DYSTR 2:0 ALGM 
BD 2:1 TL 
ELVA 0:2 TL 
LOUD 1:2 TL 
BNK FEARX are back to the Six Invitational as the Foxes qualified for Paris after their performances in APAC. Including a highly-experienced group of players, the team will represent South Korea in Rainbow Six Siege’s biggest stage.
Expectations set on the players aren't big at all. In fact, even though they share a group with a Tier 2 roster, Team Heretics, the South Koreans are still favorites to be eliminated in the group stage. This is not an attack to the black-and-yellow roster—South Korea have historically struggled a lot in the fight for the hammer, with DWG KIA’s Top 12 finish in 2022 being the region’s best result.
In recent times, South Korea has had its moments. After not featuring in 2023’s edition, Dplus and FEARX qualified for Sao Paulo—where the Foxes reached the playoffs after a shocking 2-0 victory over Geekay Esports. In 2025, although PSG Talon couldn’t survive the group stage, they secured surprising victories against DarkZero Esports and Team BDS.
Unfortunately, the state of South Korea’s Siege is heavily disappointing. In fact, it’s fair to say BNK FEARX’s roster is the only competitive lineup left in the region. Two examples portray the region’s discouraging situation:
First, the APAC Cup 2025 featured qualifiers for Asia, Oceania, and Japan, but not for South Korea, as BNK FEARX got invited—possibly due to a lack of teams. Second and most important, the Six Invitational 2026 won’t have a South Korean broadcast. These two are indicators of the lack of interest the South Korean region currently feels towards Ubisoft’s FPS.
“The South Korean scene is going through its worst phase right now,” said César “Dark” Adriano in a pre-Six Invitational 2026 interview with SiegeGG. “When you look outside of FEARX, all the other organizations have left the scene (MIR and Talon), so it’s becoming harder and harder to have Korean players active at a high level.”
A lack of South Korean players may not be a problem in the short term for FEARX but it could be if things get difficult—alternatives to the current players are inexistent, meaning roster moves are almost impossible to do. Moreover, as the players are aware of this situation, they know being replaced is almost impossible, meaning it’s easy to get comfortable.
“Everyone ends up losing because of that. I hope this changes in the future, and I’ll be happy to see more Korean teams competing at a high level again one day,” Dark added.
BNK FEARX had a rock-solid start to the year with a fantastic Top 8 finish in RE:L0:AD. The team’s run in Brazil included some shocking wins against high-caliber rosters such as G2 Esports, Spacestation, CAG Osaka, and Team BDS. It was the first time the South Koreans reached the stage of an international competition in over three years, back when DWG KIA reached the Six Sweden Major semifinals. Back then, the South Koreans’ dreams were crushed by FaZe Clan—which had Dark as the team’s analyst. “From time to time I thank them for that 1v1 in the Major semifinal! That was definitely a great Major for that trio (RIN, Woogiman, and coted),” he said.
In Stage 1, the South Koreans dominated APAC North as they completed a 6-1 run in the group phase and flawlessly took down CAG Osaka and Dplus KIA. This performance, combined with RE:L0:AD, was a big statement of what the team could do in the near future—it was all about extending this momentum to bigger competitions.
“RE:LO:AD was a great way to start the year and to gain more experience with these five players together. We were definitely one of the few teams to get four wins in the opening stage, and I even think I could have done better with the bullet system, but at least we secured the wins. Losing to CAG in the playoffs was tough, but we took a lot of lessons from it and got our revenge in Stage 1.”
Unfortunately for the players, their experience at the Esports World Cup 2025 was brief as they were eliminated in the group stage following defeats against Virtus.pro and FaZe Clan—where they won a combined tally of six rounds in three maps.
“In Saudi Arabia, the players went into the matches respecting the opponents too much and without believing it was possible to win once the game started badly. To be honest, I thought it would be completely different after Rio de Janeiro, but the way we approached those matches, it wasn’t possible to win.”
The team's performance in Riyadh wasn't the most negative headlight of BNK FEARX, though, as the worst had yet to happen. After a decent group phase run which allowed the team to qualify for APAC's Regional Finals, the Foxes defeats against Dplus KIA and ENTER FORCE.36 saw them missing out on the APAC Major Munich Qualifier. In other words, the South Koreans wouldn't be in the fight to qualify for the BLAST R6 Major Munich.
“Missing out on Munich was the biggest pain I’ve felt during my time at FEARX. Unfortunately, in the last seven days of Stage 2, the team fell into a hole they couldn’t get out of a lack of confidence that created a snowball of in-game problems. Of course, every sad story comes with lessons, and we used those to work hard and secure our Six Invitational spot during the Regional Finals.”
Eventually, the South Koreans still reached the Six Invitational 2026 after their performance in the Regional Finals. Their two defeats against Elevate didn't matter much as their victory over the Chiefs granted their qualification for Paris.
“We’re in an important moment to close out a year of highs and lows. Our focus is to use everything we’ve learned about how these five players work together and bring it all onto the server. We’re going to have a bootcamp that will definitely be the most important period for us, and we want to push this team to full speed for the Six Invitational. We’re excited and eager to make history and close this chapter.”
At the Six Invitational 2026, BNK FEARX have a solid chance to reach the playoffs, just like they did at the Six Invitational 2024. However, the South Koreans will have to adapt to a new map pool, as their strongest map, Skyscraper, was removed to add Fortress. Only time will tell if the team can still manage to create a long run of results in Paris.
For more information about Rainbow Six Siege and its esports scene, make sure to check out Siege.GG.