Banner image: @R6esportsLATAM
Yesterday, Reven Esports qualified for the BLAST R6 Major Copenhagen after winning the LATAM League Stage 1 Last Chance Qualifier. With their final victory over Malvinas Gaming, the golden organization clinched a spot to compete in Copenhagen, Denmark, next week.
Although the team will go down to the history books with Six Karma as the first two rosters to represent the Latin American region at a Siege international event, Reven Esports' squad is different from any other in the nation.
Despite playing in the LATAM League, Reven Esports' roster has one American and four European players. The team's coach Joan "Snowy" Corredor, who comes from Colombia, is the squad's only Latin American member.
"Unfortunately, we have been met with quite a lot of criticism from the LATAM fan base and other players, understandably so, to be honest," explained the Reven Esports player Sam "Sam" Williams in an interview with SiegeGG.
"We knew, before we came to Mexico, that we would probably be the team that the fans hate in the region, but we have a lot of fans back home from Europe, so we just use the hate from the fans here as fuel to help us work harder."
Even though Sam is aware of the criticism, the player insists. "It is important to note that the whole organization is Mexican and LATAM based, and we work hard every day to repay the faith the staff has placed in us to get the major spots."
Reven Esports team debut came on Mar. 22, when the roster lost to Malvinas Gaming by 1-2. The Argentinian Franco "panno9" Panno clutch on the final round of the third map momentarily put Reven Esports in third place of the group stage. Eventually, the team topped the Group B standings with a 2-1 record.
"The first match here against Malvinas was a heartbreaking match, losing 2-1, 8-7 on the last map to a long-arm defuse from one of their players," Sam explained.
According to Sam, the team lost to Malvinas due to a "lack of practice," which led the team to "make a lot of mistakes."
Following the team's loss to Malvinas Gaming, Sam admitted having made changes to the roles in the squad. Joe and Draw's roles were switched, with Sam taking "greater responsibility in calling our attacks."
Sam admitted that to be a pivotal change to the roster's result dynamic. "With Joe on more of an aggressive role, the responsibility shifted to me."
As time went by, the players got close to their true potential. However, Reven Esports' loss to Knights in the LATAM League semi-finals saw the roster dropping to the Last Chance Qualifiers.
Knights, who had finished in second place in Group A, defeated Reven Esports very comfortably with a 2-0 win -- including wins on Chalet (7-5) and Bank (7-2).
"We learned a lot of lessons from that humbling loss," Sam said. The British player admitted to not having "prepared well in the week of practice leading up to the match" which ended up with Reven Esports going "to maps we weren't as practiced on as we would have wanted to be."
Now, thanks to the team's loss to Knights, Sam admits the team has learned how "to balance our practice better so we get to play all 9 of the maps leading up to the match."
Overall, Reven Esports has some of the most talented and mechanically gifted players in the league, forming a very complete roster. Despite Sam being aware of his skills, his focus is always on support tasks.
"Myself and Wrath, the two support players, are also both very good mechanically, and will contribute in the kill department; however, we make sure we focus on enabling the fragging power that we have on this roster."
"If we play aggressively, confidently, and together Siege with good vibes, that's when we are at our best, and definitely the main lesson we have to take away from the past month here in Mexico."
In terms of roles, Sam is Reven Esports' hard breacher, support, and IGL, a role that he has "gotten used to it pretty quickly."
Meanwhile, Joe "Joe" Crowther, who last played for Skull Cracker, is the entry of the team. Yanis "Draw" is the flex and soft breach, someone Sam thinks top-flight European teams "should regret not giving this guy a chance."
Brandon "wrath" Matousek is the second support and does "all the jobs that we don't want to do." Finally, Runner is possibly the best player on the team, as Sam believes "in a years time we will be talking about Runner as one of the best players in the world, he has that high of a skill ceiling."
"We continued to improve to reach the potential we knew we had with the caliber of players we have on this roster, and I think that is the reason why we came out victorious against them today," Sam admitted.
Regarding Reven Esports' goals heading to the BLAST R6 Major Copenhagen, Sam is very sincere. "You can't prepare for us, we don't have strats, we just play how we want on the day, and I think that will scare teams, especially in BO1s."
Reven Esports' main objective is to qualify for Phase 2 and cause some upsets in Denmark, something that for Sam is a "very achievable goal." "All of us have been scrimming against T1 opponents for years, so the name of these guys won't scare us."