Banner image: @KnightsLATAM
Following the arrival of BLAST to Rainbow Six Siege, the shape of the game’s esport has deeply changed, including the league’s formats and the international events’ structure.
Argentina and Mexico have been two of the benefited regions by the new tweaks made to the scene, as both communities have separated from Brazil and created their own regional competition: the LATAM League.
With this change, Brazil will still send four teams to the Six Major while also opening the door to Argentina and Mexico to not send just one but two rosters. Plain and simple, two lineups will make their international debuts in Copenhagen, representing the region for the first time at a top-flight international Siege competition.
Considering the LATAM League has two spots for the BLAST Major Phase 1, the region is now seen as a great chance to take part in the international circuit. With more resources and more exposure, the team’s from the region could make huge steps ahead.
To this day, we have seen the return of 9z Team and Atheris to Rainbow Six Siege, as both teams momentarily stepped away after the conclusion of Year 6.
If that wasn’t enough, organizations like Maycam Evolve or Reven Esports have signed imports to compete in the LATAM League, with Maycam playing with three Brazilians and Reven with four Europeans.
Moreover, Knights switched regions as the team left APAC and joined the LATAM League with the signing of an Argentinian roster full of highly-experienced players in the region.
“Brazil’s playstyle has helped us to adapt to Mexico,” admitted the Knight’s player Tomás “TomHagen” Otañi. “The game is more methodical and slower here, it wasn’t difficult to adapt for us.”
For those unaware, although Mexico was part of the Copa Elite Six for the last two seasons, the Mexican teams couldn’t practice against Brazilian roster due to ping complications. Meanwhile, the South American players could.
Now, with the LATAM League being held in Mexico, the Argentinians that have moved to the new league have to adapt their playstyle to the new needs. It also means that they cannot scrim against Brazilian rosters and have had to adapt to new oppositions.
“We have already played against DarkZero Esports, Parabellum, Beastcoast, among others.” TomHagen revealed.
“It helps a lot. As I’ve said, the playstyle is slower and methodical here, while the Brazilian is faster and aggressive. It helped us to adapt and get used to it quickly.”
Knights’ debut in the LATAM League came earlier this week, with a 2-0 victory over Team Cruelty. The Mexican roster has some of the most experienced players in the region, including the former Estral Esports player Oscar “Toski” Sepúlveda or the former Atheris Esports’ duo of Luís “Guicho” Gómez and Luís “Navy” García.
Although Knights got away with the win, Team Cruelty focused especially on the ban of Solis. The Mexicans banned the Colombian operator on both maps, Kafe and Clubhouse.
“Solis is very strong, especially on maps like Kafe where she is focused on breaking drones on the inferior floor of the map so you can’t get information from the bombs above.”
Without a doubt, Group A is the strongest group of the two, with Six Karma and Knights being at the top momentarily. Team Cruelty and 9z Team complete the group.
According to TomHagen, the team’s main opposition is Six Karma. “There’s a rivalry with them due to things that happened while deciding the rosters, which is combined with the fact that they have a strong core.”
Precisely, Knights’ next game is against the Mexicans. It will be a good clash, as the team will face the Argentinian duo in Six Karma of Federico “Pechito” Miller and Josías “Soco” Altamirano.
In Group B, Atheris Esports and Malvinas Gaming won their matches against Maycam Evolve and Reven Esports, respectively.
Maycam Evolve couldn’t play with Daniel “Novys” Novy due to some traveling complications, which pushed José “BRKR” Hernández to the starting lineup. Meanwhile, Reven Esports fell to Malvinas Gaming after losing the final map of the series on maximum overtime.