Rainbow Six Europe Major – Day 1 Review

It was the day of the underdogs. First, Virtus.pro threw the tournament favorites of Rogue down into the Lower Bracket, then G2 Esports managed to overrun the BDS players. Rogue then lost the Elimination Match as well, making them the first victims of the Euopean Rainbow Six Major!

VIRTUS.PRO 2-1 ROGUE

We called it! In our preview for the event we dedicated an entire paragraph to the insane upsets of the North American Major. About a week ago, DarkZero managed to overcome the formerly best team in the world, SSG, in their opening match. From this, we concluded that underdogs should never be underestimated – and we couldn’t have been more correct.

Virtus.pro actually were able to make such an upset happen. On Kafe, the VP boys managed to construct a near-perfect defense. This meant that they only had to win two more rounds on the offense to secure the first map for themselves. Going onto Clubhouse, Rogue again crumbled to the VP defense. This time, however, the Germans were able to get a perfect defense going as well. Not giving away any rounds in their half, they got on the board with a map win of their own.

On Oregon, it was once again the defense of VP that proved to be difficult to overcome. At halftime, the VP boys led 5-1 and only needed a few more rounds to make the upset happen. Pavel “p4sh4” Kosenko had enormous impact with 29 kills total. On the other side, Eugene “karzheka” was unable to reach a two-digit kill count. Virtus.pro thus made it to the Upper Bracket, whereas Rogue had to fight for their tournament lives.

G2 ESPORTS 2-0 BDS ESPORT

Once again, G2 Esports were unpredictable. After a shaky EUL season, they were able to soundly defeat BDS at this Major. At no point did the Frenchmen gain any hold of the match, the G2 boys were just too good individually. In two short maps (7-2, 7-4), the international superteam got into the Upper Bracket and left BDS fighting for survival.

BDS 2-0 ROGUE

The third match of the day went down a similar route. While Rogue were able to mount a small comeback on Clubhouse, they lost their first engagement with BDS on a 5-7 scoreline. On Consulate, BDS really got going, only letting 3 rounds slip by. Besides the usual suspect Stéphane “Shaiiko” Lebleu, Olivier “Renshiro” Vandroux and Bryan “Elemzje” Tebessi were able to post insane results. This bodes well for the team, as Renshiro and Elemzje are usually not the biggest fraggers in the team.

Very few people will have expected Rogue to depart in last place. The players broke under the pressure of being favorites, unable to replicate their strong EUL performance. Before the event, Virtus.pro were definitely a strong team and not to be taken lightly. But here, they have announced themselves as a completely different team and G2 Esports need to prepare well against them. The VP players are definitely not here for the fun, their focus is firmly planted on the Grand Finals slot in front of them. Tomorrow, we will see whether they can actually snatch it from the hands of G2.