Six Sweden Major day three key takeaways: Korean teams impress, hobbled teams notch a win

_{(Banner: Ubisoft/Kirill Bashkirov)}

We’re finally at the end of the group stage at the Sweden Major. 

The Major had its ups for some teams, and it had lots of downs for others. Here are the winners and the losers of the group stage of the Six Sweden Major, some of the most interesting stats, and some reflections on the best games of the tournament. 

Winners and Losers

Winner: Korea

Once again, APAC improved their standing, and it’s due to the Korean teams. 

Many expected LATAM to be great, some expected APAC to excel and put two teams in the playoffs. But none expected an APAC team to take the first seed in the group of death. SANDBOX fought through a tough group B to make the playoff as the second seed, but the real winners are the consistently improving APAC region as a whole.

It’s a shame one of the Korean teams will be guaranteed to go out in the quarterfinal, but pretty neat that another Korean team is guaranteed to make the semifinals. 

Loser: The viewers of group B matches throughout the tournament

Not that there was bad teams in this group, nor was there poor Siege played in these matches — the maps simply weren’t close. Only one map went the full regulation time, 7-5. There were a total of five 7-1 scorelines. The only group close to replicating this volume of one-sided matches was group A, which had a Davide “FoxA” Bucci-less Oxygen in it. 

Stats of the day

Teams playing with coaches notch a win

Oxygen and Invictus can’t be blamed for their losses. The teams were forced to play with their coaches on the roster for a myriad of widely-discussed reasons. Today was their best effort by far and away, turning in their first-and-only wins of the tournament. Both teams will be going home, but they won’t be going home empty-handed. 

Another strong groups for Brazil

LATAM remained strong throughout the group stage, led by FaZe Clan, Team oNe, and NiP. Out of the four groups, three of them were won by LATAM teams, and multiple teams held three plus point leads. 

The gap between LATAM and the rest of the world doesn’t appear to be closing — LATAM is not only the best region in terms of volume of top teams, they’re the deepest region as well. 

Matches of the group stage

Rogue 7-5 FaZe Clan

After an undefeated 14-0 in round count day, Rogue showed the Rainbow Six world that FaZe can bleed. Rogue is an extremely dangerous team when they’re hot, and in this match they were definitely hot. This was the only match FaZe Clan lost during the group stage. 

Spacestation 7-5 Team Empire

This match saw an event with an astronomically small possibility: A one-vs-four clutch followed by a one-vs-five clutch. The momentum was on Spacestation’s side after those plays, but Empire clawed their way back into contention. This one was exciting from start to finish. 

Team Vitality 7-5 Team oNe 

One of the most surprising wins of the whole tournament was Vitality’s win over Team oNe on the second day of group stage, upsetting the “natural” group stage order. Additionally, this was the only map of group B that went the regulation distance.