Paris Major Groups Revealed

 

The Paris Major beginning on the 14th of August will be the third biggest tournament in Siege history and the first Major outside of Montreal, Canada. The teams involved have earned their spots cross various tournaments over the last few months including during open qualifiers, DreamHack tournaments and regional cups to decide the 16 best teams to compete from across the World.

The teams were then split into seedings depending on how they qualified for the major with one of each seed being drawn at random from a pot to form the following groups:

Group A

Seed 1: Team Liquid - nesk, ziG, Bullet1, xS3xyCake, psk1 and Sensi (their coach)

Seed 2: Nora-Rengo - JJ, Wokka, Merieux, CrazyPapiyoN, ShiN and kizoku (their coach)

Seed 3: Obey Alliance - Bosco, MahMan, Skys, Adam, Benji, Snake_Nade and Kenz (their coaches)

Seed 4: Team Vitality - ZephiR, BiBoo, RaFaLe, Spark, BriD and BiOs (their coach)

In what’s probably the closest of all the groups the current seasonal champions of Team Liquid will be the favourites to take an otherwise even group. Team Vitality and Nora-Rengo are next in line for the second qualification spot as Team Vitality, at their previous LAN, managed an impressive 2-0 victory over PENTA Sports before reaching the DreamHack Valencia final whereas Nora-Rengo will be hoping the addition of ShiN to the roster will help them to improve on their close loss against Rogue at the Season 7 Finals.

Finally Obey Alliance has been struggling in Pro League recently as they are currently ranked in last place however a massively impressive run in the Paris Major Open Qualifiers to reach the tournament proves they are a capable team and will hope to cause some upsets going forward.

 

Group B

Seed 1: PENTA Sports -  Pengu, jOONAS, Goga, Fabian, Kantoraketti and Shas[O]Udas (their coach)

Seed 2: Fnatic - Acez, Magnet, Lusty, RizRaz, NeophyteR and Dizzle (their coach)

Seed 3: Ninjas in Pyjamas - Kamikaze, Psycho, pzd, julio, wag and Twister (their coach)

Seed 4: Mock-it Esports - Panix, Enemy, RevaN, Voy, Alive and Gimliiiii (their coach)

The most successful and dominant team in Siege history, PENTA Sports, will be the clear favourites to not only win their group but the win the Paris Major title as well however in their way will be regionals powerhouses of Fnatic, representing Australia and New Zealand, and Ninjas in Pyjamas, representing Latin America. Both these teams have, in the past, shown up in their own regions and at LAN but has disappointed recently. Fnatic went out in straight maps against Team Liquid after a promising start while NiP currently stands in 7th place in Pro League and so both teams will see this as a chance to redeem themselves for their region.

Joining these three teams will be the French champions of Mock-it Esports, a team which since their victory at the Coupe de France saw a drop in form and a series of disappointing results which they seemingly have now resolved. The team has, most recently, won three games in a row and taken PENTA Sports all the way to 6-4, a notable achievement. As the host invited country, Mock-it will be aiming to do France proud and show they’re back in shape.

 

Group C

Seed 1: Millenium - Joghurtzz, Renshiro, Liven, Hicks, risze and Crapelle (their coach)

Seed 2: Evil Geniuses - Canadian, Necrox, nvK, BC, Yung and BKN (their coach)

Seed 3: Element Mystic - OniChan, EnvyTaylor, Neilyo, SweetBlack, h3dy

Seed 4: Immortals - oNe, Cyb3r, yuuk, Novys and D1OGO1

Group C has two clear favourites going into it in the form of Evil Geniuses, the winner of the very first Siege Major and North America’s most successful team, and Millenium, the team that beat EG to take the DreamHack Austin title back home to France. This matchup will be a highly anticipated rematch between two teams that always seem to come runners-up that neither side will want to drop.

However the two teams that will be trying to interrupt the rematch will be the South Korean underdogs of Element Mystic, who qualified for the tournament in demanding fashion by defeating the favorites before taking the best-of-5 final 3 maps to 0, and the LATAM team of Immortals who currently stand in 3rd place in the Pro League tables above last seasons top seed, FaZe Clan, following a number of impressive results.

 

Group D:

Seed 1: Rogue - Ecl9pse, Slashug, Bryan, Easilyy, Geoometrics and Ranger (their coach)

Seed 2: FaZe Clan - gohaN, Astro, cameram4n, HSnamuringa, mav and bor (their coach)

Seed 3: OrgLess - Aceez, ripz, PARAA, Hungry, KS and Lazzo (their coach)

Seed 4: I don’t know - meepeY, Lacky, LeonGids, sTiZze, Elemzje and Helbee (their coach)

Finally we have Group D in what is, in effect, a “group of death”. All four teams present have shown huge potential in the past such as Rogue and FaZe Clan who both finished as the top seed in their own region last season however, as they trail the top this season, they’ll be hoping to prove themselves at LAN to show they are still number one.

Joining them are the less proven teams of “OrgLess” and “i don’t know”; IDK only just joined Pro League but have already made a splash beating some of the top names, such as Rogue and PENTA Sports, to win DreamHack Valencia and currently rank third in Pro League on round difference. The team, though without an organisation right now, have teased an org announcement for the 1st of August so should be under a different name and brand come the Paris Major.

“OrgLess”, like IDK, also do not have an organisation right now, however has made much less of an impact on this season of Pro League; the team currently ranks in sixth which is quite a fall from the joint third place finish they found themselves at during season 7, however has shown promise with a number of close games and so will be hoping to push themselves to the victory at this tournament to make the knockout quarter-finals

These groups will make up the first three days of the Paris Major as they play in a GSL-style double elimination bracket (as seen during the online portion of Season 7) with the top 2 from each group advancing onto the main event from the Friday onwards. You can watch the Major on the rainbow6 Twitch account when the games begin on the 14th of August and, if you wish to watch them in person, tickets for the main event from the 17th onwards are still available here.