Banner image: Ubisoft / @ericananmalay
Having joined the Rainbow Six Siege scene in 2018, CYCLOPS athlete gaming are currently competing at their seventh international competition. While their experience in the game may be deep at this point, they are constantly the underdogs -- and for good reason.
As such, heading into the Six Invitational 2023, CAG were some of the favorites to go home by the end of Saturday. However, today's result could change it all.
Against all odds, the Japanese team took down the Jönköping Major champions Team BDS, after losing on Skyscraper (3-7) and winning on Oregon (7-5) and Border (7-4).
"I think the victory against Team BDS really gave us a confidence boost and really motivated the team that we can win against other international teams," revealed Takashi "Arcully" Ono in a SiegeGG interview after the team's victory against the Frenchmen.
"It feels amazing to win against the best team in the world and a good start on our SI journey."
CAG's result against Team BDS comes after the team's first roster change in over three years, with Arcully coming in to replace Hideki "gatorada" Nishida.
Arcully adjudged his own adaptation to the team as "good so far", even though he said the CAG "environment" and "concept" were different from his former team, Crest Gaming Lst.
"With some few tweaks, I think we are going on the right path," he said.
On Skyscraper, CAG actually got off to a good start and were able to keep up with their opponents' pace. But they were on the preferential defense and when the roles swapped, they could not crack any of Team BDS's defenses themselves. A 3-3 half became 6-3 in BDS's favour, who took the win 7-3 without further drama.
Despite that one-sided second half, CAG's self-confidence was not shaken heading into the following two maps.
"To be honest, we didn't really talk that much about the first map and didn't try to change anything for the other two maps," shared Arcully.
Border was a much more closely-fought map, with the score also being 3-3 at the halfway mark. This time, however, it was CAG who took the lead.
In round 10, Team BDS tried to shock their APAC opponents with a rush onto the second floor bomb site, which seemed to work out. But, although the Frenchmen were in a better position, CAG completed a perfect retake and surged onto map point.
"To be simple and short, there is nothing to say but that we got lucky that round," Arcully said, perhaps more humbly than expected.
One round later, CAG closed out the second map to force the third and final one, Oregon.
CAG's start on the final map of the series was encouraging, as they converted three of their six attacking rounds. Then, Reon "Anitun" Sakai stole the show with two clutches in the last two rounds of the game, making the unthinkable a reality: CAG had defeated Team BDS in a BO3 in their first match at the Six Invitational 2023.
When asked if the team's approach to the tournament has changed after their victory over Team BDS, Arcully is to the point once more: nothing is going to change.
"We are gonna approach the next few matches just like how we approached our first one by playing confidently and just doing what we do best," he finished.
CYCLOPS athlete gaming will face LOS oNe tomorrow as part of the final set of matches of Day 2, as these are expected to start at 7PM EST (UTC-5).