Until now, however, the only active league in Latin-America was the Campeonato Mexicano, a tournament that kicked-off on the 27th of June and that has already offered us eight matches.
For more information about the format and the teams that are competing in each one of the LATAM leagues -- Brasileirão, Campeonato Mexicano and Campeonato Sudamericano -- you can read this article.
Brasileirão - Team oNe leads after Game-Week 1
Day 1
The first day offered up three matches; and in each one of them, one of the teams was a newly promoted team. These matches would thus give us some light regarding what to expect from these teams during the competition.
In general, they did not have a good beginning. The first game, which featured Team oNe and W7M Gaming, was a quick one as Team oNe won both maps 7-2. The first of them was played on Oregon, with this being the first time that the re-worked map appeared in a top-tier Brazilian tournament. The map favoured the defensive side, as Team oNe got to win the six rounds, closing the match after winning their attack to Meeting/Kitchen.
The second map, although it was played on Clubhouse, another defensive map, had a very different script as Team oNe won five of their six attacking rounds. This put Team oNe in a very good place, and they didn't disappoint as they quickly won two defences, one in CCTV/Cash and the other one in Armory/Church.
The second game of the day began with an even shorter map, as INTZ crushed FURIA's hopes in Consulate with a 7-1. These three maps left the newly promoted teams in a very bad spot, but the roster coached by Twister, FaZe Clan's ex-coach, knew how to put on a positive display in the second map, played in Theme Park.
The second map started with two one-sided rounds for FURIA when attacking Throne/Armory, which gave them a 2-1 advantage in the scoreboard. Although FURIA's roster was strong on attack, getting to plant in two of the next three rounds, the team was unable to protect the plant in both occasions, and went into the second half with a 2-4 deficit.
However, those two successful attacks were enough, as FURIA reversed the situation with five consecutive defences, with this being the first map won by a newly promoted team this Brasileirão season.
The first day of competition ended with the return of Santos e-Sports in the R6S Brazilian scene, led by the ex-Team oNe player of SKaDinha. Their debut was against Black Dragons, but the newly promoted roster lost the first map in Consulate by 3-7.
The second map was the closest of the day, although none would have said so after the first rounds of the match. With three of the first four rounds being very close, Black Dragons always managed to defend the bombs, especially on the fourth round where Santos couldn't plant in Aviation Room due to bad drone play in a 1v2 situation.
The following two rounds were even closer -- the fifth one ended in a 1v1 situation that Santos e-Sports won thanks to Mity, while the sixth round ended in a 1v1 post-plant situation where hxmetao died against the Zofia that he previously downed. Santos’ positive streak continued as they won their first three defences, which helped them to get in match point by the eleventh round. The last round of the match was, one again, a close one, but Black Dragons managed to force the draw on Villa.
Day 2
The second day was probably the more anticipated one for the fans, as the Six Invitational 2020 Finalists of Ninjas in Pyjamas would face Team Liquid, winners of the Season 11 of the Pro League in the region and the previous edition of the Brasileirão. Before this match, W7M Gaming and FURIA had faced off in the first game between newly promoted rosters.
Just as it happened on the first day of competition, FURIA started with the wrong foot. Starting from the defensive side on Villa, FURIA only won one of their six defences and left W7M in a very good place to win the first map. Although they conceded the first two attacks, W7M quickly finished the match by winning the following two, led by HerdsZ and the ex-Black Dragons player of Panico.
Again, the second map didn't look great for FURIA. Playing on Kafe, a very defensive map, Twister's team won two of their six attacks, which gave them hope, but this suddenly disappeared as W7M got to match point after two very solid offences -- one onto Library and the second one onto Kitchen -- as both rounds ended in 4v1 situations for the attackers.
Despite this huge lead, W7M didn't know how to close out the game and lost the following four attacks, as FURIA showed more confidence in direct fights. Also, HerdsZ and Panico, who were crucial on Villa, vanished on Kafé as they only got four and three kills respectively.
The following match was the game of the week, though, as these two rosters were currently the best two Brazilian teams in the scene. However, despite NiP finishing in second place just behind Team Liquid, in Season 11, Liquid had not won an online game against NiP since the 25th of April of 2019.
The match couldn't be closer. The teams played on Clubhouse and Oregon and in both matches, the attackers won four rounds, while the defenders, two. Both games ended in draws, however.
Despite the two draws, the matches featured some big plays. Ninjas in Pyjamas’ start was very strong, as Psycho’s use of Montagne got him a double kill that helped his team to take Church. Later on, NiP took another round, this time in CCTV/Cash, thanks to a triple kill by Muzi. However, in the following round, Nesk completed a 1v3 clutch that eclipsed another huge double kill by Psycho with the Montagne.
The following three rounds were pretty much one-sided, as they all finished in 5v1 situations; two for Liquid and one for NiP, leaving the scoreboard in a 5-5. The eleventh round finished in NiP's hands and although the last round started with S3xyCake getting killed, Liquid knew how to get back to the match. Successfully planting in Gym, Liquid left Psycho on Clash in a 3v1 post-plant situation. Amazingly, he got to kill two of the attackers, but Nesk killed him while he was disabling the defuser.
The second map between these two teams was Oregon and, once again, the attackers dominated. However, the play of the first half featured a defender, Muzi, from NiP. The Brazilian player completed a quad-kill, highlighting his double kill at the end.
From there, Liquid took control of the match, winning four of the following five rounds, getting to match point with three rounds left. However, NiP didn't give up and completed the tough task to win three consecutive attacks.
The last match of the day featured the other two favourites to take the championship, MIBR and FaZe Clan. Although the first map was a clear one for FaZe -- 7-1 on Consulate -- the second map was a close contest. Playing on Oregon, the second map started with a chaotic round where ion and YooNah were left alone after a double kill by the ex-FaZe Clan player of cameram4n with Ying. Nevertheless, a double kill with C4 from YooNah just before dying left ion in a 1v2 that he successfully clutched.
FaZe Clan continued with the show and got to win four of the six following rounds, getting to match point with four rounds left. However, MIBR successfully adapted to their opponents and won the rest of the rounds, thanks to a triple kill by MKing.
Day 3
The first match of the third day featured Team Liquid and Santos e-Sports, with the firsts taking both maps. The first one, played on Clubhouse, saw Liquid take four of their six defences, something not easy as Thatcher and Hibana and Thermite were both left unbanned. After swapping sides, and although Santos won its first defence, Team Liquid won the map 7-3.
The second map was also a quick one, as Liquid won four of their six rounds on attack -- again not an easy task -- as they were playing in Kafe. Although Santos put up a great fight and went from 5-2 to 5-4, Liquid quickly killed any hope for Santos as they won the following two rounds.
Team oNe and FaZe Clan then faced off in the second match of the day. Playing on Consulate, Team oNe was able to control the match from the very first round, getting to match point in the eight round. With the 6-2 on the scoreboard, FaZe Clan reacted and finally won three consecutive defences. However, it was too late. With 15 seconds left in the last round, and in a 4v4 situation, Team oNe won the match thanks to a great effort by Rappz and Faallz.
The second map was even closer, and it was FaZe Clan’s turn to have control over the pace of the match, going up 5-2 and then securing match point at 6-4. However, this time neither team won as Team oNe got to win the following two rounds and held FaZe to a draw.
The last match of the game-week was between BD and INTZ. In the first, played on Villa, the INTZ roster destroyed its opponent, as they won four attacks. Now, on defence, INTZ didn't have problems to win the following three defences.
However, things changed drastically on the second map and it was now BD's turn to dominate. In Coastline, a map that generally gives the advantage to the attackers, BD got to win three of their six defences. On attack, BD successfully won the following four rounds.
Campeonato Mexicano - Atheris leads after two game-weeks
Despite Brasileirão beginning this last week, the Mexicano kicked off two weeks ago. This means that the Mexicans celebrated the second game-week of competition, which left Atheris in first place after their partial win against MeT (7-2 Clubhouse, 6-6 Villa).
The second win of the week was for Infinity Academy against the same opposition, MeT. After an easy win on Clubhouse (7-1), Infinity Academy had problems to take the three points on Oregon (7-5). The sixth round was certainly the most important one, though, as MeT was 2-3 ahead of Infinity. However, a bad defence in Meeting/Kitchen gave D4rk and fuyobii the chance to plant just inside of the front door. Fuyobii, with Zofia, successfully protected the plant with four kills and a great usage of the stuns to stop Hydre from defusing the bomb.
The rest of the matches finished in draws, however. In the first one, Pixel Esports tied against Estral after losing on Consulate (7-2) and winning on Coastline (7-5). The following game was played on the second day and it featured Timbers Esports and Chivas eSports. Both games were quick, as Chivas won the first game in Oregon by 7-2, but Timbers answered with a 7-1 win in Villa after winning five attacking rounds.
Campeonato Sudamericano - Technical problems delay the start of the competition
Finally, Sudamericano was ready to begin on Friday. This is the first time that the Hispanic-speakers from LATAM had their own professional league, with the objective to fight on equal conditions against the Mexican and Brazilian teams in the near future.
However, the first game-week has now been delayed due to technical problems. As the Rainbow Six Esports LATAM Twitter account stated:
The first game-week of the #SuR6 will be postponed due to some difficulties that are not under our control and which appeared during the broadcasting. We want to provide you with the quality that the South deserves so we have taken the decision to make the changes needed to achieve this objective. Apologies and we appreciate your understanding.
Although the league hasn't announced when these matches will be played, everyone expects the league to start this Friday.