Six Mexico Major: Key takeaways from Day 3

^{Banner image: Ubisoft/Kirill B.}

Thought that the second day had been as crazy as it would get? Well, think again. With NiP eliminated, Team oNe forcing an unprecedented rematch tiebreaker, and a “structural failure” at the event venue, the third and final day of groups only upped the ante.

Here are the winners and losers of the day, the statistics that defined the day, and three of the best matches from the group stage.

Winners and Losers

Winners

Team oNe

At the very least, Team oNe’s heroics in the first match against CAG provided the moment of the day. Team oNe needed to win with at least a 7-2 scoreline to keep their playoff hopes alive. The Brazilians took a 3-2 to a 7-2, and made “Rainbow Six Siege” history by forcing the first actual tiebreaker game. Then, they won that game 7-4 in a stunning reversal of fortunes.

Team oNe survived on a sliver of hope and the fervent prayers of Brazil and will now be in the playoffs from the day after.

Team Empire

Team Empire was the only team in a play-in game that impressed. It defeated TSM 7-4 to maintain a solid lead, then wiped Invictus off the server with a 7-1 victory to secure their spot, even closing it out with a 2v5 clutch.

No one else in a play-in game had such a dominating day, and should Team Empire keep this momentum going, it could be a tough ouster in the playoffs. 

Losers

NiP

Saying that NiP disappointed at the Mexico Major is the understatement of the century. The first Brazilians were poised to start a dynasty, but the reigning Six Invitational champions didn’t even make the playoff stage.

They were knocked out in the group stage, and all talk of building a dynasty might have already gone up in smoke. 

CAG

While CAG came into the Mexico Major with somewhat low expectations, the Japanese side all but had a playoff spot locked up. It couldn’t stem the tide of Team oNe, though, and lost its spot in the playoffs despite needing just one more round -- much like at the Six Invitational.

Nothing about this has been ideal; from the initial hopeful but pessimistic predictions to the collapse down the stretch. The light at the end of the group stage tunnel for CAG ended up being a freight train with “Alem4o” etched on the side.

Stats of the day

Muzi puts up heroic effort in loss

Murilo “Muzi” Moscatelli had a brilliant day, the only blight on NiP’s record was the dooming loss to G2. While it was a bad loss in a bad tournament for NiP, you can’t really blame Muzi. The young Brazilian notched over a 2.0 K/D on the day, and tallied 15 and 18 kills in each of his respective matches. This wasn’t an aberration either -- Muzi earned the sixth highest SiegeGG Rating during group stage play. NiP had a rough outing, but Muzi is blameless in this equation.

Defenders had a 52 percent win rate in the group stage

Defenders won a mere 52 percent of the rounds during the group stage. For comparison, they had won 56 percent of the rounds at SI 2021. 

Part of this is due to the emergence of a strong, unpredictable APAC region on the attacking half, part of this might be due to the more balanced meta, and teams finally figuring out how to follow in LATAM’s footsteps.

The math behind Team oNe and CAG’s total tie

Team oNe and CAG tied in total amount of points in the group, they each won a head-to-head match, they had the same win percentage, and they won the same percentage of rounds. The likelihood of this happening is preposterously small, with too many moving parts to calculate how small on the fly. 

Best matches of the group stage

DWG KIA 8-6 NiP

The all-Korean DWG side took down the reigning SI champs on Clubhouse twice in a row late on Aug. 17. DWG’s Cinderella run seemed to be over after a 5-1 first half, but the Koreans battled back and dethroned NiP, sending the Brazilians spiraling down to an eventual groups elimination.

G2 finished the job, but make no mistake: a good chunk of NiP’s morale was lost in the DWG comeback. 

Team Liquid 7-5 Team Empire

Heroics from Artur “ShepparD” Ipatov couldn’t save Empire from the Liquid onslaught, but the Russian made it close. Empire notched three 1vXs total in this match, with two coming from ShepparD himself. All in all, this was one of the few “group of death” matches that lived up to the high billing. 

Team oNe 7-2 CAG

The rematch (won by Team oNe) was thrilling, but Team oNe needed to hold CAG to only a pair of rounds in the first match to make it there. The Brazilians got three quick rounds, then CAG got two, and Team oNe stared down the barrel of elimination for four straight pseudo-match point rounds.

The Brazilian side emerged victorious, and the most improbable result in “Rainbow Six Siege” history was achieved -- CAG and Team oNe had a perfect tie in their groups.