Germany’s top R6S competition is finally back. The announcement was made official on March 24th; since then, all participants have been confirmed on Twitter.
Just as in the previous season, the GSA offers a prizepool of €40,000 and a direct invitation to compete in the next Challenger League, with the following teams in attendance:
- G2 Esports: Kantoraketti, UUNO, CTZN, Virtue, Kayak, Shas (Coach).
- Rogue: AceeZ, Korey, ripz, LeonGids, cryn, meepey (Coach), rcuth (Strat coach).
- Team Secret: Drvn, Prano, Hife, SlebbeN, Gomfi, Titan (Coach).
- Sissi State Punks: Zenoxo, Gisela, Daya, Tooobi, BZ.
- Looking For Org: StrkR, Acelele, Babuu, slshr, Ryoo, Witheball, Sloth (Analyst).
- PENTA: FluchTw4geN, cCcaaNaVaR, Tsuky, Levolution, Sadrzm, Lion (Coach).
- GC Esport: Koji, Veyzel, Konkih, Paiin0, SushiTheMonkey.
- GoSkilla: Sherminator, Solotov, Exp0, M4dman, Mekses.
The GSA League is known for being one of the most powerful national leagues in terms of organisations and skill, as Rogue, Team Secret and the current European League champions, G2 Esports, are three of the eight participants.
It is also worthy to point out that PENTA is back in the German region after a brief stint in France. After a great season in Challenger League where they fell short from qualifying to the European League, PENTA decided to try luck in Germany with a Turkish roster. So far, so good, as they had to play the GSA Qualifiers in order to compete in the tournament.
The league will kick off on Friday the 9th of April, and it will be the third national league to begin this month, as the Benelux League and the PG Nationals start on the 7th. These three leagues will join the Spain Nationals, the Nordic Championship, and the RML in the path to build the next European Challenger League season.
Format
This season’s format will remain the same as the one seen in 2020. Eight teams will compete in a double round-robin league with Bo1 matches. At the end of the regular season, the Top 4 will advance to the Finals, which will follow a double elimination bracket with Bo3 games.
The Challenger League spot will be given to the best non-EUL team after the regular phase concludes. In case two or more non-EUL teams make it to the Finals, the team that progresses the furthest will be awarded with the CL invitation.
A Look Back with 2020 Vision
People may think that non-Challenger League teams have nothing to offer against three European League rosters. They could not be more wrong.
In 2020, all of the European League rosters conceded at least one loss against T3 rosters, especially Rogue, who ended 10 points under the third qualified roster and only one point above the fifth.
The GSA League 2020 featured DIVIZON, a German organisation that had a very strong line-up with the likes of ASTRO and Pacbull, who currently play for Gamma and Chaos, respectively.
This roster ended up being the surprise of the tournament, as it beat Rogue (twice) and Team Secret. After ending in third place, DIVIZON was the only non-EUL team to compete in the Finals, which guaranteed it an invitation to take part in the Challenger League.
FACT Gaming’s performance has to be noted as well, as they were the only non-EUL roster to beat the three giants at least once, as they beat Rogue (7-4), Team Secret (7-3), and G2 Esports (7-2).
However, their poor results against direct opposition made them fall short in the race to qualify for the next stage. Nevertheless, they proved that beating the three favorites is very possible.
G2 Esports were crowned champions, despite earlier losing 2-0 to Rogue in the Upper Bracket Final and conceding the first map against Secret in the Lower Bracket Final. After the slow start, G2 knocked out Secret and got their revenge against Rogue, as they won the Grand Finals by 2-0.
On the other hand, DIVIZON could not repeat the results seen during the regular season. After replacing Shermi for NoerA, DIVIZON struggled and lost to G2 Esports and Team Secret by 2-0. Despite their poor results in the Finals, nothing would change the fact that they would represent the GSA region in the Challenger League.
Now, five rosters will compete to become the new hunters of these three titans. Only one of them will be honoured with a place in the following Challenger League.
Know The Teams
G2 Esports
Probably, the best team in the nation right now as they are the current European League champions. It is still very difficult to judge what we could call a post-Pengu G2, however we already have a slight idea of the new roster after the recent European League play days. Kayak is slowly getting used to his new life, and currently has the third-best rating on the team, only surpassed by Virtue and CTZN, the core firepower of the roster.
Despite G2 not having any members from the GSA region, as Sua left in February, the team is still eligible to play as all of the members live in Berlin.
Rogue
A loss against the newly promoted side of Cowana (2-7) in the first European League play day generated fear among their fans. However, the team has already proven that it was just an unlucky start.
After a close match against Vitality (8-6) and a big win against Virtus.pro (7-2), Rogue finally seems to be back on track after one of the worst stages ever seen. The team continued their positive streak with a 7-5 victory against Team Empire, who are at the bottom of the table with just one point after four games played.
Overall, Rogue has one of the most solid line-ups in Europe. The team seems to be more confident now that the results are there. LeonGids, the support of the team, has recently been the face of the team, currently tied in first place with BriD as the player with the most plants (6) in the competition. In terms of rating, only ripz has a rating under 1.0.
Karzheka’s departure and cryn’s signing makes Rogue the EUL team with the most Germans in the league.
Team Secret
The German side showed their best version during EUL 2020 Stage 2, as they scored a total of 14 points that kept their place in Europe’s top-division. However the team decided to make not one but two changes, as the former Six Invitational champion, Ville “Sha77e” Palola, and Peter “pacbull” Bull left the squad.
In their place, Secret added the ex-Susquehanna Soniqs player of Santino “Gomfi” de Meulenaere and the super-power player of Alex “SlebbeN” Nordlund.
Despite winning their very first match of the season, which was a 7-5 win against G2, Team Secret has lost every game since then. The German squad has shown some issues in attack, as it has won only two offensive rounds out of twelve played.
PENTA
A very important name in the scene that has been losing power over the last years. After a short time in the French National League and Challenger League, PENTA is back in the German region after acquiring a German roster. However, since then, many changes have been made and only two members from the initial team remain. Now, with four Turkish players in the lineup, the organisation will try to make it back to the Challenger League with what would be the very first Turkish roster to achieve it.
GoSkilla
Probably the favorite side to take GSA’s Challenger League spot. The Italian organization has signed some well-known faces in the European scene, as Exp0 played for Team Secret in the previous edition of the European League.
The roster also counts with M4DMAN, who has already featured in three Challenger League seasons and has participated in many European national tournaments, which include UKIN, Spain Nationals, Nordic Championship and PG Nationals.
Both Shermi and Mekses represented DIVIZON during the previous season, with the Polish player also playing Challenger League as he was part of the Izako Boars roster. Solotov closes the roster, being the fourth Turkish player in the tournament.
Sissi State Punks
A team with plenty of experience in the region, as every member — except for Zenoxo — competed in the previous season. This roster was born after the union of two ex-WarKidZ members, Daya and Tooobi, and two ex-FACT Gaming members, Gisela and BZ. On the other hand, Zenoxo appeared in 2019’s season, as he was part of SC, who ended in second place.
GC Esport
Alongside PENTA, GC had to play the Qualifiers in order to compete in the GSA League. Precisely, two of the five members have previously played for PENTA, Koji and Paiin0. Overall, the team hasn’t got plenty of experience at national tournaments, although we have seen some of them in Ascension League and multiple online qualifiers.
LookingForOrg
The only orgless roster in the competition. The roster counts with StrkR, slshr and Babu, who perfectly know each other as they have been playing together since 2018. In fact, this three players were part of Deus Esport and finished in second place at the Six Lounge Series 6 Finals, as they were only beaten by OrgLess, which counted with the current European League players of AceeZ, KS, ripz and Korey.
Acelele is another known face in this roster, as he was part of SC’s roster which ended in second place of the GSA Nationals 2019. He was also part of DIVIZON when the roster ended in second place of the Saturday League S2.
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The competition will begin this Friday and every match will be broadcasted on Twitch. You can get a first taste of the region as tonight both Rogue and Team Secret will face each other on game-day 5 of the European League. Meanwhile, G2 Esports will be facing TrainHard in another EUL vs EUL matchup.
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