With the Europe League 2024 Stage 2 starting date being just around the corner, here's everything you need to know about the old continent's second split!
Format
The Europe League 2024 Stage 2 will be split into two stages: the group stage and the playoff stage.
First, the league's nine teams will face off against each other following a round-robin format. All of the matches played at this stage will be BO1s. The top six teams will move to the playoffs while the bottom three will be knocked out.
Finally, the best six teams will move to the playoffs. The first and second-seeded rosters from the group stage will start from the Upper Bracket Semifinals, while the four remaining seeds will be placed in the Upper Bracket Quarterfinals. All of the matches at this stage will be BO3s. The three-best teams will qualify for the BLAST R6 Major Montreal.
Starting date and calendar
The Europe League 2024 Stage 2 will begin on September 2 at 6 PM CEST. With Operation Twin Shells being deployed on September 10, the first three games of the season will be played during Operation New Blood's final patch.
These are the matches that will be played during the second split:
September 2
- Wolves Esports vs. Into the Breach
- ENCE vs. Team Secret
- G2 Esports vs. Fnatic
- WYLDE vs. Team BDS
September 3
- ENCE vs. WYLDE
- Wolves Esports vs. Virtus.pro
- G2 Esports vs. Team BDS
- Into the Breach vs. Fnatic
September 9
- Into the Breach vs. Team BDS
- Virtus.pro vs. Team Secret
- G2 Esports vs. ENCE
- Wolves Esports vs. Fnatic
September 16
- WYLDE vs. Team Secret
- Virtus.pro vs. G2 Esports
- Wolves vs. Team BDS
- Fnatic vs. ENCE
September 17
- Virtus.pro vs. Into the Breach
- Wolves Esports vs. WYLDE
- Team BDS vs. ENCE
- Team Secret vs. G2 Esports
September 18
- Team BDS vs. Team Secret
- ENCE vs. Virtus.pro
- G2 Esports vs. Into the Breach
- WYLDE vs. Fnatic
September 23
- WYLDE vs. Into the Breach
- Team BDS vs. Virtus.pro
- Team Secret vs. Fnatic
- Wolves Esports vs. G2 Esports
September 24
- Fnatic vs. Virtus.pro
- Team Secret vs. Into the Breach
- Wolves Esports vs. ENCE
- WYLDE vs. G2 Esports
September 30
- Into the Breach vs. ENCE
- Virtus.pro vs. WYLDE
- Fnatic vs. Team BDS
- Team Secret vs. ENCE
Teams
Here's a brief look at the nine teams that will compete in the Europe League 2024 Stage 2:
Team BDS
The BLAST R6 Major Manchester grand finalists and Esports World Cup champions are the favorites to take Europe's second split first-seed.
Since the start of Year 9, the European roster has only lost five out of 28 matches. In Europe's first split, Team BDS only lost once, with the biggest part of the team's defeats coming in Manchester, where they lost thrice.
Heading to Stage 2, Team BDS is the team to beat — not just in Europe but internationally too.
Into the Breach
Into the Breach was Europe's Cinderella in Stage 1 after taking the region's second seed to compete in Manchester, in front of their home crowd. Unfortunately for the British-majority roster, the players' 7-4 victory against Spacestation Gaming was followed by defeats against Bleed Esports, M80, and Beastcoast.
Shortly after the team's disappointing result in Manchester, Into the Breach qualified for the Esports World Cup following victories against Fnatic and Team Secret. In Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the players were knocked out by FaZe Clan. Despite the team's group stage elimination, the 7-1 victory on Chalet against the Brazilians shouldn't go unnoticed.
G2 Esports
Following G2 Esports' underwhelming performance in Manchester, the European powerhouse parted ways with Jake "Virtue" Grannan and Benjamin "Benjamaster" Dereli. Instead, the team signed Roberto "Loira" Camargo and Alexandre "BlaZ" Thomas.
Although the team's results improved after the team's moves, G2 Esports missed out on the Esports World Cup after falling against Wolves Esports.
Wolves Esports
Wolves Esports' fourth-place finish at the Europe League 2024 Stage 1 and the team's 0-2 defeat against ENCE in the Last Chance Qualifiers saw the French-majority squad missing out on a Rainbow Six Siege Major for the first time since the roster's core was acquired by the English Premier League side in May 2022.
Following the team's Stage 1 performance, hard decisions were made. Before the start of Europe's Esports World Cup open qualifiers, Bastien "BiBooAF" Dulac and Axel "Shiinka" Freisberg were benched. Instead, Wolves Esports added the French Tier 2 players Rahian "Asa" Ramos and Vivien "Lasmooo" Berthelot as temporary stand-ins.
Eventually, Wolves Esports qualified for the Esports World Cup after victories against G2 Esports and Into the Breach. Although the Europeans couldn't move to the playoff stage, the pack decided to officially sign the French duo.
Fnatic
Fnatic's first stage in Europe didn't go as the orange squad expected as a sixth-place finish at the Europe League 2024 Stage 1 was followed by a defeat against the Tier 2 roster The Forgotten Days. Eventually, the team also missed out on the Esports World Cup.
Heading to the second split of the season, Fnatic decided to make two roster changes as they added the Six Invitational 2019 champion Juhani "Kantoraketti" Toivonen and the Italian rookie Leonardo "Sarks" Sarchi. It's worth mentioning that the Finn will be reunited with his former Rogue and KOI teammates Tom "Deapek" Pieksma, Leon "LeonGids" Giddens, and Tristan "Saethus" Savage.
ENCE
In ENCE's return to Europe's top-flight, the French roster was one match away from qualifying for the BLAST R6 Major Manchester as they lost against G2 Esports in Europe's Last Chance Qualifier grand final.
It's worth mentioning that ENCE was the only squad able to defeat Team BDS as they beat the eventual Esports World Cup champions by 7-3 on Kafe Dostoyevsky.
Curiously enough, ENCE's only signing this summer has been the addition of the former Team BDS player Bryan "Elemzje" Tebessi.
WYLDE
WYLDE's revamped squad for the 2024 season didn't have a great welcome to Europe's top flight as the squad finished at the bottom of the standings of the first split. With only one win throughout the season's initial stage, WYLDE only scored four points.
Following the team's underwhelming performance, WYLDE decided to make multiple roster and staff changes. First, Leon "neLo" Pesic was moved to the head coach position. Finally, the organization announced the squad for the second split including three new players in Antonio "CroqSon" Vázquez, Layton "Layton" Goldring, and Davey "Freq" Hendriks.
Team Secret
Team Secret stole the show in Europe as they clinched a spot to compete at the BLAST R6 Major Manchester following a third-place finish in the first split. After victories against FaZe Clan, DarkZero Esports, and Team Bliss, Team Secret topped the Swiss Stage standings. Eventually, the roster fell against Team BDS at the quarterfinal stage.
Although Team Secret exceeded the fans' expectations, the Europeans had to make some roster changes as Luiz "Miracle" Abrantes's departure was followed by the signing of Jake "Virtue" Grannan.
To top it off, on July 12, the team's coach Marlon "Twister" Mello announced that Dawid "Gruby" Marciniak would be taking a break. As Team Secret are yet to announce a replacement for the Polish player, the organization's roster for the upcoming stage hasn't been officially unveiled yet.
Virtus.pro
After finishing among the best three sides at the Six Invitational 2024, the Russians were one of the favorites to lead the European standings in Year 9. However, the Bears were far behind the top teams finishing in eighth place, only ahead of WYLDE.
Despite the team's lack of results during the first split of the season, the Russians have decided to head to Stage 2 unchanged. They need to qualify for the BLAST R6 Major Montreal to still have a shot at making it to the Six Invitational 2025 through the Global Standings.
Prize pool and SI Points
Last but not least, here's the prize pool and Six Invitational Points distribution:
- 1st: 40,000€ and 100 SI Points
- 2nd: 30,000€ and 95 SI Points
- 3rd: 25,0000€ and 90 SI Points
- 4th: 20,000€ and 85 SI Points
- 5th: 12,500€ and 80 SI Points
- 6th: 12,500€ and 75 SI Points
- 7th: 10,000€ and 70 SI Points
- 8th: 10,000€ and 65 SI Points
- 9th: 7,500€