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BDS and Empire back in R6 EUL – Who’s Got the Upper Hand?

The North American League has already commenced. Now, EUL is following suit, but not a lot has changed since... Fabio | 8. September 2021

The North American League has already commenced. Now, EUL is following suit, but not a lot has changed since Stage 2. So can we expect G2 and Empire to rise to the top again?

Only a handful of teams have made roster moves – none of them being top teams. BDS, Empire, NaVi, and G2 are all boasting the same lineups we got to see at the Six Mexico Major and in Stage 2 already. The arguably biggest change comes in the form of Heroic entering the league by signing the unKnights roster. In doing so, they saved the French team from dropping out of EUL. Without organizational support, Ubisoft would have likely removed them in 2022. But was that really a good decision on the part of Heroic?

Sure, last stage’s bad performance can be put down to the players losing their support from TrainHard Esport. But even when they had this backing, they weren’t a top team. So Heroic need to be aware that they’ve taken on a long-term project here. The French team won’t suddenly become one of the league’s top performers.

ROGUE CONTINUE TO SWITCH UP

Those one-man-changes really aren’t the best that Rogue could do. They already secured themselves a talented individual last stage in the form of Pascal “cryn” Alouane, but what did it help them? It’s pretty obvious that the roster’s problems lie deeper. Switching up one player won’t fix any of the issues. So Stage 3 will be testing grounds again for the Rogue organization, who are attempting to achieve success with minimal effort. If they are to fail yet again, perhaps they will consider some deeper changes for the coming year.

But Secret are committing to the same flawed approach as well. For this stage, they have kicked the last remaining German player and are putting their faith in Luke “Kendrew” Kendrew, who most recently played for cowana. He left the organization at the end of Stage 2 due to personal differences. So his performance wasn’t even the core issue. But now, he’s joining Peter “pacbull” Bull, an already established in-game-leader. So will they share leading duties? Or will Kendrew give up on IGLing entirely?

THE TOP 4 REMAINS UNCHANGED

About two months ago, these teams were at the very top. But at the Six Mexico Major, the ranking shifted somewhat. G2 collapsed entirely. Their only success was keeping NiP from entering the playoffs. Natus Vincere went home without a single match victory. BDS and Empire, however, made it to the Semi Finals. There, they had to face each other, though, and Empire narrowly made it through. They lost the Grand Finals against Team One, but it was a great overall performance nonetheless. After the disastrous Six Invitational results, it was already a success to see a European team make the Semis!

So what will the Top 4 in Stage 3 look like? It’s difficult to predict how these small roster changes will impact all the other teams. But when we compare them to G2, Empire, NaVi, and BDS, these four should still have the upper hand. G2 have finally had enough time to get accustomed to their new players. If they manage to leave their Six Major experiences behind, they have a shot at achieving a placement similar to Stage 2. BDS were definitely not happy with their fourth place. So they’ll try to get higher up the ladder again. After Empire and the Frenchmen did so well at the Major, they might have the edge over G2 and NaVi.