consulate, with eight times, the roster have managed to improve their map pool, looking like they are capable to adapt to the needs of their opposition. With six times each, Kafe Dostoyevsky and Bank are also quite present in the map veto phase.
Virtus.pro
Virtus.pro had an outstanding start to the stage with victories over Team Falcons and Gen.G Esports. However, after that, the team started to suffer to close some of the games, having to reach overtime to beat Fnatic, falling to MACKO Esports, and losing to G2 Esports on maximum overtime. Although the team's one-sided victories over Team BDS and WYLDE were enough to secure a Top 6 finish, the Russians surprisingly fell against Wolves Esports and also lost against Team Secret.
In the playoffs, a one-sided victory against MACKO Esports, where the Russians only lost two rounds, was followed by a 0-2 defeat against G2 Esports. Against Gen.G Esports, the Bears had to put blood, sweat, and tears to lock a Top 4 finish as the three maps of the series reached overtime. Finally, Virtus.pro finished in fourth place after a thrilling 1-2 defeat against Team Falcons.
Virtus.pro's Pavel "p4sh4" Kosenko was the best player of the Europe and MENA League 2025 Stage 1 with a SiegeGG rating of 1.14, tied with Jume and Davey "Freq" Hendriks. However, he averaged this rating after playing 19 maps, three more than the German and ten more than the Dutch.
While all G2 Esports, Team Falcons, and Team Secret have similar ratings across their players, the Russians are an exception, as p4sh4 is the only player in Virtus.pro with an average positive SiegeGG rating. The rest of players have ratings between 0.99 and 0.95.
Results
Here's a look at Virtus.pro's results in the Europe and MENA League 2025 Stage 1:
- Virtus.pro 7-2 Team Falcons
- Virtus.pro 7-3 Gen.G Esports
- Virtus.pro 8-7 Fnatic
- Virtus.pro 5-7 MACKO Esports
- Virtus.pro 7-3 Team BDS
- Virtus.pro 7-8 G2 Esports
- Virtus.pro 7-1 WYLDE
- Virtus.pro 4-7 Wolves Esports
- Virtus.pro 5-7 Team Secret
- Virtus.pro 2-0 MACKO Esports
- Virtus.pro 0-2 Team Secret
- Virtus.pro 2-1 Gen.G Esports
- Virtus.pro 1-2 Team Falcons
Map bans
Virtus.pro's most banned maps are Skyscraper and Nighthaven Labs as they banned both of them in all of their matches in the Europe and MENA League 2025 Stage 1. Lair is a close third, as the Russians banned it in 11 of their 13 matches in the competition. Their fourth most banned map is Consulate, with eight times.
Gen.G Esports
Finally, Gen.G Esports was the last team to secure an Esports World Cup spot after finishing in fifth place in the Europe and MENA League 2025 Stage 1. The French-speaking roster narrowly qualified for the league's Top 6 after a heroic 8-6 win against Team Secret and a 7-4 win against Fnatic. These results were enough for the roster to qualify for the playoffs after clinching the sixth spot. After back-to-back defeats against Team Falcons and Virtus.pro, Gen.G Esports qualified for the Esports World Cup after a 2-1 win against MACKO Esports.
Christopher "SkyZs" Jauleski was Gen.G Esports' best player of the stage with a SiegeGG rating of 1.05. He finished with the ninth highest K-D in the region. It's also worth mentioning Ilhan "Nayqo" Jabbari's entry numbers, as he averaged the third highest entry balance with 29-17 (+12) in 17 maps.
Finally, alongside BriD, Gen.G Esports' support Asa was the highest planter in the league with 18 plants. He achieved that tally after playing six maps less than the Team Falcons' player, averaging one plant per map.
Results
Here's a look at Gen.G Esports' results in the Europe and MENA League 2025 Stage 1:
- Gen.G Esports 7-8 MACKO Esports
- Gen.G Esports 3-7 Virtus.pro
- Gen.G Esports 1-7 Team Falcons
- Gen.G Esports 8-7 WYLDE
- Gen.G Esports 2-7 G2 Esports
- Gen.G Esports 7-1 Wolves Esports
- Gen.G Esports 6-8 Team BDS
- Gen.G Esports 8-6 Team Secret
- Gen.G Esports 7-4 Fnatic
- Gen.G Esports 0-2 Team Falcons
- Gen.G Esports 1-2 Virtus.pro
- Gen.G Esports 2-1 MACKO Esports
After only collecting three points in their first five matches, Gen.G Esports' chances of qualifying for the Esports World Cup were relatively slim. However, the French-speaking roster managed to sneak in the Top 6 after securing nine points in their final four group stage games. Eventually, the team's defeats against Team Falcons and Virtus.pro were followed by a win against MACKO Esports, which saw the golden roster securing a ticket to compete in Riyadh.
Map bans
Gen.G Esports' most banned map is Chalet, as the team has banned it 10 times so far this season. In second place we have a tie as Consulate and Skyscraper were banned eight times each. In fourth place we have Lair as the players banned it five times.