Geekay Esports will become the second-ever MENA roster to compete at an international Rainbow Six Siege event following their qualification for the BLAST R6 Major Atlanta. This also means that Team Falcons will miss out on the second Six Major of the year.
Although Team Falcons went unbeaten throughout Stage 1, one of the green roster's wins was a maximum overtime victory against, precisely, Geekay Esports. Eventually, that result made the final difference between both rosters in the race to qualify for Copenhagen.
"It was a very hard-broken defeat, after that all of the players and coaches came together and we talked about everything that happened, and said that we would work much harder to get the win," Abdellah "X.Ke" Al Wahabi said in a pre-BLAST R6 Major Atlanta interview with SiegeGG.
To improve the team's shape heading to Stage 2, Geekay Esports decided to bring the former Heroic and KOI player Adam "nudl" Hryceniak. Moreover, the Spanish duo Alonso "ALO" Díez and Óscar "WaZo" Llano joined the team's staff.
In a SiegeGG interview with the Spanish duo before the start of Stage 2, the Europeans explained that "it doesn't make sense for us to come and try to change that they are always pushing and playing aggressively." However, X.Ke thinks their work has had a crucial impact on reaching Atlanta.
"Maybe nobody can see what ALO and WaZo have done to our team, but they built a whole new infrastructure for us, they changed our whole playstyle, we have our own aggressive playstyle, but combined with their infrastructure and guidance we became so much better," he admitted.
On top of that, the addition of nudl to Geekay Esports' squad pushed the players to speak in English on the server. Although that was a challenge for the team, the players were surprised by the language efectiveness.
"It took some time but the good thing is that we switched our in-game comms to English, I see there's an advantage behind English comms because at first when we gave comms in Arabic it was very hectic, but if you talk in English in the game it will be much smoother," he explained.
According to X.Ke, the team's calls in English were "cleaner" as "when you use English calls you choose your words much more carefully." When asked if the use of English calls in the squad improved the team's Stage 2 performance, the Saudi Arabian player was very clear. "Yes, by a milestone."
When Geekay Esports played against Team Falcons in the MENA League Stage 2, the blue roster was ahead of their opponents as the green squad had lost one important point after defeating Twisted Minds on overtime. It was Geekay's time to shine.
Against all of the odds, the match was extremely one-sided for Geekay Esports. Eventually, X.Ke and company defeated Team Falcons by 7-2 on Clubhouse. It was an important step towards Atlanta.
"At first yes, we thought the job was done," X.Ke admitted. "In the other game, which was the most important game, against Team Treble, they played very well, it was the hardest game of the league, but we secured the win after a hard fought match."
A few weeks later, Geekay Esports confirmed the team's MENA League Stage 2 victory, earning a spot in the BLAST R6 Major Atlanta. When asked about the talent in the MENA region, X.Ke was optimistic. "If the MENA region is given a chance, I guarantee you they'll shine," he said.
Only three days after winning the MENA League Stage 2, Geekay Esports were victorious at the Saudi eLeague 2023 Stage 2. To lift the trophy, the roster had to play four BO3 and two BO5 against teams from the MENA League, including Team Falcons — whom they defeated by 3-0, in the upper bracket final, and 3-1 in the grand final.
"It could be a good and a bad thing as well," X.Ke mentioned. "You could make your performance much better and better, but the bad thing is that when you go to the Major any certain team that comes against you will have more chance to VOD review your games," he explained.
Geekay Esports being Atlanta-bound is only good news. The team's flawless split has proven to MENA that Team Falcons aren't unbeatable. On top of that, the region will benefit from this situation as it's very likely we see both rosters qualifying for the Six Invitational 2024.
"We are watching the global standings, we are focusing on the lower teams, I just hope that we do good enough in the Major so we can play in the Six Invitational," X.Ke concluded.
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