Note: The interview took place before the start of the Six Invitational 2025.
For the first time since the Six Invitational 2017, Rainbow Six Siege's most prestigious tournament includes organization-less (also known as orgless) rosters; groups of players and staff not supported by any esports organization. In total, three teams are competing in Boston under this circumstance: Team Joel, RazaH Company, and Unwanted.
When a wave of esports teams departures hits the scene, panic sets in among fans, who wonder and feat about the circuit's future. However, the reasons that led those three rosters to become orgless are completely different from each other.
While Team Joel is the result of a case of unpaid salaries and prize pool money by Bleed Esports, which ended in Ubisoft's decision to revoke the team's license, RazaH Company's roster was freed by E1 Sports due to the "changes made to the franchising format in 2025." In an interview with SiegeGG, Vitor "Peres" Peres revealed that it was more worth it for the players to compete in an orgless status than under a esports organization as they will be able to claim the full prize pool money they get.
Last but not least, the former Cloud9 Beastcoast core, now known as Unwanted, were forced to go orgless after M80 acquired Beastcoast's esports and media assets. The decision was publicly announced on December 5, one day after the conclusion of the transfer window. Although one would think the players knew, it couldn't be further from truth.
"I learned about the whole M80 ordeal at like 8 AM PST by Gunnar calling me on the phone and waking me up saying 'Matt, Beastcoast is being sold to M80 and they are taking me and D (dfuzr), you guys are all free agents now'," Matthew "Hotancold" Stevens revealed in a written interview with SiegeGG.
According to the American, the news came to him "two or three days" before the transfer window closed. "It really stung to hear that the team I've been getting close to and becoming good friends with was just destroyed in a matter of seconds with no real word from the Beastcoast owner," he added.
All of a sudden, from one day to the next, the BLAST R6 Major Manchester champions had not just lost their team but also two of their players. With only a couple of days left in the transfer window and considering no esports organization was there to support the players, finding replacements in such a short notice was extremely hard. Eventually, the roster added Adam "Atom" Gutiérrez and Mitch "Dream" Malson to close the lineup.
"We chose Atom because in all of our opinions he was the absolute best straight shooter available. He has always been one of those players I never enjoyed playing against, so why not see what the other side of that is like," Hotancold explained.
Despite most of Atom's experience as a player is in North America's Tier 2 the player made his professional debut in the North America League 2023 Stage 2 under Wildcard and competed for Soniqs between March and August 2024. His international debut came at the BLAST R6 Major Montreal after unexpectedly qualifying for the tournament under CL4L.
Last but not least, the addition of Dream means the American has made a return to the Six Invitational for the first time since helping Oxygen Esports claim a third-place finish at the Six Invitational 2023.
"I teamed with Mitch on Mirage a while back so I already knew the type of person he was and I also know how clutch of a player he can be," Hotancold explained. However, the addition of Dream isn't just about what he brings to the table as a player but also about his personality outside of the server.
"I knew he's been nonstop grinding the game since he got cut off of Oxygen Esports and if a team is going to win any tournament its going to be with good vibes, and Mitch is the ultimate vibe guy," he added. All in all, Hotancold believes both players "have adapted really well" and the "hardest part was finding ways for ourselves to adapt to their playstyles."
Unwanted didn't only make changes to the roster but also added two new staff members in Kyle "Mint" Lander and Zachary "Nyx" Thomas. The American duo had been working together in DarkZero Esports, with Mint being the most well-known member of the two given his long stay at the purple organization.
"Seeing how Mint runs a team was definitely a fresh start that we desperately needed," Hotancold admitted.
"Practice before Mint and Nyx joined just felt like we were running through the motions and scrimming to scrim with no real end goal. Kyle (Mint) has brought that much needed structure back to our team. I talk to Nyx on the daily (we live together) and always have known he understands the game at such a high level, so to have his brain picking at the enemy teams playstyles going into SI is going to help tremendously. Guy is a pure work horse when it comes to his love of the game," he added.
Logically, the fact that the team didn't get the support from an esports organization affected the team's preparation, with real life problems having an impact to the player's experience. "It's been rough to say the least, some of us have houses, wives, bills to pay."
However, Hotancold's highlighted the lack of a bootcamp with the rest of the players affected the team's preparation. "Not having a bootcamp is the main issue to me, getting that team bonding time with a fresh group of guys would've been nice to have going into SI."
"We basically are betting on ourselves to get the job done at SI and prove to these orgs that we are the real deal," he added.
All in all, it's fair to say Unwanted's start to the Six Invitational 2025 surpassed anyone's expectations. The Americans made their debut yesterday with a 2-1 victory against the Esports World Cup 2024 semifinalists Team Liquid. Later today, they will have the chance to add more points to their tally as they will play against Team Joel, who have lost their previous two games.
Meanwhile, tomorrow, Unwanted will play against M80 in what will be a special match for both teams: the BLAST R6 Major Manchester champions will be reunited as the Cloud9 Beastcoast core will face Shaun "Gunnar" Pottorff and Ayden "dfuzr" Gabari.
"It wasn't D's or Gunnar's choice to leave the team, so it's not like there is any bad blood between us," he said.
"But at the same time I want to beat them that much more, definitely a nice added friendly rivalry with those guys. I more so want to show the M80 and Beastcoast owners the type of players they missed out on," he concluded.
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