Six Invitational 2021 Preview

Finally we can see our favorite Rainbow Six players back on LAN again. While the North American League was held offline, we Europeans have been waiting ever since SI 2020 to witness BDS and the likes back at a proper tournament. However, this is about to change, as the Six Invitational is bound to commence soon!

Ubisoft have fought hard to deliver this event to fans. Due to the pandemic, they’ve never been able to bring the teams together at one location, though. This won’t happen anyways, as Wildcard Gaming are not making it to Paris. The remaining teams, however, are entering the fight for 3 million dollars.

CAN SSG SECURE BACK-TO-BACK VICTORIES?

After NAL Season 1, one thing should be clear: Spacestation Gaming stand no real chance at repeating their success of 2020. Troy “Canadian” Jaroslawski is only there as an emergency solution and has been gone from the team for months now. During NAL, SSG failed to attain a high place. At the Six Invitational, they’ll have to face DarkZero, TSM, and Oxygen Esports once again. Should they still manage to do it, this would be the biggest upset in Rainbow Six history! However, it’s much more likely that their domestic colleagues will surpass them at one point or another.

After all, Oxygen Esports are on a career high. Davide “FoxA” Bucci and his men have won an NAL stage for the first time, even though the results were quite close in the end. DarkZero made third place and TSM even bombed out of the Top 5. In their place, two new NA teams have secured higher placements, but won’t be participating at SI.

HOW GOOD IS EUROPE?

The results from the Six Invitational 2020 were a slap in the face for all European teams. For the first time since 2018, no EU team took the trophy home. Much worse, the players didn’t even make the Grand Finals. BDS were the best representatives in fourth place, but G2 and the old guard exited much earlier. So, judging from these results, NA and Brazil are ahead quite a bit. However, BDS have gained massively in the past year and almost exclusively dominated their opposition. So are they better suited for SI now?

Stéphane “Shaiiko” Lebleu and his colleagues have risen to the top after the introduction of EUL. A second place in Stage 1, an August Major victory, first place in Stage 2, and a second place at the November Major to top it off… they couldn’t have done it much better. They kicked the new year off with a second place in EUL Season 2. Their only real opponents, Natus Vincere, won’t be part of the Six Invitational. So if the results of recent months are anything to go by, G2 Esports and Empire won’t be able to hold a candle to them.

G2 have struck gold with CTZN. The Brit has risen to be the best EUL player, but his team isn’t keeping up at all. G2 barely held onto fifth place, but Empire are doing much, much worse. In the entire first stage, they only secured one meager match win. After their first place at the November Major, they have collapsed and are in their worst ever state. So we really shouldn’t wait for them to make it big at SI.

Numbers-wise, the Brazilians are stepping up to the plate with the most teams in attendance. MIBR, NiP, Liquid, Team One, and FURIA are all going on the attack at the Six Invitational. The Brazilian competition is tough and at the last SI, the country made the Grand Finals in the form of the Ninjas in Pyjamas. However, after making fifth place in their national league, NiP might not be able to repeat that performance anymore. In their place, FaZe and Liquid are putting up the show now.

THE SI2021 UNDERDOGS

Mkers made waves last year with their SI qualification. Passing teams like NaVi and Secret, they secured the European slot. Their fans then expected them to enter EUL, but were majorly disappointed. Now, the team can finally show up at the Six Invitational, but their perfect showing was almost half a year ago. The same holds true for Altiora, who are now donning the Parabellum Esports colors. The Australians of Team Wildcard had to pass on the invite and CYCLOPS last faced off against European and North American teams in 2019. Most recently, Virtus.pro had to cancel their participation after two players tested positive for Covid-19.

The biggest question obviously is how well these regions will fare against each other. Sure, BDS look like gods in comparison to their European rivals. But does this mean that they can also compete with Oxygen or TSM? Now that the regions had time to develop independently from each other, they’re arriving at the event with wildly different play styles. There is no guarantee that the favorites will be able to compensate for this. The Six Invitational 2021 might unfold in the most chaotic fashion ever.