The Sweden Major Playoffs are sure to be action-packed based on the teams that dominated groups. With tons of convincing wins — 48% of matches were won by a 7-3 margin or larger — it will definitely be an intense Playoffs when the teams all clash on November 12.
The Brazilians may have a slight advantage compared to the other regions, as they’ve kept their dominance and seemed almost unchallengeable in groups. However, you can’t never count teams like BDS esport, Spacestation Gaming, and the newest APAC powerhouse DWG KIA out of the dispute.
Let’s take a look at the eight teams left for the last international tournament of 2021.
Team oNe
(Photo: Ubisoft/Joao Ferreira)
The Mexico Major champions look as strong as they’ve ever been, confirming their favoritism after arriving at Sweden.
Karl "Alem4o" Zarth especially stood out as the best player in the entirety of the tournament. The newest Brazilian star currently has the best rating, K/D (+/-), kills per round and the second best KOST of the tournament.
Team oNe had two losses during group stage, however none of them should be worrisome. Both were against Vitality, the first one happened in a pretty unusual way of attacking Chalet that caught the Golden Boys off guard with a 6-0 split. The second loss took place in a match in which Team oNe had already secured first place in their group.
Team oNe fights to be the first team to win a Major twice, something that even the greatest team from Rainbow Six history, G2 esports, could only dream of.
Ninjas In Pyjamas
NIP didn’t seem as dominant as Team oNe regarding the round differential during their win. However, the team was able to win every match from the group stage except the last one against BDS Esports.
The NIP fans expected to see at the Mexico Major had finally shown up in Sweden, with the squad continuing to dominate BO3 matches. In the last 10 international BO3 matches, NIP holds an impressive 9-1 record, with a seven-game win streak.
If Gustavo “Psycho” Rigal continues to step up, as he did in groups, NIP is a team that no one wants to face in a Major playoffs. There’s only one big mystery regarding the ninjas for this playoffs: Have they improved their map pool? Eventually they’ll have to play Chalet, Oregon or Villa, three maps that they’ve been struggling a lot with recently.
DWG KIA
(Photo: Ubisoft/Joao Ferreira)
DWG KIA once again accomplished something that many thought was impossible. This time, they snagged first place in the most disputed group of the Major, showing that Mexico Major wasn’t a mere fluke. They even defeated Spacestation Gaming twice.
Just like in the last Major, their top performer is Sanghoon “yass” Yoo, with an impressive 1.25 rating — the 6th best in the whole tournament. However, the member of the team that’s really making the difference is Sungjoon “coted” Jo. During the group stage DWG’s support player was amongst the best in his role, posting up a 1.02 rating, the fourth best in his position.
If everyone continues to step up and excel in their roles the South Koreans might be able to make a memorable run in the playoffs.
FaZe Clan
FaZe Clan absolutely slaughtered its group. The Brazilians had the best round differential in the whole tournament by far, with 23+ in all of their five wins together they dropped only six rounds. Except for their only loss against Rogue, they seemed untouchable during the group stage.
Their dominance is illustrated by the phenomenal performances from Jaime “Cyber” Ramos and José “Bullet1” Victor, both featured in the top three for Ratting and K-D (+/-).
However, this stellar performance from FaZe in groups might be somewhat misleading. Undoubtedly they looked really sharp, but it is also worth mentioning how weak the teams in their group were, besides Rouge. FaZe will be facing BDS in the quarterfinals, leaving fans concerned.
BDS Esport
(Photo: Ubisoft/Kirill Bashkirov)
Despite finishing 2nd in its group, BDS still showed they’re a really strong team. A small stumble against Soniqs, winning only in overtime, cost them the chance to fight for the first place against NiP in their last match.
The French duo of Stephane “Shaiiko” Lebleu and Loic “Brid” Chongthep both led the team in almost all statistics. The pair finds themselves in the top 7 best ratings, top 8 best K-D (+/-), while the support player has the best KOST in the tournament and Shaiiko the best Entry (+/-).
BDS looks to finally get at least to a Major final this time in Sweden, something they’ve not done yet. Good news for them is that their Kryptonite, NIP, is on the other side of the bracket, meaning that they’ll only face them if both reach the finals.
Their strength will be put to the test right at the first game, where they face a hot FaZe Clan.
Spacestation Gaming
Spacestation was the first team to qualify for the playoffs from group D, despite finishing 2nd. Being in a really disputed group and qualifying is clearly a good result, however we expected more from the best team in North America.
The one thing that really stood out for them was the enormous amount of clutches won. Relying too heavily in a 1vX situation is great but very risky. They were by far the teams with most clutch wins, with 11 in 6 games, with two of them being absolute miracles against Team Empire in a match that would definitely have ended differently if it wasn't for those.
Good news for them is that they’ve only shown three maps in the whole group stage, which might help them in a BO3 against NIP. The last time these two teams faced each other in a do-or-die situation, SSG was crowned the SI 2020 champions.
Rogue
Rogue was the first team to qualify for the playoffs, however they haven’t shown anything special during the group stage. In their first international event since SI 2020, they had an average performance except for a great match against FaZe on Kafe.
The European squad did their homework, but the victories weren’t won in an easy fashion. Two of their four wins came only in OT against two of the worst teams in the tournament, Oxygen Esports and Chiefs Esports Club.
Their hopes rely on the German trio of Kevin “Prano” Pranowitz, Pascal “cryn” Alouane and Maurice “AceeZ” Erkelenz, all of them featured in top 15 best ratings in this tournament.
Arriving as clear underdogs against Team oNe, Rouge will need to show flashes of their game against FaZe to come out as winners.
SANDBOX Gaming
SANDBOX is probably the most overlooked team in this whole playoffs. They reached the next phase of the tournament after completely dominating their rival for the 2nd place, Vitality, in both of their fixtures.
It’s worth noting that the SDG player with the highest rating is Kim “EnvyTaylor” Seong-soo, in the 24st position, by far the lowest rated best player for a team in the playoffs.
The former Cloud 9 and Mantis FPS lineup has already achieved their best position ever in a Rainbow Six international tournament. Their hopes rely on facing a team they know very well, their fellow countryman DWG KIA, whom they defeated in the last time they met by 7-1 on Oregon in the APAC North League Stage 3.
