APAC Transfers: Latest Updates - Mid Season 11

As SiegeGG’s hub for all roster changes in the transfer window during the Season 10 mid-season transfer period, this page will be regularly updated with the latest transfer news. Check back here to keep up to date with all upcoming changes in the APAC region and keep up to date with EU here, NA here and LATAM here.

Summary of Changes So Far

JP:

NORA-Rengo - Ar7hur joins, SouLBoi signed, Maavie released

GUTS Gaming - Yura joins, Simotuki leaves

DetonatioN Gaming - Tonziru and Simotuki join, Yura leaves

ANZ:

HomeLess - Pittsburgh Knights acquires roster

Team SiNister - Vincere signed, Sirrom officially replaces Shifty as coach

Kanga Esports  - Unitdoggy moves to a coach and substitute position, Spruce signed, Worthy leaves, Campo joins

Fnatic - Virtue leaves, Acez rejoins starting lineup

Onyxian 2.0 - Elevate signs roster, Gio leaves, Worthy added

SEA:

Valor eSports - Polar Ace signs acquires roster

Qconfirm - Pxkie dropped, Tanler7 confirmed to be coach

KR:

Cloud9 - H3dy leaves, SyAIL and Harp3rXD join, RechoTZ signed as assistant coach and manager, OCN returns to head coach role

TRIPPY - Team disbands, DongUk, Templat, and Jaekdow move to Axiomatic

Axiomatic - DongUk, Templat, and Jaekdow join

Roster Changes

[ANZ] March 19th: Kanga Esports Signs Campo

Just hours prior to its Pro League game against FURY, Kanga Esports has announced the signing of Campo from PC419.

[KR] March 15th: Cloud9 Signs RechoTZ as Assistant Coach

Cloud9 has announced the signing of Minjae "RechoTZ" Seo as the assistant coach to Park "OCN" Hyeon, who returns to his position. RechoTZ will also be undertaking manager duties for the team.

[KR] March 5th: Cloud9 Confirms SyAIL and Harp3rXD Signings

After having played all the games so far this season except for the first two, presumably as a stand-in on paper, Lee "Harp3rXD" Hyojun has been officially signed by Cloud9. Signing alongside him to replace Kwon "h3dy" Yugeun is Song "SyAIL" Donseong, who joins after having left the now-disbanded TRIPPY. Of the two, SyaiL certainly has more experience, having played at the Season 10 APAC Finals with TRIPPY and could be vital to the team at the APAC Finals.

[ANZ] March 3rd: Virtue Leaves, Acez Rejoins Starting Lineup

Following the departure of star player Jake "Virtue" Grannan to G2 Esports, Matthew "Acez" McHenry now marks a return to playing days after having spent months on the bench.

Acez had been a mainstay of the Fnatic roster for a very long time prior to being benched, having even been on the original Mindfreak Xbox roster the current Fnatic team can trace its roots back to. Then, playing alongside now-coach Jayden "Dizzle" Saunders, he had made it to the Six Invitational 2017.

Following the switch to PC, the Mindfreak roster had lost its first APAC Finals in Season 6, but started its climb to where it now is in the Six Invitational 2018 APAC Qualifier LAN. Then headed to the Invitational, Mindfreak took down what would later become the Team Empire roster and stunned Liquid to once again make it to the main stage.

Season 7 saw the Fnatic signing, and while the team would go to the Finals and the Six Major Paris, it would only be at the Season 8 Finals when the Invitational feat would be repeated -- this time with Dizzle playing in place of an ill Etienne "Magnet" Rousseau. Another Six Invitational main stage qualification would follow in 2019 with Virtue now on the team, and Fnatic kept marching on. Despite a follow-up semi-finals appearance in the Pro League Finals, though, Acez would then be benched by the team after a drop in motivation.

A greatly disappointing Six Major Raleigh was the precursor to an even more disappointing Season 10, where Fnatic lost its Pro League Finals streak, prompting Patrick "MentalistC" Fan and Tex "Tex" Thompson to be brought in. After yet another Six Invitational main stage appearance, where Fnatic beat both 2019 Major winners G2 Esports and Team Empire as well as FaZe Clan, Acez finds his way back into the team as Virtue joins the very team he had helped beat.

Now, Fnatic will gear up for an exciting run to the finish line in the latter part of this Pro League season, with its first true test likely to come at the APAC Finals.

[KR] March 3rd: TRIPPY Disbands, Three Players Move to Axiomatic

TRIPPY, the second seeded team from Korea in Season 10, has disbanded after an incredibly tumultuous Season 11 of the Pro League so far. As such, all the TRIPPY games played will be rendered null and void, and points won by other teams against TRIPPY will be rescinded. This has had a knock-on effect of virtually cementing SCARZ as the top-seed in Korea, while Cloud9 could even drop to third as it is now within three points of Axiomatic.

So far this season, the team had only one map win and one draw from eight maps played -- a far cry from their Season 10 accomplishments thanks to an everchanging roster with multiple stand-in players. Last season, TRIPPY had given a decent fight to the top Japanese seed of Cyclops Athlete Gaming on the first map, but had lost 0-2 nonetheless. This was, however, only three-fifths of the current roster.

As a result, DongUk, Templat, and JaekDow will be moving to the rival team of Axiomatic, who will now either need to offload two players and move one to a coaching or substitute postion or a combination of both moves. Axiomatic itself has not been having a great season, with no wins, three draws, and five losses from eight maps and is out of contention for the APAC Finals. This move is thus likely geared towards the Korea Open, where Axiomatic finished in third in the previous season -- six points behind the winners of Cloud9, and three points ahead of TRIPPY.

As a result, the Korean scene is further weakened, although given that it is the last season of the Pro League as we know it, the shockwaves are limited to the subregion and will not spread to APAC as a whole. After the Season 11 Finals, APAC will be switching to a 10-team APAC North division (comprising teams from Japan, Southeast Asia, and Korea) played online, and a 10-team APAC South division (comprising teams from Australia and New Zealand and South Asia), likely played offline.

To know more about the future of APAC Rainbow Six, read our coverage here.

[ANZ] March 3rd: Kanga Esports Signs Spruce

Kanga Esports has announced the signing of James "Spruce" Feaver as a replacement for Jordan "Unitdoggy" Findanis, who had moved to a substitute and coaching position for the roster last month.

[JP] February 28th: DetonatioN Re-Signs Tonziru, Trades Yura with GUTS for Simotuki

GUTS Gaming and DetonatioN Gaming have become the next two teams in Japan to make player changes, swapping GUTS' Simotuki for DetonatioN's Yura. At the same time, DetonatioN has re-signed Tonziru, who had left the team over a year ago in January 2019.

[ANZ] February 28th: Sirrom Officially Replaces Shifty as SiNister Coach

A day after announcing the signing of the player Vincere, Team SiNister has officially announced the signing of Conway "Sirrom" Morris as a replacement for outgoing coach Shifty.

[ANZ] February 27th: Team SiNister Signs Vincere

Team SiNister has announced the signing of Vincere, who will be joining the core roster for the second split of Season 11 of the Pro League and beyond.

[KR] February 19th: Cloud9 Parts ways with H3dy

Longtime Cloud9 player Kwon "h3dy" Yugeun has been dropped from Cloud9 amidst a period of turmoil for the team. Having joined the roster when it was known as Team Yetti in January 2018, after having completed his studies in Japan and a corresponding stint with NORA-Rengo, h3dy's departure comes after a US$5,000 victory with Cloud9 in mid-January this year.

While somewhat of a surprise, the changes come after constant underperformance from the Korean roster since its signing with Cloud9, after which the team crashed out 7-1, 7-1 to Aerowolf at the Season 9 APAC Finals. Through its time with Cloud9, the roster did win a non-Korean match -- at DreamHack Valencia 2019 against x6tence -- but also lost to 0RGL3SS (now Wildcard Gaming) 2-0 and to NORA-Rengo 2-1 afterwards at the Six Major Raleigh APAC Qualifier LAN and the Season 10 APAC Finals.

Even domestically, the team's dominance is no longer what it once was. Cloud9 has been struggling to dispatch domestic teams, having needed two games against TRIPPY in the Six Invitational 2020 Korean Qualifier to avoid failing to qualify to an APAC LAN for the first time and currently finding itself in second place in the Pro League. First having to play two games with former captain and star player Park "OCN" Hyeon as a coach-turned-stand-in and then having had Lee "Harp3rXD" Hyojun fill that slot from the third game onwards, roster stability has been sorely lacking for the team.

Now, after playing the first split with h3dy, the team has let him go. Through this period of play in the Pro League, h3dy was only the 12th-best player in the league, securing a 0.96 rating primarily on Thatcher and Smoke and a 0.65 KOST. While h3dy's statistics have been decent in Korea, the story changes when looking at the change at an APAC level. At the Season 9 APAC Finals, he was the third-worst player at the event with a 0.58 rating and while at the Season 10 APAC Finals he did improve that to a 0.68 rating, he was actually the worst player there. At the Six Major Raleigh Qualifier LAN, he performed the poorest as well with a 0.45 rating, and was third-lowest at the Six Invitational 2020 Qualifier LAN with a 0.77 rating.

As such, dropping h3dy in preparation for the Season 11 APAC Finals -- for which the team has already qualified for -- makes sense, though it remains to be seen which player is drafted in as the replacement, whether OCN will resume his head coach duties or return to a player role, and whether Harp3rXD will make his position on the roster permanent.

[SEA] February 18th: Qconfirm Drops Pxkie, Confirms Tanler7 as Coach

The reigning top-seeded Southeast Asian team of Qconfirm has confirmed that Pakkapon "Pxkie" Pongyeetho has been dropped from the team after half a season together. At the same time, the roster has confirmed that it signed its first coach in Tanler7 two months ago, who joins from lower-tiered Thai team Analog Esports.

It is unclear as to why Pxkie was dropped, though going by statistics he had been the worst player on his team in the first split and was only the 19th-best player overall in the league. Playing primarily on Thatcher and Jaeger, he accrued a 1.05 rating, but only had 0.74 Kills Per Round and a KOST of 0.67.

With Qconfirm already having had Funleks as a substitute, he will now join the core roster for the second split of the Pro League as the team pushes to secure the first seed for the APAC Finals over Giants Gaming again, with both teams almost guaranteed to qualify. Funleks himself has had an appearance in the Pro League this season with Qconfirm, and also played last season with NEX Esports (now Xavier Esports), meaning that Qconfirm is unlikely to take much of a hit from this change.

[JP] February 16th: NORA-Rengo Releases Maavie

Citing university committments, NORA-Rengo has released the relatively new Riku "Maavie" Kaizo after just five months with the player.

Maavie debuted in the Pro League in the latter half of Season 10, and proceeded to the APAC Finals where NORA-Rengo was demolished by a rampant Aerowolf. However, thanks to his Rainbow Six career taking too much time away from his schooling, Maavie has now been released by NORA-Rengo and it is unclear if he will be able to continue competing.

[JP] February 13th: NORA-Rengo Signs SouLBoi from Unsold Stuff Gaming

[ANZ] February 12th: Pittsburgh Knights Signs HomeLess

The ANZ Pro League team of HomeLess has been signed by the up and coming organisation of the Pittsburgh Knights.

HomeLess previously came from the open qualifiers to finish second in last season's Challenger League and be promoted to the Pro League for Season 10. This season they currently sit in fifth place just below Wildcard Gaming, however, with games against both Fnatic and WC already played, there's plenty of room for them to grow as other teams above them play their hardest games of the season. The team is best known for their standout performance last year when they topped a number of Pro League teams in the Six Masters group stage while known as ACME Association.

Pittsburgh Knights (who shares no relation to the Pittsburgh Embers), meanwhile, now enter the scene as a fairly new organisation who already have teams in Rocket League where they played the opening game of RLCS Season 9 last Saturday, Smite where they finished last year's World Championships in the quarter-finals, Paladins, PUBG, Apex Legends and Madden. As well as this, they've gained notice due to a number of high profile partnerships such as with Coca-Cola and Wiz Khalifa.

We briefly asked the player of Stigs about the pickup:

Myself and the team are extremely excited to be working alongside the Pittsburgh Knights, we have been waiting for an opportunity like this for a long time and we cant wait to see what the future holds for us under the Knights banner. We have worked so hard this past year and a half to get where we are today and i couldn't be any prouder of my team, we really do have something special here!

We have five individuals that have come together with the same goals, asperations, work ethic, motivation, passion and love for Rainbow Six. We are five best mates trying to make our dreams come true and by joining the Knights we are one step closer to achieving just that. Also with our amazing support staff such as Pikniq our coach, KataVACE our Manager and DeWolff our Analyst we have the recipe for greatness and we are taking huge strides in the right direction, during this 6 week break we are going to be working super hard on improving ourselves so that we are ready for the second half of Pro League.

[ANZ] February 11th: Unitdoggy Moves to Coaching and Sub Position on Kanga Esports

Jordan "Unitdoggy" Findanis has announced a move to a coach and substitute position, citing a drop in motivation despite having only been signed by new organisation Kanga Esports a month ago. This was due to a perceived inability to make it to the APAC Finals with him in the core roster, and was followed up a sign-up with the Australian Defence Force sometime in March, leading to him stepping down.

[SEA] February 5th: Polar Ace Signs Valor eSports Roster

Polar Ace Esports has signed the Southeast Asian roster of Valor eSports, marking the entry of yet another foreign organisation into the region. The Polar Ace roster had finished top in Season 10 of the Challenger League, but has found going tough at the top-level, finding itself in seventh place with just four points from eight maps played.

Polar Ace is not new to Rainbow Six: Siege, having fielded North American CCS Esports and Challenger League hopeful rosters. What's more, the organisation's teams have been budding grounds for now top-tier players Zachary "Nyx" Thomas and Jason "Beaulo" Doty.

[JP] January 30th: NORA-Rengo Signs Ninjas in Pyjamas Coach Ar7hur

In a surprising move, NORA-Rengo has signed former Ninjas in Pyjamas (NiP) coach Arthur "Ar7hur" Schubert just three days after he had announced his departure from the Brazilian squad. In his Twitlonger, Ar7hur had said that he had to step away from NiP to return to his home city to spend time with with his family -- something not possible with NiP or any other Brazilian team as nearly all required the coach and the players to stay together in team houses. However, he did not rule out a return to the Pro League, citing that he could still coach a team online.

As mentioned in a new Twitlonger, Ar7hur's new position allows him to coach the former Japanese champions online, through a NORA-Rengo provided English-to-Japanese translator, though it seems that the move only materialised very recently. Having intially left NiP, he did not expect to be coaching a team so soon. However, after being contacted and trialled by NORA-Rengo, both parties agreed to the move and announced the signing on the final day of play for the first half of the APAC Pro League.

Yasuhiro "kizoku" Nishi, the owner and former head coach of NORA-Rengo, will not be leaving the team, but will be relinquishing his coaching position to the vastly more experienced Ar7hur. However, being the owner, he will continue with the team in an ownership and managerial capacity, with Ar7hur likely to stand behind the team at LAN events. To get there, however, NORA-Rengo will have an extremely uphill battle, being four points adrift of second-placed FAV Gaming -- provisionally slated to go to the APAC Finals, and potentially the Pro League Finals, at the end of the season.

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