Overview
Since its release graced the very end of 2015, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege has earned itself a strong foothold as a highly-respective esport of its own, thanks to a title designed to be stripped down to the core for strategy and an undisputably loyal community behind it. Why commence an r6 invitational 2020 recap on such a dramatic note? I find that the Six Invitational, closing off the year, is a staple of the esports, is only a testament to the fact that tangible progress has been successfully achieved and this year’s iteration is, by all means, no exception.
Starting in 2017 with a mere $100,000 and barely a handful of teams, 2020 gleefully put a stunning $3,000,000 on the line for over double the number of teams. With that being said, let’s take a closer look.
Indeed, as aforementioned, the Six Invitational is a recurring event, and in 2020 it acted as a small breather from the ongoing and joyously intense Pro Leagues, each enjoying their 11th Season across 7 regions. Bearing in mind the prize pool and the gravity surrounding the event, the community wildly devoured all the buzz. Organized by ESL and the host in the game’s publisher and developer Ubisoft, the 16 world-class teams were invited to the literal beating heart of the title to celebrate another year of glorious Rainbow Six Siege: the Ubisoft studio at the Place Bell Venue!
Sponsored by Predator, Corsair, and PayPal, the stage was set perfectly while several storylines were pitched for which team would walk claim the 33.3% of prize money waiting at that first place spot. Although the premise might seem familiar, the dated schedule of six days was binned for a more conventional double-elimination playoff format in which the upper-bracket rewards a team with a map in hand ahead of the grand final.
After a year of impatiently allowing time to pass by, the rosters were prepared to bring their A-game, and they sure did across every single day of competitive Rainbow Six Siege action, ranging from the 7th to the 16th of February 2020.
Teams were invited based on their achievements throughout the year: participants of the Pro League S10 Finals, Regional Qualifiers, and overall performances. Let’s take a quick breeze through all of them:
- Team Empire
- Team SoloMid
- DarkZero Esports
- FaZe Clan
- Giants Gaming
- Rogue
- Natus Vincere
- Ninjas in Pyjamas
- Team Reciprocity
- Wildcard Gaming
- Team Liquid
- BDS Esport
- Spacestation Gaming
- MIBR
- Fnatic
- G2 Esports
Caster predictions heading into the event, looking back at them now, were somewhat all over the place. Primarily, the names of Team Liquid, Rogue, Team SoloMid and Team Empire cropped up as the assumption stood clear that these teams would certainly perform – unfortunately for the mentioned teams, they couldn’t have been further off the mark. The same casters would be incessantly making use of the words “surprise”, “upset” and “underdog” to package the incoming results, starting from day one, hour zero at the Group Stage.
The Group Stage – Simply Shocking
Supplying the first two days of competition, from the 7th to the 9th, the Group Stage consisted of four double-elimination (GSL) groups, where losing just 2 matches would directly translate to heading out of the competition. Out of four, only two would go on to win two Bo3 matches to proceed to the next stage of the competition, leaving the other two behind. Without further delay, a cautious revision of the Group Stage result is in order, as displayed below:
Group A: DarkZero Esports(1), Fnatic(2). Team Empire(3), FaZe Clan(4)
Group B: Spacestation Gaming(1), Team SoloMid(2), Natus Vincere(3), Rogue(4)
Group C: Ninjas in Pyjamas(1), MIBR(2), Team Liquid(3), Giants Gaming(4)
Group D: G2 Esports(1), BDS Esport(2), Team Reciprocity(3), Wildcard Gaming(4)
Without blinking an eye, every single caster picked Team Empire to top off Group A on the back of their record as a dominant roster heading into the Rainbow Six Siege Invitational which was sure to reach the Playoff stage. Competitive R6 doesn’t work with predictions, as it turns out, as a team needs to fight for every single round. It all started well with a strong performance against Fnatic, only to fall to DarkZero Esports out of nowhere. The runner-up from last year would face off against Fnatic once more, this time leaving the competition disappointed.
Meanwhile, in Group B, Spacestation Gaming stunned the competition differently, climbing to the top over the favorites of Team SoloMid, sending Natus Vincere and Rogue both home early. They’d be joined by another fallen prediction from Group C, in the form of a heavily disappointing performance from the side of Team Liquid, faltering against NiP and MIBR, and leaving through the back door. Tired of tearing up predictions for three groups, Group D did at least, follow the outcome of G2 Esports and BDS Esports advancing. While statisticians may have dropped the ball here, the community and the live crowd loved the upsets and cheered on the underdogs when possible.
Playoffs
Reaching the third day of competition, the double-elimination bracket was eager to begin churning out rosters from its two arms. The quarter-finals stood silent for only a moment, before setting everything in motion. Team SoloMid and Spacestation would sweep away NiP and MIBR respectively; TSM upheld their expectations while Spacestation was causing neck pain from all the head-turning. Fnatic and DarkZero would join them in the semi-finals, thanks to commendable efforts against their opposing sides of G2 Esports and BDS Esport through 2-1 scorelines.
The first semi-final stacked the North American squad of TSM against the Australians of Fnatic. and it wasn’t marginally close. Led by “Achieved” and his stellar performance (ending up with a 2.36 K/D!), TSM claimed the sides of Consulate (7-2) and Kafe (7-4) with relative ease; Fnatic simply couldn’t fend off the individual talent on the opposition, as individual statistics suffered: the resulting 2-0 sweep was hardly surprising to many, though few dared to rely on assumptions, bearing in mind the earlier shake-ups.
A similar narrative determined the outcome of the remaining semifinal, as the wildcard in Spacestation would need to prove themselves against DarkZero, another dark horse in the competition. Compared to the preceded match, the maps would not be as easily conceded, with Villa going the way of Spacestation 7-5. DarkZero struggled to recuperate and respond to the loss, allowing the second map of Kafe to slip through their fingers too. While Superstation had no outrageous statistics on their side, “BOSCO” commanded the lobby with a 1.33 k/d.
Team SoloMid, a historic team in the R6 community, with regular top finishes, would go up against Spacestation Gaming, an up-and-coming contender in the Winners’ finals. Despite two occasions of technical difficulties, the match was undeniably incredible as the crowd lit up with an exciting degree of electricity cheering for both TSM and SSG as they headed onto Bank on the first map. The first eight rounds were indecisive, to say the least, as the scoreline squared off at 4-4., every single round ending by elimination. Both teams had similar win rates on Bank, (64-67%) and it was anybody’s game until TSM claimed the remaining three rounds, pocketing the game. SSG expressed their disapproval on Coastline, thrashing TSM over a rather ugly 7-1 scoreline. This left Kafe as the deciding match – and TSM kicked open the front door with a string of 4 rounds, only to be answered by 6 consecutive rounds from SSG. Within three rounds, SSG was heading off to the grand final despite poorer individual performances, TSM fans were shaking their heads and NiP quickly prepared for the Losers’ Finals.
Indeed, out of all the teams that had entered the Losers’ bracket, NiP had survived, trouncing G2 Esports, DarkZero and BDS Esport (4th place) – putting them one match from the Grand Finals. The only team left in their path was none other than TSM, resulting in a rematch everyone madly craved. Although TSM may have triumphed in their earlier encounter, NiP took advantage of their defeated state, claiming 2-0 scoreline thanks to a dominant second map on Clubhouse (7-3). TSM, rather disappointingly, had placed third, to claim $270,000. Two teams and a grand finale stood waiting, with $1,000,000 up for grabs.
Grand Finale
Villa, Border, Club House and Bank were the four selected maps, bearing in mind that SSG did have a game in hand for this Bo5. Neutralizing the scoreline on Villa, NiP celebrated a hot 7-3 performance, as the Brazilians looked determined to make up the deficit. While NiP may have looked confident, SSG did have an entire continent behind them as this was the first time in a long while since a team from NA had a shot at winning a major tournament.
Yet, they failed to respond as NiP climbed to a 2-1 lead, on the back of a 7-2 map on Border, placing them on the cusp of winning: match point. SSG desperately had to pull something out of the hat, and they did only after NiP contemplated a 4-0 lead in rounds. Then it happened – SSG’s star in “Rampy” managed to clutch a 1v3 to get his team on the scoreboard; such a display frazzled NiP who visibly lost their composure. So much so, that in the following round, “THINKINGNADE” managed to win his 1v1! SSG fought and crawled back into the series thanks to a nail-bitingly close map. It was evident that SSG had the momentum and they happily used it to carry them to a 7-3 victory on Bank, ending the series at 3-2.
SSG is your Rainbow Six Siege 6 Invitational 2020 Champions! On the back of the slaying power of “FULTZ” with 38 frags and some phenomenal individual plays from his teammates, they rightfully claimed $1,000,000 while NiP took $450,000.
Competitive Rainbow Six Siege has just been flipped on its head, and NA has finally won an event.
