11 rookies to make their global debut at SI 2022

_{Image via Ubisoft}

The Six Invitational kicking off on February 8th will see 20 teams and 100 starting professional players compete in Stockholm, Sweden for the annual title. This makes it the largest top-tier tournament in R6 history by sheer number of teams after both Wildcard and Virtus.pro were not able to attend last year.

Out of these 100 starting players as well as many well-known returning names -- nine of which are prior SI champions -- we will see 11 players compete at this stage for the first time in their careers.

Here’s a full rundown on the new names we’ll see making their global debut next week:

Team Liquid: AsK and resetz

Gabriel "AsK" Santos joined Team Liquid straight from a position in the Challenger League with Team oNe’s academy roster. Here he slotted straight into S3xyCake’s role as the primary support, hard breach, and planter.

Pablo "resetz" Oliveira meanwhile had been a longtime hyped player and joined Black Dragons a week before his 18th birthday. Due to his age resetz played Stage 1 on Black Dragons Academy before making his debut on BD during Stage 2 where he sat on a flex position. Three months later he was recruited to replace Muringa’s roles in Liquid.

During their first split on Liquid during Stage 3, they failed to qualify for the Sweden Major following a 0-7 loss to FURIA and a 3-7, 2-7 loss to NiP during the Elite Six Cup playoffs. The team was, however, already qualified for the Six Invitational at this point and got their revenge when they took NiP down 3-1 in the BR6 2021 Finals to claim their sub-regional title back in December.

This is the team’s first time competing without S3yCake on the global stage in over four years, adding to the pressure that the Team Liquid jersey would already be giving to AsK and resetz. With NiP, oNe, and FaZe having already claimed global titles in the last year, Liquid have gambled heavily that these two are the answer to finally getting the SI title to add to the org’s Pro League, and Minor, and multiple national wins.

Elevate: Sapper, DCH, Nap.Pew, sprOnigiri, and Nerix

As the only completely fresh roster on the global stage, Elevate -- an org that has already won the Six Invitational back in 2017 -- has with them what is potentially a massive underdog story in progress. 

The roster previously missed out on SI 2020, and both the Mexico and Sweden Majors by just a single game. As well as this the team was crowned the APAC champions during Stage 1 and was two rounds away from qualifying for the Mexico Major ahead of DWG Kia, the eventual semi-finalists.

This run of bad luck follows their fellow Thai predecessors on Xavier who also missed out on the Season 8 and 9 Finals, SI 2019, and the Raleigh Major by just one game also. Now Elevate’s consistent top-tier results mean Thailand will finally see a representative compete globally.

Elevate enters the tournament as the highest-seeded APAC team and eighth-highest in the world, ahead of the likes of SSG and NAVI, and just five points behind FaZe. These players may be new names but they have shown that they are regional titans. Now, if they can just avoid choking when it matters they pose a DWG-sized threat at this tournament.

MNM Gaming: Yuzus, Tyrant, Neonical, and Solotov

Finally, we have four members of MNM Gaming who are led by the Pro League champion: Leon "neLo" Pesić. 

Starting from the top, Josh "Yuzus" Pritchard has been with the MNM roster for over a year now having competed in the 2020 Challenger League alongside the ex-Secret player of Fonkers as well as NAVI’s Nathan and G2’s Jonka. Prior to this, he was notably coached by Sternab on Demise. 

In May of 2021 Luke "Tyrant" Casey was added alongside neLo. He had previously competed on a number of well-known British teams such as Wind and Rain, Fierce, Demise and Team 86 (later known as Viperio86). In this time he teamed up with Callum "Neonical" Humphreys on most of these teams as well as Jordan "Kayak" Morley, Rickard "Secretly" Olofsson, and Byron "Blurr" Murray.

To round out the team, Neonical and Fatih "Solotov" Türker -- the latter being Turkey’s first player to compete at a professional level -- joined in September for the Challenger League season. 

Neonical competed alongside Tyrant in a number of teams. Prior to MNM he was crowned a two-time Nordic champion in 2019 and finished runner-up in the first Benelux Season. Solotov, meanwhile, was best known for his third-place finish during the 2021 GSA League on GoSkilla before Turqo replaced him on the team for the EUCL 2021 season. 

Now, after winning the Challenger League and the Six Invitational open qualifiers back-to-back, these five players are following in the footsteps of both Team BDS and Team Empire, both of whom they’d love to emulate. These two teams finished their first SI in fourth and second place, respectively, straight out of the gate, while Mkers joint-ninth place finish last year shows that EUCL rosters can stack up regardless. 

Also of note is Luiz "SKaDinha" Salgado, MIBR’s substitute, who has also not previously played in a tier-one global tournament. His five teammates meanwhile, all competed at SI 2021, where they exited in third place.

21 of the 100 starting players have also never played at a prior Six Invitational. The 11 players mentioned previously, as well as Kevin "Prano" Pranowitz and Leon "LeonGids" Giddens from Rogue, Blurr, Jack "Doki" Robertson, and “Nathan” Sharp from NAVI, Roberto "Panbazou" Feliciano from DarkZero, and all but Seth "supr" Hoffman from the Soniqs have competed at an SI before.

While Doki was a part of the Natus Vincere organization during their SI20 appearance he was banned during that time and unable to play, while a 1-3 loss to BDS during the SI20 qualifiers was the closest LeonGids has come to qualifying previously.

In NA, meanwhile, the Soniqs’ lone returning player, supr, will return to this stage after previously competing for eRa Eternity at SI 2018 notably alongside Dylan "Bosco" Bosco.

This time gap between appearances is beaten by two other players; NAVI’s Rickard "Secretly" Olofsson who returns to the stage after a SI17 appearance on EURONICS Gaming and BDS’ coach, Arnaud "BiOs" Billaudel, who previously played at the SI17 Xbox tournament on Vitality.

The Six Invitational will kick off in just a weeks time. For a roundup on the teams, schedule, and more check out our dedicated preview article.