This series aims to highlight the best and most interesting games of all the lower leagues in competitive Siege, from the BR6 national league to the German Saturday League, to ensure that you don’t miss the best action going on at all levels of play.
Brasileirão 2019 - FaZe Clan vs Black Dragons
This week’s two games are some of the biggest matchups as the season, as the first and second seeded teams play the third and fourth-seeded teams in their final match of the season.
The BR6 2019 standings so far halfway through round 12 via @rainbow6br
PTS = Points. J = Games Played. SM = Map Difference. MV = Maps Won. SR = Round Difference. RV = Rounds Won
Game one sees FaZe Clan face Black Dragons in what will likely be one of the most closely watched games of the season, as it was this matchup that the FaZe Clan/Black Dragons match-fixing accusations revolved around. According to BD’s ex-analyst, FaZe was going to throw this match in exchange for a Pro League victory they got last season, but an ESL investigation has since ruled that there isn’t enough evidence to prove match-fixing was happening. Furthermore, with the accusations now public, FaZe would now be wanting to make sure these accusations end here with a clear victory over the Dragons.
The second game of the day sees Team Liquid play against Ninjas in Pyjamas in what is very clearly a top-level matchup as the third and fourth-seeded LATAM teams from last season’s Pro League face off. The last time NiP beat Liquid in any matchup was almost eight months ago in the Pro League, with Liquid winning five maps and drawing a map since. While it is somewhat unlikely NiP would win this game, it is very possible as Liquid have already secured first place in the league meaning they’ll likely won't be pulling out any actual strategies and, ultimately, NiP don’t need to win this game to make LAN -- they just need to get a point.
Liquid’s new player, Muringa, with the rest of Team Liquid last Sunday via @rainbow6br’s flickr
As it sits now, both FaZe and Liquid have safely locked themselves into their positions in the league while their challengers -- Black Dragons and Ninjas in Pyjamas -- need just a single point to book themselves a spot at the Finals next month. Should they fail this, the results will be out of both their hands, with next week's results likely leading to a remarkable four-way tie for third with only two of the teams qualifying for the Finals. This makes these two games one of the most important of the year for NiP and BD, with their ten-month long campaign being boiled down to a single point on Sunday.
The NiP and BD rosters last Sunday via @rainbow6br’s flickr
6 French League 2019 - PENTA vs Supremacy
Next comes the French national league where the Pro League side of PENTA faces the top Tier-2 roster in French R6. While they struggled in the Challenger League last season, finishing fifth and needing to requalify for this season, Supremacy has shown that they are one of the very best teams in the nation -- especially so on LAN where they finished in third at the Gamers Assembly 2019 event and in second at both the smaller Lyon e-Sport 2019 and TopAchat Cup #1 tournaments, only behind Pro League rosters. Now, both Voy and Alive will hope to repeat their previous LAN performances as they face their ex-teammates from Mock-it Esports -- Enemy and RevaN.
These four players played together for around three months last year during the first half of Season 8 in which time they were crowned the French National champions at the Coupe de France 2018 event and attended both the DreamHack Valencia 2018 Minor and the Paris Major, achieving disappointing results in both. Since both these players were kicked from this roster, these four players now make up the backbone of two separate rosters, likely causing some rivalry between the sides as they meet on a LAN setting for the very first time since the separation.
The Mock-it roster with their Coupe de France trophy. Standing up from the left you can see RevaN, Voy, and then Alive with ENEMY crouching in the middle.
While you always have to favour the Pro League team, PENTA looked particularly strong last week as they defeated the league favourites, LeStream Esport, despite playing with a substitute whereas Supremacy was held to a draw against GameWard Team which can’t be a positive even though we don't know much about that team. Also worrying for Supremacy is that their star fragger of Alive subbed in for Team Vitality yesterday in the Pro League. While this shows just how good the player is, it also indicates that he is fairly likely to be poached if Supremacy doesn’t show up soon as he was the best rated player in the Challenger League last season:
The full SiegeGG statistics for last Season’s European Challenger League.
ESL Premiership Summer 2019 - Team Secret vs T3H Esports
Next, we have the ESL Premiership where Lacky is hoping to get some payback on his old team. T3H, formed specifically for the ESL Premiership, made it through the open qualifiers to get into the league and currently sits in an impressive third place following a draw with the Pro League team of Natus Vincere last week. Now, the roster made up of the two ex-Pro League players of Lacky and TankNinjaz, as well as the Challenger League player of Oraghon, faces the ex-British champions and recent winners of the Las Vegas Minor event -- Team Secret -- on Thursday in the first meeting between Lacky and his old team of over two years.
With the top two automatically qualifying for the Finals, and T3H sitting just two points off of Secret, a victory here would pretty much ensure they get to fight for the £8,500 prize pool at LAN next month as they attempt to take the British national title for themselves. These two teams also both sit undefeated at the moment in the league, meaning that both teams will be putting up a fight in what should be a thrilling matchup.
This week’s schedule via the rainbowsix_uk Twitch stream
Giants Showdown: Season 2 - Playoffs
Finally, we have the Giants Showdown which ran under the radar for many people despite it being one of the biggest leagues in Latin America. The league invited the top non-Brazilian teams in LATAM to compete in a twice-weekly double round-robin best-of-one map league with a playoff stage -- a format identical to the old Challenger League schedule -- before an eventual LAN Final at the end of it.
The actual league portion of the season ended last week, and now, over the next two days, the top four teams play in a playoff bracket -- seed one facing seed four and seed two facing seed three -- with the two victors qualifying for the LAN Finals in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in a week’s time.
The first semi-final will see the Chilean roster of Furious Gaming (who both finished second at the Argentina Game Show tournament and qualified for last season’s Challenger League before being disqualified for having an underaged player) face off against the Argentinian roster of Undead Gaming of whose core won the Season 1 title and finished the regular season with a remarkable 11-2-1 win-draw-loss record (including two victories over Furious themselves). Many people see this as the decider match, with whoever winning this game being fairly likely to take the eventual title in the most diverse tournament in the entire region.
In total, this league includes players from four separate nations -- Chile, Argentina, Peru and Uruguay -- however, it is dominated by the first two nations as seen by the second semi-final also being a game between a Chilean roster in Coliseo Dragons and an Argentinian roster of Nocturns Gaming. The Nocturns Gaming organisation won the last season of the league with a different roster and so will be aiming to repeat that achievement this time also. However, the Coliseo Dragons won't be a walkover as their roster includes the ex-Challenger League player of shoxo, with it likely being a nail-biting matchup with a lot on the line for both teams.
The regular season standings via @ColiseoDragons
The best-of-five map single elimination playoff games will be played tonight and tomorrow at 22:00UTC on the giantsshowdown Twitch account, with a spot at the LAN Finals on the line for both games. This is an excellent chance to see the underbelly of the LATAM region in action as the biggest non-Brazilian league in the region nears its end.
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These are the biggest and most interesting matchups this coming week across the secondary-level tournaments around the world. Keep an eye out for more SiegeGG coverage of all levels of Rainbow Six, including the upcoming DreamHack Valencia Minor and the Mexican National LAN happening next week.