“Our main objective is the Six Invitational”: P4 speaks about Wolves Esports’ season, team is hungry after recent international performances

_{Banner Image: Ubisoft / Kiril B. @ItsKirillVision}

Wolves Esports may be one of the most underrated teams in Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege’s esports scene. When people think of potential candidates to win an international competition, everyone thinks of the same Siege powerhouses. The Frenchmen, however, are rarely found among them.

Since the English Premier League side picked up the Frenchmen, the team has never missed out on an international event. Additionally, the team reached the playoff stage in multiple tournaments including the Six Berlin Major, the Six Jönköping Major, and the Six Invitational 2023.

Despite the team’s consistency both in Europe and at international competitions, it’s easy to understand why Wolves Esports have never been considered as favorites. Continuing with the football comparison, the black and orange squad is Siege’s Tottenham Hotspur: their regional consistency has never been followed by frequent deep international runs.

Plain and simple, playing against Wolves Esports is a pain. However, the likes of Team Liquid, G2 Esports, FaZe Clan, or DarkZero Esports will always be above the Frenchmen – until the Europeans don’t prove the fans wrong by obtaining some silverware.

One year ago, Wolves Esports were close to doing so. In Montreal, Canada, the team reached the Top 6 in the Six Invitational 2023. Unfortunately, the team was sent home by the eventual champions G2 Esports.

"We were sad, we were frustrated," admitted Nicolas “P4” Rimbaud in a written pre-Six Invitational 2023 interview with SiegeGG.

Following the team’s result in February, Wolves Esports’ were seen with different eyes. Although the arrival of Jimmy “DEADSHT” Vojtasik slightly changed the looks of the roster, the addition of the Swiss was an improvement in the team’s overall firepower abilities.

Nevertheless, Wolves Esports faced another problem. With the team having less than a month to prepare for the 2023 season, the roster struggled during the first weeks of the initial stage. Two overtime defeats against Team Secret and KOI were followed by losses against WYLDE and MNM Gaming. Against all of the odds, the pack finished at the bottom of the standings of their Europe League Stage 1 group.

According to the Frenchman, the team “only had one week to scrim before Stage 1,” which affected the roster’s results in the competition.

Such a result meant the team had to climb through the Open Qualifier and the Last Chance Qualifiers to confirm their presence in Copenhagen, Denmark. Fortunately for the roster, three back-to-back flawless wins saw them getting the Open Qualifier second seed after losing to Team BDS. Eventually, the roster qualified for the BLAST R6 Major Copenhagen after flawless victories against Heroic, Team Secret, and WYLDE.

Meanwhile, Wolves’ second stage wasn’t as exhausting as the first one. After finishing in second place of their group, the Frenchmen qualified for Atlanta following their victory against MNM Gaming.

When asked about the team’s consistency in qualifying for international competitions, P4 was clear. “I can’t name a key or a reason, it's all about hard work.”

Despite qualifying for both the BLAST R6 Major Copenhagen and the BLAST R6 Major Atlanta, the team was met with frustration again as they were one match away in both competitions from qualifying for the playoffs stage.

Most recently, the team’s run in Atlanta saw them being one map short of making it to the tournament’s Top 8. Wolves Esports’ stay in the United States was full of ups and downs, starting with an unexpected defeat against Team Bliss.

Heading to round ten with a comfortable 6-3 advantage over the Australians, the match on Chalet ended in a 6-8 win for the pink roster. “I believe they started winning rounds and they got us with the momentum of the match," P4 explained.

Eventually, the players redeemed themselves with a 2-1 victory against Team Bliss in the Lower Bracket Final. However, Wolves Esports’ next two matches were 1-7 defeats against Soniqs and Virtus.pro. Again, the team was placed between a rock and a hard place. Following victories against M80 and DPlus, Geekay Esports’ Cinderella run stopped the Frenchmen.

Two months later, Wolves Esports’ next performance was at the Malta Cyber Series qualifiers, where the Frenchmen reached the Final stage. Although the “team wanted to be in Malta” the roster’s main goal is winning the Six Invitational 2024. "It was a good preparation, we played default strats because our main objective is the Six Invitational,” P4 concluded.