The Entire History of Rainbow 6 Esports in 150 Minutes

Find me on social media 👇

🔴 Twitter: https://twitter.com/MiloshTheMedic
🔴 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/miloshtalks/
🔴 Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/miloshthemedic
🔴 Discord: https://discord.gg/zhZrzCa

Thank you for watching this 2.5 hour epic about the game & its esports scene that changed my life.
If you enjoyed it, please consider subscribing to my Patreon on https://www.patreon.com/MiloshTheMedic!

Editors:
QueenMallow ► https://twitter.com/MallowTheQueen
Menix ► https://twitter.com/MenixOfficial
Rojo ► https://twitter.com/RojoPirata
Luky ► https://twitter.com/LuKyR6S
Bxt ► https://twitter.com/BannedBx

Thumbnail by Rojo ► https://twitter.com/RojoPirata

Music:
Rainbow Six OST
Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear OST
Rainbow Six Extraction OST
Rainbow Six Siege OST
Six Invitational Theme
POSTMATCH Lo-Fi Rainbow Six music – Kill Miami
Age of Empires 2: DE OST
Persona 4 OST
Persona 5 Royal OST
Persona 3 Reload OST
Shadow of the Colossus OST
Sonic Lost World OST
Lethal League Blaze OST
Elden Ring OST
Ultrawave – Oceandrive
Retrowave / Synthwave Mixtape – becklyyy
Neon Paradise – White Bat Audio
Massobeats – Jasmine tea

Introduction: 00:00:00
Pre-history: 00:03:52
Ancient History: 00:05:58
The Bronze Age: 00:08:15
The Renaissance: 00:13:53
The Age of Kings: 00:19:28
The Age of Empire: 00:45:30
The Gilded Age: 01:03:12
The Great Depression: 01:07:58
Ordem e Progresso: 01:21:24
A never ending Revolution: 01:32:31
The new Deal: 02:04:09
The next big thing: 02:20:42

#RainbowSixSiege #RainbowSix #Esports #MiloshTheMedic

Hi, I’m Milosh, or like how only my parents call me, my real name, Ghassan. I’ve been a part of the Siege community, esports scene, and ecosystem since 2016. Over the years, my love for Siege has grown as both the game and my life transformed drastically.

In a few days, the 8th installment of Siege’s World Championship, the Invitational 2024, is kicking off. It’ll be the first time SI goes International aside from the closed events during covid, and this one is special to me because Brazil is the destination.

Brazil is where I got my start casting Siege, and the Brazilian community adores this game, we see that clearly every day on social media, on streams, and also having seen it in their own eyes when we hosted 2 proleague finals in the country back in 2017 & 18.

I figured that Siege players are divided into 3: One part that religiously watches Siege esports, one that tunes in for big events, and a 3rd that exclusively watches for the new operation reveal on championship sundays. And fair enough, we love different things in different ways, I’m just happy to be

Here like everybody else. However, It’s difficult to explain and wrap your head around all that’s happened in Siege esports so far. From the G2 era, to SSG, to covid, to Brazil’s domination, you can miss a lot of happenings and knowledge about the who’s who of the game.

I wanted to prepare you for SI with a handy guide, one that you can reference for years to come when talking to your friends all tipsy at 3 am on a tuesday night on discord, noting the facts and also the feelings that we all felt seeing this history unfold before our eyes.

In short, I wanted to tell you a story. About heroes & villains, drama & prodigies, tears of joy and pain, and unrivaled love and passion for a game and a scene that has changed the lives of thousands, myself included.

My goal is to catch you up with the scene if you’ve been away, and help you fall in love with it as much as I did if you’re brand new. I love longform essays made by people deeply passionate and knowledgeable about a topic.

From Destiny’s Byf & Dimitri at the score esports, to Jenny Nicholson, Contrapoints, and many more. They’ve inspired me to sit down, and write. Rainbow 6 Siege has been played competitively in one way or another since 2015, that’s over 8 years of history! And, as you can see from the red bar below,

This video’s kinda long .. There’s a lot to talk about and that’s without even covering every piece of micro-history that I feel would derail the topic way too often. Maybe some things to discuss in the future? So, to make things as concise as possible, I’ve decided to divide Siege esports history

Into eras, marking each phase with different meta games, team dominance, tipping points and the like, and separated them for your viewing ease and pleasure, especially since watching it all in one sitting is a big ask. One final thing, it took a while to put this together, so I would very much appreciate

You sharing this video with friends that want to learn more about the esports scene of this incredible game, and by letting me know in the comments or on twitter what your favorite memory of Siege esports is. With that out of the way, strap in for a hell of a nostalgia trip. Pre-history

Siege sported a few Alpha & early release tournaments, showmatches mostly lost to time as in Gamescom 2015 & IEM Katowice 2016. Shortly after IEM, the very first season of Rainbow 6 proleague kicked off: Not only was proleague played on PC, but this year had a collaboration with Microsoft, so

Both PC & Xbox leagues ran alongside one another with the same format. It was quite simple, 1 league, 2 regions, NA & EU, with 8 teams playing in each. you qualify to play in said league by playing Go4s, ESL’s weekend tournaments, and gathering

Points, with the top 2 of each league qualifying to a seasonal lan final. I’d like to note that both LATAM, Brazil and the central/south america and the entire APAC region aren’t present in official competitions in Year 1. Despite this, both of those regions had local tournaments with the biggest being Liga Elite

Six in Brazil. To give context on the meta back then I’ll just say these words: “shield recruit with smoke and frag grenades on hereford base” – that’s how whack everything was. You also couldn’t deploy more than 1 drone at a time, if you did then the one already

Out would auto-destroy, this obviously massively limits your scouting and flank watch potential *cough Z1ronic cough* This is where players like Kix, Pengu & Canadian break ground. This is why even though we’re so far past this era, I still find it important to keep

In mind that these early days shaped many of the players and community members that thrive to this day, and the list gets quite long. Year 1 wrapped up with the crowning of 6 proleague champions: Excellence, Denial & Vitality on Xbox, and Penta, Yunktis & CTM for PC. And then, came the surprise.

Ancient history: The first Invitational In November of 2016, Ubisoft & ESL announced a brand new tournament, the Six Invitational. A world championship for Siege inspired by Dota 2’s International. Keeping in mind that the Siege dev team in the day were MASSIVE dota fans, and likely

Wanted to capture a similar feeling for their own game, a tournament combining esports, game updates and community like no other. A melting pot that would not only succeed, but thrive beyond expectations in the coming years. To the devs, that event had to pass by the birthplace of Siege, Montreal Canada, and

In February of 2017, that’s exactly what transpired. So let’s set the scene: Continuum, the reigning Proleague champions & Gifu, the 3rd rated EU team, were invited to SI17 directly, with 4 more from regional qualifiers (show on screen) And on the Xbox side came Elevate & Vitality, joined by 4 qualified squads.

APAC & LATAM also participated for the first time with one team from each region for each platform, putting the “World” in World Championship. CTM & Elevate took dominant wins on PC & Xbox respectively, cementing NA as THE region going into the new year.

This new year also came with the biggest addition to the Siege proleague circuit, the inclusion of LATAM, known for its explosive aggressive playstyle, with APAC set to join later in for season 6, no longer were the regions relegated to a mere showmatch like at the season 2 finals in Leicester.

With the league’s expansion, came also difficult news for the Xbox scene, as SI17 would be the last time it saw official action, and you’d be surprised how many prodigies that scene created. Players like Laxing, Biboo & Bosco immediately migrated to PC, shifting the tides in each

Region and adding a unique perspective to future metas. 2017 looked like the birth of a new esport. The Bronze Age Early 2017 saw a continuation of the meta, loads of valkyrie & blackbeard, plenty of not being able to see past 3 inches in or out a window, and operation velvet shell thrusting

Mira into the limelight. I talked about team reforms with Xbox disbanding, but in the deep a new threat was brewing, a menace of a team that would conquer the world .. FLIPSIDE TAC *pffff* .. sorry I love you guys .. cough .. PENTA SPORTS (vamos penta fabian with funky beats)

Pengu, Fabian, Goga, KS, Joonas & their 6th, Falko – a unique and short lived take, alternating their 5th player depending on the map (something that later would be disallowed) – had burst onto the scene. Season 4 finals saw Penta dismantle team after team, rendering even Nesk’s Valkyrie useless

On consulate, a staple map for Penta in the day, swiftly ending the final 5-1 / 5-0 .. yeah, it was a dominant finish only topped by Elevate’s 10-0 win vs Vitality at SI17. Also yeah, pro games were a first to 5 back then, that would only be increased up to 6

By the 2018 Paris Major, and later to 7 in 2019. They were SHORT. Also also, you swapped sides after every single round, half-times didn’t exist, neither did a pause timer. This event saw the reveal of Operation Health, a massive effort on the part of Siege’s

Development team to overhaul the internal code and interconnected systems, allowing for a smoother player experience, better performance, and most importantly, a solid foundation on which the future of Siege could be built, now that it was clear from viewership & player numbers that a bright future is within reach with more investment.

And yes, that meant a future with no hibana Xkairos bugs. From ESL’s Katowice studio in season 4, Siege went to its first open event in Europe. Gamescom 2017 saw a booth dedicated to the season 5 finals, where world champion Kinggeorge

& his NA squad would play under the banner of the biggest organization yet to enter Siege, Rogue. Despite this, It was Elevate, led by the duo of Skys & Laxing, that held NA’s hopes high. Hopes that ultimately came crashing against Penta sports who now had won 2 consecutive

Proleague finals, tying Contiuum’s Season 3 & SI17 wins. Those events were the original Majors, they served the same purpose, although on a much smaller scale. The season 6 finals were set for November 2017 in Sao Paulo Brazil. Although these finals became known for being the “powerpoint final” due to unfortunate

Stream issues, they were significant for 3 reasons: – APAC was participating for the first time, and sent 2 teams out of the 8. A fairly controversial idea at the time – LATAM, pretty much Brazil, finally had home turf advantage and a massive crowd, potentially pushing their 2 teams to a first win.

– Siege events had gone international, events would no longer be confined to EU & NA, there’s a whole world out there that adored this game & its esports scene. The Brazilian front runners Black dragons, led by Julio, managed to defeat Fabian’s

Penta sports in the semi-finals, a feat no other team had managed to achieve, and were poised to win it all. APAC unfortunately came last, scoring only a few rounds in total, but went home with a great deal of experience.

Canadian was finally back in action and not on an analyst desk, and playing under the banner of Evil Geniuses, one of the oldest and most decorated organizations in esports. However, they were swiftly dispatched by the one squad that managed to sneak under everyone’s

Radar, In a move that would SURELY never be repeated again. The tenacious Finns of ENCE esports, led by Willkey and spearheaded by that young gunner Kantoraketti, swept aside Canadian’s Evil Geniuses and kept it up to the grand final.

The 2nd map in that series, Chalet, saw Kantoraketti single handedly backpack ENCE across the finnish line, you know? ‘Cause they’re all finns? Nobody could believe it, despite all the odds stacked against them this plucky team made

Out like bandits in the night and secured Europe a 3 out 3 win streak for the year. And all of this was in preparation for the next. Big. thing. Six Invitational 2018. The Renaissance Mirroring SI17, this Invitational is set to take place in Montreal Canada.

It was meant to be the biggest event to date. Built from the ground up to enhance the community & game updates parts of the previous year, it put front and center fan artists, developers, cosplayers, community streamers, content creators, all working hand in hand to push the new scale

Of the event in size and competition AND .. the MUSIC .. GOD DAMN THE MUSIC IS CHILL INDUCING *SI18 theme* *fade to black* sigh .. seeing this live, either in person or at home was incredibly satisfying. With EU winning so HARD in 2017, the region was awarded an extra spot at SI18 through

The open qualifiers, instead of the singular team per each of the 4 regions, but also a “community vote”. Yeah. A community vote. Via twitter poll. To choose who gets an SI invite. Needless to say, despite some of the world’s biggest sports stars pushing for either Brazil

Or France to send a representative, this was a quagmire of a decision with supposed vote-botting and a general lack of “we earned this spot” for any team voted in, reasons why you won’t see it ever be implemented again.

I would also add that at this exact moment, Japanese law finally caught up with esports, and allowed licensed organizations to collect prize money, and for players to be paid. Great news for Japanese competitors. So here we are, snowy winter Montreal, with more teams than ever before at 16 total from

The 4 corners of the world competing for the title of World Champion. For the first time ever we saw a full German team playing Internationally, same for a Russian team in Room Factory. Evil Geniuses and Penta were drawn into the same group A, with Penta winning the head

To head to top their group and go on to smash ENCE & even bitter rivals Black Dragons in the semi-finals, EU was on the cusp of making history. On the other side of the playoffs bracket, EG took out a tenacious Faze Clan, known at

The time for their explosive start-stop-start gameplan. And after another grueling fight versus NA rivals Rogue in the semis, EG stood, poised to defend NA’s crown, and recover the region’s lost honor in proleague. What transpired in that final is for me to

This day, 6 years later, the best match in the history of Siege esports. The crowd was on fire, the brand new operators, Finka & Lion were just revealed, the PvE mode Outbreak was revealed to INCREDIBLE levels of hype, operator & gameplay updates were

Welcomed with open arms, and the music swelled as the finalists made it into the arena. For the next few hours, Penta & EG were neck and neck in a Best of 5, the first of its kind in Siege esports, yet EG kept pulling over the edge and took series point at 2-0

On Oregon. Penta were on the backfoot, and they needed a savior, a hero, and nothing less than a god emperor could save the day .. What they had was a step above, they had Fabian. *play Fabian’s audio clip I want to fucking win*

That one side huddle turned the tides, Kafe Dostoyevsky was close, but Penta had their first map. Bank was even better, a clean 5-2. 2-2 Series point Coastline all that was left. And both Penta & EG played like no one ever has before.

Trading blow for blow they reach Overtime. Penta take the first defense, but attack was the real issue here. What you’re about to see, is one of the greatest moments in Siege history: Clip They had done it. The reverse sweep was complete and Penta were

World Champions. No one could believe it, this wasn’t just EU’s time, this, was the start of an era. A dynasty had been founded. The age of Kings, or the god emperor’s dynasty Winning a couple of events doesn’t make you a dynasty worthy team, you have to absolutely dominate the esports calendar.

And yes, spoiler alert, Penta sports just kind of did that. It started off with a bit of a hiccup. The first proleague final set in the USA was to be season 7 in Atlantic City, New Jersey. And no shade to New Jersey but it kinda sucks there.

Anyway, “SOMEONE’S” hand drew Penta vs EG to be played in ¼ finals, and honestly it might’ve been for the best since people immediately got the game they wanted, and we could have some shift in the story deeper into the bracket. A point about Penta here. Many forget that Shatte had played on the

Squad and was World Champion, but even more forget that Shatte had stepped aside at this point for personal reasons, and with not much more than a week before the event, Penta had picked up ENCE’s Kantoraketti on loan, a name we now hold synonymous with the Penta/G2 legacy.

A couple of teams arrived as dark horses, nobody really knowing what to expect of them. Nora Rengo from Japan had just topped the APAC charts, whereas Millenium from France was seen as a mish mash of French hopefuls with massive pedigree shoes to fill.

Despite Nora Rengo’s incredible performance, shoutout to Wokka (insert FoxA Wokka clip), Rogue faced a Penta that had yet again come back versus EG after the first map to seal the deal in the semis. Well, Penta sent Rogue packing with each of the 3 maps being quite

One sided, and there it was, Penta in the grand final once more, undefeated vs NA. The bottom bracket also had tight matches. With FaZe bowing out to Millenium, it was a big blow to Brazil delivered by the plucky French squad.

Liquid looked shaky on map 1 vs Fnatic, but took the win regardless for a semi-finals spot. Millennium had a lot of heart, something that just kind of happens when you’re led by Liven in the server, and Crapelle coaching. But it was Liquid’s day to win, the grand final was set, Liquid vs Penta.

Brazil had entered competition 1 year ago, teams from the region had gotten close, even on home turf, and to win it all, Liquid had to go through the World Champion Penta. Bank went to Penta 5-1. It looked like the series was over right then and there. On Border, Liquid fought like hell, taking

It to overtime and the map as a whole. Consulate was one of Penta’s best maps, they were feared and revered on it in Europe. This was the map that 1 year ago Nesk was constantly punished on, where Penta won their first Proleague championship.

And despite what Fabian might say about Liquid abusing Lion or whatever, the Brazilians score a 5-1 victory. Liquid were Proleague champions. Brazil finally lifted a trophy. Liquid’s roster was a mix of talent. ZiG and Nesk were the old timers of the bunch,

And had competed for years even outside of Siege at this point, Bullet had grinded Siege so hard he landed on the top team in Brazil before the region was integrated, same for psk who was a graduate of Pain Gaming, an organization with tons of general esports

History in Brazil, and finally the prodigy Sexycake, who had been touted as THE up and comer in 2017, only to be swiftly picked up by liquid when he turned 18 and was eligible to play. Silence and Sensi, the coaches of the team,

Also had extensive knowledge and experience in Siege, having competed at the highest level possible in Brazil, with Silence of course being of the first Brazilians to ever compete as Six Invitational 2017 under Santos Dexterity This was legitimately the best squad in Brazil, and now, they were the best out of all of

The proleague teams. It’s here that I’d like to take a detour for a gameplay & esports update. Lion was busted. Later in the year, Lion would be perma-banned pending an operator rework, and a quarantine period for newly added operators would be

Set as one whole season before they were introduced into competitive play, trying to avoid major imbalance as was the case with Lion. To also have more control over game balance, a new operator ban system was introduced in the upcoming patch. Teams would be able to ban one attacker & one

Defender each in a pre-map ban phase, and the Attack & Defense rounds would now swap at half time, rather than after each round. Obviously these changes split the community opinion, but in my mind, these were necessary changes for the game’s health and esports’ longevity.

Also, this was the time when the system we now know as R6 Share would come to life as the R6 Pilot program. The goal was to introduce team specific skins & cosmetic sets for weapons and operators where the revenue from their sale in the game’s

Store would be split between the organization, players, Ubisoft & the esports ecosystem. This had been done in the past in Siege back in 2017, but not to the scale where all participating proleague teams would be eligible to join as long as they fulfilled certain requirements among which is partnering with Siege content creators.

It’s a great idea, and an important piece in funding for teams & players. Who DOESN’T want their team name & logo to be associated with a hugely popular game AND make money from it at the same time you know?

With the first 6 month season wrapped up, the entire scene eyed up the first ever Major event. The 2018 Paris Major. Majors were designed to counterbalance the World Championship that is Six Invitational, and for the scene to have a mid-year anchor in the summer, think of it as the Summer Slam

To SI’s Wrestlemania. You also had a few different ways of qualifying for a Major, much like with SI. You could be in the top 2 of your Proleague region having qualified to the previous proleague final. You could win a spot through the open qualifiers

Of each region. OR you could attend a minor event and win, and much like the open qualifiers, you didn’t have to be a Proleague team to participate, literally anyone could put a team together and give it a shot. This “path to pro” was incredibly important, especially in an era where franchising esports

Became the norm in multiple other titles, and, in my opinion, leading to the suffocation of the grassroots of the scene. It’s at this moment that a partnership between Ubisoft & Dreamhack would be set up. Meaning that those minor tournaments would be handled by a production company that was

Specialized in this format as it has been with Starcraft or Counter-Strike. The event to kick it all off would start shortly after the proleague finals, Dreamhack Austin in Texas. These Minor events would open up invitations to Proleague & Challenger league teams first,

And host a BYOC (bring your own computer) qualifier on site for any other team wanting to fight for a shot at glory. Obviously with an event in the USA, the majority of squads playing would be American, with

Only 5 out of the 16 teams coming from Europe. It was kind of considered a bygone conclusion that NA would win the whole thing. Would you be surprised if I told you EU ended up winning? Those plucky French & Belgians from Millenium

Smashed everyone in groups and playoffs and pushed Evil Geniuses, still the best NA team, to their absolute limit. The 3rd map of the grand final, Border, should’ve been an EG win, and yet somehow Millenium kept fighting back and took the win to the surprise of everyone.

Hicks, the “lonely dancer” had gone WILD this tournament. And since Millenium already had a spot at the Major, EU would be granted a second spot via the open qualifiers. With the new Proleague season underway just after Austin, it was only a few weeks from

Dreamhack Valencia, which would host the second Major spot earning event of 2018. One thing to note, is that the online qualifiers for the Major had just ended, giving the German Orgless and I don’t Know, the EU spots for Paris.

Orgless was seen as a catch all team where the top German players would find themselves in, weaving in and out of the proleague limelight, but showing immense promise in every individual. I don’t know, or IDK, was a curious little team. Having been built off of the rift of

2016’s Playing Ducks, and Snooken Knows. So it had incredible talent in Leongids, Meepey & Elemzje, but is definitely a story for another day. What you need to know is that people felt that they had been wronged, and IDK deserved a Proleague spot and more.

Teams from all over the EU, with the Brazilian NiP & NA’s Rogue & newcomers Cloud9, flocked into Spain. ENCE had been at this point, and especially after their proleague win in Brazil, major European hopefuls just behind Penta Sports, in a constant tug of war versus the French squads.

The Paris Major was the first International event to ever be held in France, Vitality is headquartered in Paris, and the organization’s pedigree holds an event like this to the height of national pride. All to say that, Vitality really wanted that spot.

To everyone’s surprise, IDK had beaten Penta in the first semifinal of the day, meaning that in the context of who qualifies to the Major, the grand final wouldn’t play a role, only the second semifinal. Low and behold, ENCE played Vitality in the second semifinal.

Both maps went to Overtime, Clubhouse & Oregon were bloody affairs, but in the end, Vitality’s hunger was too much to handle for the Finns, and with tears of joy in their eyes, Vitality had confirmed their spot for Paris. They played IDK in the final, but it didn’t

Matter anymore, IDK won without lifting a finger. In the end, everyone got what they wanted. With the expansion into minor events, the creation of National circuits, and the addition of a Major event, the yearly prize pool for Siege tournaments had increased massively.

It was finally possible for teams to compete full-time, and the prestige of winning the first ever Major became every team’s sole driver. En route to the Major in August, Penta Sports’ roster was officially signed under G2 esports who need no introduction, same applying to IDK signing with Team Secret.

It was a great moment with Europe getting more and more attention and support from larger organizations. Both APAC & LATAM had a kind of disappointing run. NiP was the only Brazilian team to make it to quarters, with Immortals, FaZe & current

Proleague champions Liquid all knocked out. Liquid’s Nesk was competing as he officially became a father, the morale hit is understandable. The Korean Element Mystic, Japanese Nora-Rengo & Australian Fnatic still gave it their all, but the top dogs of EU & NA weren’t about to give in in groups.

G2 cleaved through the playoffs versus Millenium & Team Secret. With hometown heroes Vitality bowing out to Secret. In a tournament known now for boasting some of the most mid-games of a Siege event, Rogue vs Obey Alliance was a genuinely fun match to witness.

Bosco, Skys & Adam being fan favorites versing Rogue’s Geometrics & Easily, known also for their charisma & in-game antics. With Rogue winning the NA derby, and EG taking out NiP, the fight around who’s the best in NA was quickly settled with EG coming on top.

And finally, we had the G2 vs EG rematch from SI18, and EG was set on revenge. From a personal standpoint, getting to cast this match in Paris was a great experience. It was a shame then that EG practically rolled over to G2 who won 6-2 6-2 6-2 in the best

Of 5 final. To few people’s surprise, G2 might’ve faltered in Atlantic City, but they proved they were by far and away the best squad in Siege. And the champions of the first ever Siege Major When people talk about the G2 roster domination, they mean this one.

Pengu, Fabian, Joonas, Goga & Kantoraketti. Who at this point had cemented his spot on the team as a reliable spearhead guided by IGL Fabian, anchored by Pengu, with lurking from Joonas, and Goga’s insatiable hunger for defusers. With the Major complete, teams went back to the second half of the proleague season focused

On gaining their spots for Six Invitational 2019. And with a similar system to the Paris Major qualification, SI19 spots were split between Proleague, open qualifiers & minor events. The first of those minor events was Dreamhack Montreal in September. I’m gonna keep this one short.

NA teams at an NA event, big surprise. Brazil was kicked out in groups, and Millenium was prevented from repeating the fiasco at Austin in the semi-finals. Cloud 9 eventually takes the win vs Rogue. A great series, and a great story now with the lines blurring between the top teams in NA.

Cloud 9 as an organization joining Siege was huge news. They picked up the old beastcoast roster earlier in 2018, and had a huge fanbase given the personalities of Laxing, FoxA, Retro, marktheshark and, above all, Goddess. I want to talk about an important subject, now that I mentioned Goddess.

Over the years, Siege saw more and more women in player and coach positions. Goddess, was a forerunner, and so was now legendary coach Lyloun. Lun4, Marmalade and many more had played in open tournaments, Women’s tournaments, and most notably, Brazil’s unique Women’s circuit Circuito Feminino.

Sadly, there was a lot of animosity leveled against women who not only showed that they could compete, but thrive when they weren’t being screamed at in sexist tyrades be it in a ranked game or in a tournament.

It’s a shame that this was and still continues to be a reality for many Women in games. These sorts of actions are a clear violation of the mission statement of any tournament, and Ubisoft has been very clear with their anti-harassment actions taken against bigoted

Players on a day to day basis. With all the progress being made on this front, one thing I personally find lacking is an expansion of the women’s circuit into a global format for Rainbow 6. Valorant Gamechangers is a wonderful example

Of how important and necessary this is, but like I said, Brazil’s Circuito Feminino had done it first since July 2018. We have the infrastructure, we can do better. That issue aside, Proleague season 8 was about to reach its climax.

A big surprise for this event came in Mock-it esports, who, under veteran KS, snatched the 2nd place EU spot to become the first German speaking squad to compete at a proleague final. Despite this, Faze Clan’s experience was a massive edge for the Brazilians who were

Now playing with the legendary Cameraman on their squad, and netted them the quarter finals win. Under Cyber, Immortals had also surprised everyone by pushing current champions Team Liquid out of qualifying for the season 8 finals, proving once more that you cannot rest on your laurels for long, even in Brazil.

Rogue had gone in with high hopes, but Wokka proved to be too much of a threat to handle, and after an incredible Coastline, Nora Rengo had become the first ever APAC team to play in the semi-finals! They wouldn’t be the only ones however.

Fnatic had been forced to play with their coach Dizzle rather than their IGL Mag due to a medical emergency. This of course is a blow to any team’s hopes of victory, even with Dizzle having competed on Xbox at the very first Invitational.

A side effect of this is Fnatic no longer having any pressure from expectations. Definitely not the case for Evil Geniuses, who had faced one heartbreaking loss after another. For them, something had to change. Luckily enough, they were put against Fnatic in the quarter finals.

And yet somehow, with Dizzgod’s intervention, and an incredible runout from Acez on oregon, Fnatic shed the stress and just played for the fun of it, confusing EG into a loss. Despite both APAC squads being eliminated in the semi-finals, the progress made here

Was massive for the region, which picked up steam and was filled with hope for the future. A Faze G2 final pits giants of their own regions against one another. Mav & Fabian are known for their leadership and calm under fire.

Mav had actually played alongside people like Julio and Ninext for many years, even prior to Siege. But he had yet to lift a trophy, let alone in his home nation. So imagine this. You’re finally on stage. Surrounded by 10 thousand fans all chanting your name, in your colors.

The biggest arena Siege has ever seen, even to this day. You’re hopeful, but you’re also under massive amounts of pressure. The story goes that Faze messed up their map ban phase, and accidentally picked maps G2 were much more prepared for. Coastline was barely touched by the entire

Brazilian region, and with operator bans, Lion was yeeted out of the equation on Bank. It was an odd set of events, ones that no doubt impacted Faze’s performance as slowly but surely during the series, G2 tallied the rounds and had completed the final obstacle course of 2018.

They had avenged the loss in Atlantic City, and were once more Proleague champions. Thankfully, the pre-SI off season would be full of national tournament finals & challenger league. Let’s talk about those for a moment. If you recount earlier, since Siege’s day 1, National tournaments have been incredibly

Important. To further that truth, Ubisoft had enshrined the idea by promoting National tournaments all over the world. France, Germany, UK & Ireland, Thailand, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Middle east North Africa, the US, Canada, Brazil, Mexico and so many more, we are all represented in a

System that would eventually give the winners in the Pro circuit regions spots in Challenger League and other tournaments. It also meant that individuals that excelled in these tournaments would find themselves quickly rising the ranks into Challenger & even Proleague teams.

Obviously, the more nations you had in an area the more National tournaments you had in a region, but that wasn’t always the case. It’s true that be it Siege or any other esport, national tournaments can be very Eurocentric. Regardless, US Nationals were a unique tournament, since the format was heavily inspired by US

Sports’ East & West conferences, with weekly matches leading up to the most America themed event you can imagine. This first edition of USN had Rogue beat EG for the win, some welcome redemption for Rogue at this point. Challenger league also played a much bigger role in those days, since each Proleague season

Came with a Challenger League season that was played simultaneously as an actual weekly league, meaning that organizations have some exposure incentive to be part of the ecosystem. Also keeping in mind that Proleague relegations had the lowest rated squad eliminated for

The upcoming season, with the 7th place proleague team needing to defend their spot versus the 2nd place challenger league squad for the next PL season. In season 8, a certain Team Empire showed up as a blip on the radar. A blip so present it overshadowed every other team in CL.

They had also been crowned the #1 team in the Russian Major League, and first at the ESL Euro Cup versus the top National teams in Europe. Something was being cooked up. Anyways, one final event closed the 2018 season, and the last event spot for SI19.

As almost exclusively EU teams flocked to Sweden for Dreamhack Winter, a few surprises popped up. The Dutch Trust Gaming beat Team Liquid in the tournament’s opening game, and despite quick elimination, “fan favorites” Minigolfgutta were the talk of the town.

More faces from modern Siege are seen here. MnM Gaming came into the BYOC section with neLo, fonkers & of course, Doki. Chaos esports, the well known Dota 2 organization, also kept flying under everyone’s radar, be it at minor events or in EU proleague, just cruisin’.

Spacestation held 4th place after losing to Team Empire, with G2 defeating Penta insert Spiderman meme in the grand final. And since G2 had already qualified for SI19, led by Panix, Penta sports had broken incredible ground. With 2018 wrapping up, and the January qualifiers underway, everyone geared up for SI19.

Things were even more exciting with Ubisoft introducing the “Road to SI” in-game event, with tailored operator & weapon cosmetics, personally my favorite Siege artwork, and a “pro-settings” mode with the game & map pool used in Proleague.

This format would grow for SI20, 21 & 22 by adding a new map, Stadium, and a reworked version of it with all operators available to play during the event, even those you do not own. A great effort in trying to bridge the gap between the casual and competitive communities.

Even more so that the in-game purchases actually added to the Invitational’s prize pool to a limit, and overflow used to fund future tournaments, one more nod to Dota 2’s International. Siege hadn’t had the same venue treatment it did in Brazil outside of it. The Olympic

Jeunesse arena is huge, but if anything, it proved that Siege could pull in more attendees than anyone had expected until then. And so, with the power of foresight, the Invitational team had rented out Montreal’s 2nd largest arena. The Laval Rockets Place Bell, aka the hometown ice hockey heroes, the Canadiens’, farm team.

Once more in the dead of winter, Montreal was packed with staff, players, devs & 3.500 fans. Through the group stage, teams and matches looked quite even. Even APAC managed to send 2 teams to quarter finals, Fnatic & Nora Rengo, two incredibly charismatic squads.

NA came out on top with 3 out of 8 teams. NA’s finest in Evil Geniuses, Spacestation Gaming who had burst onto the scene with veteran Bosco, and Reciprocity, having picked up the Cloud 9 roster with the organization now eyeing up Korea. EU had only 2 teams despite joining SI19 with 5 in total.

Reigning World Champions G2 had comeback to defend the title, flanked by Team Empire, who were looking for a taste of glory after their first place runs in 2018’s smaller tournaments. And finally, LATAM pinned all of its hopes on Team Liquid, who only just made it past Mock-it in groups.

Unfortunately for Liquid, the Invitational trophy would evade them in Montreal, being knocked out in a close match versus Empire. Fnatic may have lost versus Nora Rengo, but the win was for the APAC region as a whole, this win and progress into the semifinals being a landmark victory for the region.

After the loss at US Nationals, EG started looking shaky in big games. This was the case here against Reciprocity. And now twice were EG wounded by an NA squad, and their spot on the podium taken away. The most dripped out team in the world, REC, had made it to the finals.

Continuing their undefeated streak vs NA, G2 took on Spacestation. SSG were widely considered the best at Clubhouse, but winning the one map in max OT didn’t protect them from G2 reversing the score and putting a 2nd EU team in the semis.

To the chagrin of fans, Nora Rengo were knocked out by Empire, with G2 making short work of Reciprocity. An all EU grand final with the defending champions facing the biggest rising stars yet to taste the pressures of Proleague? Count me in.

This best of 5 grand final was also the first best of 5 played with infinite overtime active on each map. Infinite overtime had yet to be tested in a live environment, but god damn did it deliver. If you looked at the match’s liquipedia page, the score would be deceptive.

Map 1 coastline would become the longest map in the history of Siege, with 22 rounds played, more than double the average total map score. G2’s 12-10 win on Coastline was hard fought to say the least, and despite Empire’s best efforts on Border, the less experienced squad

Suffered extreme exhaustion, and were outlasted by G2 who cashed it in on Bank with a resounding 7-1. At 3-0 they had done it. G2 was the first squad to ever win 2 Invitationals, and back to back. They were the undisputed champions of the World. The best team of individuals to ever touch

Rainbow Six Siege. The one and only dynasty. The Age of Empire (Age of empires music? – Age Of Empires II – Machina del Diablo) It’s tough to imagine an act to follow up the insanity of SI19, even when compared to SI18. From having a two time SI champion to the

Longest match in Siege’s history, we were honestly spoiled rotten. Europe was on a roll, APAC was climbing higher and higher up, Brazil’s always a whiff away from finals, and NA was in absolute turmoil, life was indeed in balance.

With G2 on top, it looked like they would continue the win streak forever, it was cool to hate them now since they just kept winning everything, they became the villains of the scene, infamous throughout esports. But as the story goes, there’s always a bigger fish, and you can’t rest on your

Laurels for long before someone else wants a piece of it. Remember the runners up of SI19? Team Empire? Yeah, the cyborg had been activated. Joystick and the squad tore through Proleague season 9, with only a G2 shaped speed bump

In the form of a 6-6 tie halting a perfect win record. Series ties were a new addition to the Best of 1 league scoring system for a different sort of twist to the 14 playday season that ran from January ‘till April.

It got so close at the top that G2 missed out on its first proleague finals since the team was formed 2 years ago. With that surprise, the notion sprang up among the NA base that EU was just G2 and nothing

More, that the Milan Proleague season 9 finals would be the redemption NA had waited for. Arriving in Milan, Evil Geniuses broke Brazil’s back vs Immortals and Faze, setting up shop in the grand final ready to take on any challenger, they were the rightful heirs of NA’s glory days after all.

And despite Darkzero & Fnatic’s best efforts, Team Empire surged past them to meet EG head on in the final. EG are full of confidence, they’ve studied every detail about Empire, the Russians were known for rigidity and a predictable but well practiced regime of play, you could even time

Their every move from one game to the next. EG took map 1, and now has the advantage on Oregon’s attacking side, a massive step towards a full blown victory. All they needed was a couple more rounds on Defense, it was in the bag, photographers

Surrounded Canadian to get the perfect winning money shot, there’s absolutely no way this can go wrong. *clip of Canadian on vigil* And that, my friends, was the turning point. Empire carried it through Oregon and on Clubhouse, a map they were notoriously incredible at, they took down Evil Geniuses, and dashed NA’s

Hopes of recovering a championship. They proved that EU wasn’t just G2, and that the talent pool Europe had created through many regional and national tournaments, whether community driven or explicitly supported by Ubisoft, was its key strength that would keep it competitive.

I neglected to mention one player on purpose here, see, everyone knew Joystick on Empire, but the MVP in numbers, gameplay and to Joystick himself, was the team’s new rookie, Dan. He was picked up mere days before the end of the regular proleague season, replacing

Shockwave ahead of the offline finals, and was incredibly successful at this true baptism by fire. On the entry fragger role, he would be shadowed by Joystick, where both would wreak havoc on opponents by opening up a round and allowing Joystick to get into power positions securing attacker round wins.

Empire had it all figured out, and they were hungry for a bigger trophy, hungry for a bigger kill, the cyborg eyed the Raleigh Major, and the reigning world champions, G2. Though before we get to Raleigh, let’s take a pitstop at the Minor events of summer 2019.

2 events headlined the off-season, the Allied esports Vegas minor, and Dreamhack Valencia. Teams were absolutely locked in for these because a win not only gave you cash, but more importantly, a spot at the Raleigh Major. Understandably, every team that hadn’t qualified yet signed up in full spirits.

The Allied esports Minor took place in June, and saw Team Secret take the Major spot, and the event overall showing a strong EU performance and readiness for all regions with 3 of the top 4 from EU.

A month later in Valencia, It was the North-American squad of Rogue that took the spot for Raleigh, a breath of fresh air for the region and tournament results as a whole, with Dreamhack showing a good mix of performance from all regions except for APAC.

I would note that Cloud9 from Korea was close to escaping the group stage, and the Japanese Father’s back were a big surprise attendee since they’re mostly made up of massive Japanese content creators, unfortunately their performance wasn’t much to write home about.

A final point is that the mostly Francophone LeStream, that came from Millenium after the organisation folded its esports operations, saw itself orgless once more as LFO. Thankfully that sad situation didn’t last long, and they were picked up with Giants Gaming ahead of their participation in the Raleigh major. So, let’s get to it.

Much like the Six Major Paris 2018, the big prize is not just the trophy and the money, but a one way ticket to Six Invitational 2020 in Montreal. Spacestation Gaming received a direct invitation to the Major being an American team at an

American event, and in what seems odd to us now, Brazil only received 3 slots. Despite the regional team number split, only SSG, Faze & TSM made it out of groups, with 5 EU squads awaiting in the quarter finals.

If anything, it was a massive heartbreak for teams like Rogue, Evil Geniuses & Nora Rengo, to not make a deeper run at the Major after impressive performances in the past year. Regardless, I remember the semi-finals had me in pure glee.

Look, I’m an EU fanboy through and through if that wasn’t already obvious, It’s where I got my start in esports, so it was good to see all 4 semi finalists from EU. Forze surprised everyone in Raleigh and showed great promise with P4sha as MVP, even more

That they were still in Challenger League, awaiting season 10’s relegations. Yeah, they were a CL team. That’s how good the EU grassroots scene was. And seeing a happy Team Secret was infectious, a great story for the rising Fonkers & Ferral pushing Team Empire to the limit.

And here we are. The winners of the Milan season 9 finals got exactly what they wanted. Dan & Joystick’s dream game is upon them. They get to face G2 at their best and most prepared. Uuno, the newest Finnish addition to the squad, brought even more calm to the team.

His role centered around a flex/support, with a heavy emphasis on callouts & clear comms. So much so that Pengu would describe him with “when Uuno dies, we know we’re gonna get the best callouts from cams, he’s better dead that most players are alive”

A G2 known for adaptability and constant evolution, versus an Empire that repeated a pattern hundreds of times so well they became impossible to dislodge. Border gave Empire the lead, but only just, with their attacking side meshing well with an aggressive map at 7-5 Kafe passed the edge and hit Overtime for

A 8-6 win as G2 tied the series Unfortunately for G2, they ran out of steam after Empire took Clubhouse on yet another OT point, and in a sick twist of fate, and in some way, revenge for SI’s Coastline, it all ended on a one sided Coastline.

From being a minor EU team, to Challenger League winners, runners up at SI, Proleague champions in Milan, and now, having flipped the script on G2, Team Empire are the Raleigh Major champions. An absolutely meteoric rise. I talked about Dan & Joystick in Milan, but here in Raleigh it was open season for support

Players and receiving constant praise for their incredible in-game performance, ShepparD showed that he could anchor like no one else can, he had supplanted Goga at being the best Goga in the world, the best Thermite money could buy. The fallout from Raleigh was massive, EU reigned supreme but that can’t stand anymore, the

Path needed to be laid again. After the storm from the roster shuffle died down, the time to test their results came in the form of Dreamhack Montreal in September, the last Dreamhack event in the pro tour Siege would have.

Being an NA event, most participating teams were from said region, you could after all sign up for free with a time advantage for Proleague & CL teams, but you had to pay for your trip unlike how events like Majors & Proleague finals work.

Despite this, there was one stand out story. Remember that French guy Shaiiko? That still plays for BDS? Well, his ban period had expired in June, and despite failures in the Major qualifier, we were about to see him play on lan, against G2, against Pengu, and they were drawn into the same group.

Yeah, It was gonna be hyped to hell and back. G2 whacked BDS in the opening game but in the decider match BDS took it right back even harder. With Shaiiko as their spearhead, BDS only bowed out in the semi-finals vs the eventual winners TSM, and took 3rd place by beating EG.

Yes, Liquid & TSM topped the bracket for Brazil & NA, but EU had a brand new challenger on the horizon in BDS, and just like Forze, they weren’t even a Proleague team, Regardless, TSM had the win, they were going to SI2020, and the prodigy that is Beaulo,

The streamer and content creator that had just turned 18, led a shining way forward for NA as MVP of the event. Small tidbit here, Beaulo was signed with TSM on June 16th 2019, 3 days before officially turning 18 on June 19th. Bonus points for

Those listening that can guess on what team Beaulo played when he was a minor, and what event they played at. Leave it down below in the comments. It was time for season 10. Look, when an esports event is announced to be in Japan, everyone and their mother wants

To qualify to go for that reason alone. Tokoname is a cute little pottery town with a massive airport island connecting Nagoya to the world. Who would’ve thought that said Island would house an enormous convention center who’s building was completed a couple of weeks prior to the event?

The theme was fresh, new, hip, and even the new convention center radiated it I rizzed up so many teams from every single region coming out of season 9. But what If I told you that absolutely none of them would qualify to the season 10 finals?

Well, G2 & Empire flunked the course to Challenger League newcomers NaVi & Giants Gaming’s ex-Le Stream pickup. In NA, Darkzero finally pulled it together during an important game and went along with Team Reciprocity that had also sobered up and clinched a spot over EG despite being

Tied in points, all through winning the head-to-head points matchup. LATAM sent forth Faze Clan for another finals run after their harrowing match versus G2 in Brazil, and Ninjas in Pyjamas, who unfortunately due to visa issues, had to fly in 2 Spanish

CL players that made it to Tokoname a few hours before their match kicked off. And Finally, APAC brought up 2 incredibly promising lineups in Wildcard, true fresh blood in the ANZ scene, and Aerowolf – fielding what would be considered at the time the best players in Singapore.

Like I said, this event was mostly a clean slate, with rookies and newcomers sticking it to the old guard. With everyone stacked up in Tokoname and ready to play, any ideas of tourism around Japan had to leave your head immediately. Your home during the event is the practice room and

The stage, discipline is key with so many young talents in the mix. Faze gave DZ a hell of a run for their money but NA had figured out the recipe to beating Brazil by now, and despite being 2 players down, NiP still put immense pressure on Reciprocity

Who got the win but in doing so revealed their weaknesses. At this event the meme of “forever ¼ finalists” would hang over Giants’ heads as Aerowolf had immense backing from the crowd, and with that moved on to the semis vs Darkzero where

Again the NA team took charge and had a spot in the grand final for the first time. This was a massive achievement, DZ’s doubters were many since they repeatedly lost their hunger when the stakes were highest. On the other side of the bracket, Wildcard almost pulled a surprise win but NaVi stabilized,

In my mind, this was probably the best play of the entire event: *Insert NeLo ace on coastline* Reciprocity cut it close in the semis but the win slipped away from their hands. NaVi somehow kept coming back, and showed incredible tenacity.

The All American DZ had one more task ahead of them, win 1 game and bring NA’s legacy back, bring it finally home. Unfortunately for NA, the plucky little NaVi weren’t looking to back down from a fight, they’ve always had to fight against the odds, what’s one more game?

High stakes? That’s the time when Darkzero falters, and that’s exactly what happened. NaVi pulled a story not too dissimilar to Team Empire. From UKI Nationals, to Challenger League, EU proleague and season 10 champions. The lads had walked the golden road that Empire trotted along less than a year prior.

NeLo & CTZN emerged as highlight players from Tokoname, NeLo for his calm collected demeanor not unlike the legend Shatte, and CTZN for being a spearhead that could win any gunfight. One more player to note here is Doki, or the lack of Doki at this event despite being on

The NaVi roster. Well our Scottish friend got into a wee bit of trouble just before the season finals with a ban for in-game toxicity, a sentence he served from home, watching his teammates lift the trophy in Japan. 2019 was wrapping up quickly, and SI2020 was nearing.

With so many big name teams having missed the Tokoname finals, many of them had to roll up to the last event in the global esports calendar in the hopes of grabbing the 1st place SI20 spot, bypassing the coin toss ordeal that is the SI open qualifiers.

Probably the biggest announcement leading up to the event was Spacestation Gaming picking up NA legend Canadian, a man reported as being “old as shit” but still good with a UMP. Aside from that, Goga had left the G2 squad and was replaced by German up and comer Cryn

Who had impressed through his performance under MockIt esports & later Orgless. At this point, you might be surprised to know that G2 were not qualified for the next Invitational. And with 2020 coming up fast, there was only a handful of ways left to make it to Montreal.

First up was the OGA Pit season 3 finals. I neglected to mention the OGA series earlier, since there were so many National & Unofficial events and tournaments that this video would easily double in size trying to fit them in. In any case, OGA, the Croatian tournament

Organizer mostly known for its broadcasts in Dota 2, had been running online tournaments for different regions, attracting all levels of teams to compete for extra cash, practice and glory. They had partnered with Ubisoft at this point to put together an officially sanctioned tournament for a spot at SI20, a hefty prize.

And actually, G2 wasn’t the only heavy hitter not set for SI20 yet, Liquid, Nora-rengo & Spacestation, who all had been present the year prior, still needed a spot. Despite Liquid winning the SI spot in Split, Spacestation Gaming & MIBR’s performance

Was so good that they couldn’t be ignored for serious contenders at SI, should things go their way in the regional last chance qualifiers in January. The Gilded Age With nationals wrapped up, SI2020 LCQs chewed and spat out hundreds of teams. Left standing were, big surprise, Spacestation Gaming, MIBR, BDS & Fnatic.

They joined the 11 other teams that had qualified through Proleague, Minors, & the Raleigh Major. I’m not great at MAFS, but we’re still short a team for 16. Lo and behold, the one team invited to the INVITATIONAL, is none other than former World

Champions, G2 esports. Now having become akin to the sick man of Europe after a disappointing year. This was also the first Major tournament with a double elimination bracket. Meaning that you’d have to lose twice in the playoffs bracket to be knocked out, something Siege fans weren’t used to at this point.

LATAM actually kicked off with a weak start to the tournament. Only Ninjas in Pyjamas & MIBR had made it past the group stage, and they were quickly kicked down to the lower bracket. Doubts quickly took over the conversation around Brazil’s chances here.

G2 stumbled against Fnatic, a massive upset, and in my opinion the nail in the coffin of the prideful G2 roster. TSM on the other hand had improved massively since their Dreamhack Montreal win. Geometrics & Pojoman kept the roster cool under fire, Beaulo kept swinging, Achieved

Was a rock hard flex, and Merc in my mind was the best Maverick player at this point. In that time, Maverick didn’t have as many canisters as nowadays, and mastering his Suri torch took lots of time and skill most players, even at this level, didn’t put in.

The other 2 NA teams in the upper bracket, Darkzero and Spacestation, had also succeeded in their games versus BDS & MIBR respectively, but going up against one another it was SSG that won out. Let’s just say that Canadian’s attitude

During games is such a sight to behold, I can’t even imagine what it’s like to play by his side and just embrace that energy, it’s addictive. (Canadian screaming clip) Up next we got a hell of a nailbiter. TSM faced SSG in front of an NA crowd, so

You bet there were many “let’s go X team” chants baby. The series’ operator bans alone were a cornucopia of selection, with both squads constantly adapting to one another round after the next. It genuinely felt like we already had a grand final game in the semis.

SSG’s experience was the real upperhand however, and with that they were all set for the grand final. In the lower bracket however, there was a little rumble. NiP, the squad that kept getting knocked out and dealt bad hand after the next had somehow carved their way through G2, DZ, BDS AND TSM.

To say that the comeback energy was behind the Brazilian squad is an understatement. Back to the tournament format once more. SI20 wasn’t only a double elimination bracket format, but also gave me the upper bracket finalist a free map win. This was pretty controversial

Given that the lower bracket squad had also played a full Best of 3 series a couple of hours prior to the final. So, SSG walk into the final with a 1 map advantage, all fresh. But NiP had warmed up with a worthy opponent in TSM, and immediately proceed to take Villa

& Border for a 1-2 score. SSG were on the back ropes here, and had to rely on their best map Clubhouse for a win. And let me tell you how absolutely incredible SSG were on Clubhouse. The Mute/Mozzie Clubhouse roam SSG had pioneered made them untouchable on the map with a multi-month win streak.

Despite NiP’s newcomer Pino hitting some of the nuttiest SMG-11 shots, SSG took their beloved map. This seemed to have a big impact on NiP’s psyche. The squad looked distraught. And the exhaustion finally ate at them on Bank. Spacestation Gaming, who found their footing in 2019, had won the biggest prize of them

All. Canadian now held the repeat World Champion title. And much to the chagrin of EU shills like me, NA was back on top. And god damn were they good. And not to worry, NiP had gotten close, they weren’t about to give up.

This was the final stretch however, with Ubisoft announcing Faceit as the next tournament organizer, and a complete overhaul to the esports program starting in June. Siege had had its best year, an insane amount of tournaments on every scale, and every region

Had a challenger to the throne. We were on top of the World. The great depression From the point of view of someone who was there, in the middle of it all, I consider being on Stage at SI2020, lights flooding the arena, chants shaking the stands, and

A new direction in Siege’s identity as a game and as an esport, as a highlight of my career and the “early modern era” as a whole. From Nationals, to regionals, to challenger league meaning something, minors, proleague, Majors, SI .. You always had something to look forward to in the circuit that led to

The next big event. Each studio show and event felt like a link in the chain. The incredible happiness and glee we felt that February cannot be described. With Faceit taking over a more proprietary vision for Ubisoft, it was all about saying

Goodbye to the incredible workers at ESL that fell more and more in love with the game as the years went by. I learned a lot thanks to them, and I’m happy to say that whenever I’m with them, It feels like a massive family reunion.

To you, my Polish, Swedish, German etc, friends at ESL, you know yourselves, thank you for your work & friendship. This era was set to end with season 11 of Proleague, with finals held in Sao Paulo Brazil, a city in a nation that loves Siege like almost no other. *play covid news clips*

At the time, I lived in Poland, one of the first European countries to shut down events and airports in early March. Having just returned from SI, hearing that IEM Katowice, the event my colleagues spent months preparing and executing, was canceled by the regional governor was a clear sign

That offline events will be out of the question for a while. And so we closed out season 11 casting from home, each one of us in a different country, with hastily put together remote setups, being as quiet as possible as to not wake up the

Neighbors at 4 am on a school night during lockdown. Matches this season were generally alright, but teams didn’t play their hearts out for what I feel are many reasons. From the season having no finals, to a split prize pool, and

The general deterioration of people’s mental health in this time, nobody had a clue what we were in for and for how long we’ll have to keep it up. The focus was clear, the show must go on, and now more than ever with media and entertainment

Being for many an important thread of sanity in a world who’s image had just shattered. Queue Faceit. The new tournament organizer started with a couple of special charity events filling in until the start of the new League system. European Open Clash, which pitted Proleague & Nationals teams against one another, saw

An impressive Virtus Pro, lead by P4sha, rise to the top, having worked on their team cohesion and discipline from their days as Forze. Another event was Rainbow Six Classics. A pretty cool idea building up on the most nostalgic games of Siege esports.

It brought together old rosters that hadn’t played together in ages, and gave us rematches like OG Penta vs ENCE, the 2 regional rivals in EU, and Nora Rengo vs Fnatic in APAC. These two official events, alongside other charity events like Gamers without Borders,

Were a great warmup for the main course. The new League system. Alright, let’s break down what changed. Especially since the basic structure survives to this day and serves as the skeleton for current Siege esports, at least as of December 2023.

The Global regions remained the same as before, with EU, NA, LATAM & APAC. And the competitive season would now be an entire year, from the end of an SI until the end of the next one. With 3 stages, each culminating in a Major international event in May, August & November.

Obviously these events would be paused during lockdowns, to be replaced by regional finals. Each stage and Major would dole out SI points, the top 16 team globally in the amount of points in the bank would qualify to SI, with 4 more joining through each region’s qualifier.

Speaking of regions, the biggest change was the addition of subregions. EU would remain one, but NA would see the formation of the US & Canada divisions. Two sister divisions (with one being a bit more loved than the other), qualifying teams into stage finals.

LATAM would be split into 3. Brazil, Mexico & South-America for all other nations in the region. Top regional teams compete in Copa Elite Six for SI points and for spots at the upcoming Major. And finally, APAC would be split in half, North & South, with North encompassing Japan,

Korea, South-east Asia & Taiwan, and South with Australia, New Zealand and, for the first time ever, the Indian subcontinent in the South Asia Nationals. Loads of technical stuff to unpack here I know, but this was a pretty important step towards opening up the global esport circuit to more and more underrepresented regions.

On a gameplay front, a strict 20 second meta dominated the airwaves, even more so with Wamai and Melusi joining the defenders roster. Games would sometimes slow down until those final seconds as teams looked overly cautious. In some regions, APAC north especially, Finka

Saw lots of play as her LMG and grenades could open up a site and help pinch in no time. Prime real estate in this meta. With planned offline Majors being turned into regional stage finals, it’s online that everyone could grab their SI points for 2021.

From a more personal point of view, hosting the opening of the brand new Ubisoft studio in Paris, especially during such a tough period, was a great sigh of relief after being cooped up at home away from the professional crew & equipment I sort of got used to.

It’s a different feeling when everyone can just throw their ideas around a literal table than it is having discord calls, even more so when you’re spending 40 hours a week on broadcast. And I really just want to take a moment to appreciate the MASSIVE effort the players,

Production, league operations, management, social media & talent teams put in, to bring people as much competitive Siege as is humanly possible. It truly was a Herculean effort. A small mention here. Ubisoft had announced the Rainbow 6 World Cup in September 2020, with a detailed format for national selections and global representation

For July 2021. Unfortunately this event and the entire process were moved to 2022, and later canceled all together. At the end of the year, regional finals were the big spotlight since they occupied their own space and time, away from the regular schedule viewers had gotten used to.

In BDS vs G2, Virtue, who had moved from Australia to Germany to play for G2 right before lockdowns, hit his famous toe shot save on Theme Park, and showed excellent Yokai drone hatch juggle on Consulate. Beaulo popping off on TSM, but also Merc’s

Incredible precision torchwork on Maverick. Liquid’s dominating run with Paluh as MVP in Brazil. And Giants’ run in APAC shield headed by Lunarmetal on Montagne. But with no way to tell who really was king Internationally, everyone eyed 2021 hoping for a return to form.

And despite SI21 being canceled, Ubisoft was thankfully able to move it to Paris for May instead of the planned February in Montreal, as had been tradition. Teams had to wait slightly longer, but there was light at the end of the tunnel.

Those who had already qualified to SI21 didn’t have to put their hopes on the line during stage 1 of the 2021 season, as this stage’s SI points counted towards SI22. So let’s set this up. It’s May 2021. There have been no offline esports events

For 14 months. Everyone’s been cooped up at home trying to keep it together. And finally we have the chance to enjoy a Siege event. Viewers can’t attend the event in person of course, but players from all over the world will fight for the privilege of lifting the hammer.

20 Teams were set to travel to Paris. Squads were split into two groups A & B, with 10 teams in each. Group B however ended up with 8 as hopefuls Virtus Pro & Australian heavy hitters Wildcard being unable to attend due to a positive PCR test result and to travel restrictions respectively.

The top 4 of each group had an automatic leg up by being seeded directly into the upper bit of a double elimination bracket, only 3 wins away from the grand final, unlike the lower bracket that played twice as many games, on top of being open to knock out with one loss.

For the last squads, Cyclops & Giants, it was elimination in the group stage. Speaking of outliers, Parabellum & Mkers had broken new ground here. PB was the first ever Canadian squad to play Internationally, and Mkers the first Italians to do so as well. If you ask me, between these two teams and

Bigger orgs bringing in more and more new talent, I felt like 2021 was going to be huge for young up and comers. We were witnessing the changing of the guard first hand. Anywho, It didn’t take long to eliminate EU’s hopes of a win with BDS & Empire knocked

Out in 3 games. MIBR, with Felipox showing himself a reliable back line, took it all the way to 3rd place, a huge sign of progress. I’d say substantial part of that built up cohesion is due to coach Budega, who would continue his career to this day in North-America.

Look, Brazil in general was demolishing everyone. They actually spent the past year or so practicing hard, using their local tournaments and unique lan environments to get 10 steps ahead of every other region. MIBR, Faze, NiP & Liquid all flanked the remaining NA hope in TSM & OXG until they were no more.

Liquid had actually lost to MIBR in the upper bracket, but kept bouncing back off the back of Paluh, all the way to the grand final, after getting their revenge on MIBR. NIP vs Team Liquid. The best Brazil had to offer. Head to head. NiP were walking in with a map win as was

The case with SSG last year, with Liquid also tired from their match vs MIBR earlier. A bit of context here. Julio had never won a trophy at this point, like ever at any tournament ever. Even in his Battlefield 4 days the man always came second to the dominant Fnatic.

This was his best shot yet, even more so than at SI20. Paluh had a more tragic story. The boy wonder, and man with one of the biggest loving hearts I’ve ever met, had lost his father the day before. Despite his loss, Paluh put on an incredible show.

Liquid lost Kafe but quickly bounced back on Chalet & Clubhouse. Unfortunately for the seahorses clad in white & blue, NiP put up an incredible 6 consecutive Defense rounds on consulate, and their fate was quickly sealed. After years of trials & tribulations. Loss after loss in the early stages of a tournament.

And a close call in Montreal. Julio & the squad had made the dream come true. NiP had won an Invitational. Brazil had been redeemed. It was the dawn of a new era. One we still live in to this day. Siege had signed the pact of .. Ordem e Progresso

NiP, and Brazil’s overall success at SI21 had ushered in a new age in Siege esports. Let’s not forget that the entire LATAM region had been overhauled with the new League system. Copa Elite Six from 2016 had been revived, and used as a blanket to see who the best

Are in Central & South America. Brazil carried the biggest weight. But for the first time ever Mexico & the general South-American region were able to send the top 4 of their 10 representatives to Majors & earn SI points. And for the next Major in Mexico, it was Brazil to send all 4 representatives.

However, alongside finalists NiP & Team Liquid came relative unknowns in Team One and Furia Esports. Two squads that had been formed only a year or so prior now swiped spots from veterans like Faze Clan & MIBR. It proves yet again that you can never be safe at the top

The Knights weren’t able to travel from Australia, and in general ANZ would have to wait until the November Major for a real shot. Back in Mexico City however, things were getting complicated in Group A. I haven’t talked much about specific groups at these events because we’d be here for

Days, but this specific time something absolutely unexpected happened. Team One & Cyclops were tied after playing all of their games. And went to a tiebreaker match in which Team One clawed a 7-4 win thanks to massive effort from Lagonis, better known as LaGOATnis.

Let’s follow that Team One thread. They knock out Darkzero in quarters, go up against regional giants & SI runners up Liquid, and smash them 7-0 on Consulate for a spot in the grand final. In the meantime, Team Empire & BDS, who had barely scraped by against SSG & Furia respectively,

Faced each other in the semis. This game was yet another case of having a grand final quality match play out in semis. Watching Consulate at 3 in the morning was one of the most butt clenching experiences in recent memory. Truly worth you going back and watching it in full.

And in max overtime, it was Empire that took the win for the second spot in the grand final. This time, there was no upper bracket and no map advantage for any team in the best of 5 grand final. Clubhouse, Chalet & Consulate were relatively one sided affairs, with only Coastline pushing

It to Overtime. Unfortunately for Empire & Europe, Team One, despite being green in comparison, eked out a 7-1 slaughter on Villa to end the series 3-2. No one could believe it. The squad that had been formed only 5 months ago had defeated regional and international giants.

Crawling out of the group stage by the skin of their teeth, Team One had walked the golden road, and were now Major Champions. Brazil 2 – Everyone else 0. Before we get to the Gaevle Major, there’s something heavy we need to talk about.

Earlier in 2021, the EU scene had lost a beloved up and comer, Next1, to covid. He had shown major promise and his work ethic was praised by both teammates & opponents. Your memory remains strong in the German & European community as a whole. You know this was also coming.

On the wee hours of October 13th in Europe, I was woken up by a call. It was Parker Mackay, Interro, calling me. I picked up the phone, groggy and surprised by the ring. With a shaky voice, a sniffle and a definite tear, Parker informs me that whilst returning

Home the night before, Michael, Kixstar, had passed away in a car accident. We were both in disbelief. Michael had not just been a colleague or a neighbor, he was our confidant, someone we even saw as our own little son or brother

That we took care of until he was shining so bright in Mexico. The man we spent countless days and nights together with all over the world was gone. I had an APAC broadcast a few hours later. I didn’t really sleep.

I was told not to inform anyone outside of certain management until a couple of hours prior to the public announcement. I kept my cool through the show and the content session. Then I called in the talent team into a meeting in the green room.

Delivering the news was the most difficult thing I had done up to that point in my life. We screamed. We cried. We went home. We took time off to mourn. Rest in Peace buddy, we’re still asking “why does Constantinople get the works”.

But I tell you, I know Kix would have said “What the hell are you doing Ghassan, we have a show to do”. And god damn it, we did. It was time for the Gaevle Major, and for the first of many times, the crew took off

For Sweden. A location change away from the planned event in Asia due to the pandemic. Finally in Sweden, all regions were fully represented and stocked up this time around. In a cute repurposed factory in a cute little town, some of the most impactful Siege would be played.

In a massive turn of events, both Korean squads, Sandbox & Damwon Kia had gotten out of groups. They were quickly pitted against one another in the quarter finals, no clue how that happened *cough* – and with a swift strike, DK were the first Korean & APAC team to play in an

International tournament semi-finals since Nora-Rengo’s rise at SI19. After the loss in Mexico, NiP were out for blood. They tore through Group C, and through SSG & Rogue for a spot in the final. Rogue made a surprise appearance, after what seemed to be a bit of a dysfunctional team.

Yet somehow they beat TeamOne, to later bow out to NiP. What really mattered to them was getting to the semi-finals, that would guarantee Rogue a spot at SI22, the next step on the calendar. Mission accomplished I’d say. Stage theming at Siege events had popped off since the Proleague finals in Milan in 2019.

And here in Gaevle it was no different. A Nordic Vikingr theme presided over the Major, full of mysticism, and with a massive tree of life in the center of the arena. Yet again, we had a semi-final for the ages.

Faze & DK quickly did away with Chalet & Bank, but despite yass’s best efforts, and the incredible flex Rin being put into a legendary 1v1 on Overtime match point, Soulz delivered the final blow, and took Faze into yet another all Brazilian final against NiP.

Faze started by smashing NiP 7-1 on Coastline. But the Ninjas retaliated on Chalet and especially Villa, where we had our first extended Overtime since G2 vs Empire at SI19 at 11-9. Sadly for NiP, Cyber had gone mental, absolutely stacking up kills on the board to the point

That they ran out of breath on Bank & Kafe. With that, Faze were crowned Major Champions. After years of close but no cigar, Faze had finally done it and collected a trophy for their up ‘till then empty case at home.

While the entire player squad of Astro, Cameraman, Soulz, Cyber & Bullet are excellent at what they do, big praise was given to coach Ramalho for keeping the team’s mentality in check, and preparing them for the trials of modern Siege over the past year. Brazil 3 – Everyone else 0

The crown had been passed around between the top Brazilian squads over the past year, they were the undisputed best region after all. NiP, Faze, Team One & Liquid were an inspiration to every team in the world. Work hard enough and with time, you’ll make it happen.

With the year wrapped up, all eyes turned to Invitational 2022. A never ending Revolution SI22 was planned to come back to Montreal after 2 years away. Unfortunately, restrictions due to the pandemic were still in place, and that unfortunately forced Ubisoft & TO ESL to move the show all the way to Stockholm Sweden.

It was genuinely a massive undertaking pulling off something like this with how the state of the world was and the short window of time given. This time, all 20 participating teams would attend the event. They were split into 4 groups of 5 each, where the 5th placed team would be eliminated.

The bracket was back to the double elimination format, however with changes I believe were for the best: Gone is the map advantage in the grand final, with the upper bracket team’s biggest advantage being coming fresh into a match, as opposed to the lower bracket team having to play a

Qualification match on the same day as the final. Additionally, the top team from each group would be placed “only” 3 wins away from the grand final, whereas every other team would have to go through 4 to 6 matches.

This means that viewers got a boatload of games round the clock, with an enormous variety of interregional matchups. Coming into SI, Alemao, Team One’s most flamboyant (and arrogant) player, was touting the line of “the last dance”. A reference to the fact that this would be his final run

With this squad. Who knew where he would end up. Well, Team One was immediately eliminated in Group D, joining BDS who played with their coach in this event, Cyclops and Sandbox at the airport. A massive surprise were Furia & Damwon Kia, who both topped their groups that included

Heavy hitters like TSM & OXG. It’s also in the lower bracket that Elevate’s Onigiri, one of the best players to come out of APAC, had tied the map kill record set by Paluh at 27. Crucially, this would be the highest recorded at a Major event.

Over the past few months, a certain fog had descended upon APAC teams. Damwon Kia especially, who I mentioned had topped their group, looked indestructible. That’s where Soniqs come in. Led by the IGL with the biggest brains & the

Smallest kill death ratio Supr, Soniqs tore through Elevate & Damwon off the back of a Kanzen clutch, the Korean squad especially was so exposed that they were an easy finish for OXG. Soniqs would later bow out to Faze clan only 2 games away from the final.

In general, NA teams were performing to a very high standard at this SI. Aside from Team Empire, EU was a massive disappointment. Empire then had its biggest test versus TSM in the upper bracket final. TSM had narrowly crossed past NiP, Furia & Liquid, proving to be an effective net against Brazil.

However, that same mix of minute strategy and play for picks TSM was so good at failed against Empire. But yet again TSM systematically dismantled Faze to collect all of the Brazil infinity stones and prepared for revenge against Empire. The final opened on Clubhouse, Empire’s home turf.

And yet TSM pulled a win in Overtime. Same went for Kafe. It looked dire for Empire. The Russians pulled it back on Oregon in a close Overtime, but it’s on Villa where history would be made. Jason Doty, as Beaulo’s civilian name goes, had played his first Proleague match in June

2019 versus SSG on Villa. 1.5 years later, it’s on that very same map that the content creator turned pro would silence all critics. TSM were World Champions. It’s important to note that success like TSM’s doesn’t come from one individual.

Achieved & Merc had been constantly trying to outdo one another on the scoreboard in every game. Geo was a solid rock and an important part of keeping team spirits high. Chala had been dismissed by doubters all the way back in 2018. He proved them all wrong and became an integral part of successful

Rosters like SSG’s in NA. And the legendary Pojoman (digest when?) counted on Daeda & Gotcha to give this squad everything it needed for ultimate victory. TSM had beaten the best every region could offer, especially Brazil. The counter was reset. Honestly, 2022 passed by like a blur for me.

It was incredibly invigorating seeing Siege return to its heights despite the clear impact the pandemic had had on the workflow and event schedule. Past SI and through Stage 1, there were quite a few regional shifts. Astralis & Xset had burst onto the top 4 of the NA scene.

Iconic, J9O, Yoggah, Kyno and legitimately every player on the 2 squads were a massive injection of fresh blood and ideas into the NA scene to push it forward past TSM’s win at SI. G2 had also been remade, with Alemao, Doki, Virtue, CTZN & Prano – a big but necessary

Shift in the team to move past the slump in 2021. Also, the old Vitality roster that had split with Fabian were still looking for an organization to represent until being picked up by Wolves Esports, part of the Wolverhampton football team. Another EU entry was Heroic. They had a squad

In 2021, but the biggest shift was the Norwegian org picking up the much beloved Cowana Gaming of Gorgona, Grizzly, Sloth and the big hitters of Uuno and the big prospect Benjamaster. And finally for EU, tragedy struck as Team Empire’s roster was dropped out of nowhere.

Yeah, the 2nd rated team in the World, and a top contender in Europe was just gone. The squad would fracture and split among VP & a new Empire, but those org names would be dropped altogether with restrictions being placed on Russia. (Obviously, not a topic to get into here)

W7M had also been reformed with Jv92 & Volpz, but even more so Team One. With Alemao departing, a new roster with Dotz, Dash, Rhz, Maia, most of them fresh into competition in 2020, rallying behind Lagonis. The next event would be held in Charlotte, North Carolina. A perfect follow up to SI

With a hometown American crowd cheering on the NA teams, it’s a great motivator if anything. Of course, this was to be the first in venue Siege event with fans and the works since SI2020. A couple of asterisks for Charlotte: US visas are notoriously time consuming when applying in many countries.

Elevate weren’t able to secure their own in time. Neither could quite a few players from Furia, W7M & Team One. It’s an unfortunate reality when you’re born in many parts of the world, that no matter how many resources or how much time you have to prepare, visas, especially to the USA,

Are incredibly unpredictable. You can’t just pop down to the shop for a visa, and as someone who collected 17 of them since 2010 due to my horrendous Lebanese passport, I know that reality all too well. Ubisoft and Faceit put together a stop gap where teams would be able to play from Mexico

If they weren’t able to enter the US, to at least be closer to the action, in the hopes that paperwork would be resolved by the time the playoffs rolled around. Unfortunately geography and distance played a huge role in hampering teams & lowering their morale, although Team One was able to pass the groups.

However, to say that NA teams were off to the races would be an understatement. Despite Liquid, G2 & BDS’s success in groups, OXG, Darkzero, Xset and especially Astralis were on an absolute tear. Astralis’ game vs Xset had the crowd go wild. A close game with figures that have

Actual personalities that interacted with the audience. And once more, Iconic was just insane. Enough to push Astralis past Xset AND OXG, who themselves eliminated BDS, and sat squarely in the final. Darkzero played a very awkward game versus Team One.

The Brazilians had shown up with 3 of the 5 players, and 2 cardboard cutouts of their comrades that couldn’t make it to the US. DZ were blindsided by this in map 1, but got back into shape to take the win, and repeat the story versus Liquid.

It was plain to see, NA had figured out the Brazil gameplan. This DZ Astralis final is a clear cut Old guard versus the new. And even in that case, Darkzero had actively recruited fresh talent since 2020. A max Overtime Villa gave Astralis the lead. But DZ fired back on Club & Border.

Only to be tied back on Oregon. I’m gonna call this the banana buff, NJR had the whole convention center cheering him on eating a banana, which is the best thing ever. Turns out, that’s exactly what Darkzero needed. Bank was a walkover. NJR with the potassium buff led DZ to victory,

And Canadian to his first Major trophy. Hyper had been playing for years including NA mousesports & early DZ. NJR had his start with Arial Arise in NA CL & CCS. And Panbazou was discovered only a year prior to this Major victory.

NA had it going on, and they weren’t about to let it go so easily. And heading into the next stop on the esports calendar, the August Berlin Major, it was on every other region to change it up. The biggest change came in the roster swap for Rogue.

We talked about Beaulo and his arc, but it’s here that a new Challenger burst onto the scene. Spoit, the Swedish wonderboy content creator, had just turned 18 and was picked up by Rogue after their stage 1 roster shuffle. The squad had been rebuilt around Spoit as spearhead, with legend Kantoraketti, in and

Out of server muscle man Cryn, IGL & flex Leongids, and probably the best Dutch player Deapek. The young talent was flanked by 4 incredibly experienced players, with Meepey & Saethus as coach & analyst, and even a mental coach in the LEC renowned Bernadette.

Also in Europe, MnM gaming had risen into the top 4. The squad led by neLo started in Autumun 2021 as UKIN champions, then Challenger League, to qualifying for SI22, and now had gotten a shot at a Major event.

Over in NA, Soniqs had held on to their top 4 spot despite Darkzero’s best attempts. SSG was in a slump and working to reform, so they were out of commission for a while. And finally, in APAC, Indonesian hopefuls, Gaimin Gladiators, had burst onto the International

Scene out of nowhere after causing havoc in APAC South. To say that this Major was full of surprises would be an understatement. NiP, Damwon, Sandbox, Soniqs, OXG, Gaimin Gladiators, MnM AND Astralis were all knocked out in Groups. W7M and XSET especially had won 5 out of their 6 games.

Just so you know, the joke at the time was that Xset was just a Brazilian team in disguise in NA since only Spiritz & Yoggah were the only non-Brazilians on the squad. The Berlin Major was important in its own way.

Charlotte may have been the first audience event in over 2 years, but Berlin was the first Major audience event in Europe since the Milan Proleague finals in 2019. Let’s also remember that a 2020 Major was set for Amsterdam, but was unfortunately cancelled due to lockdowns.

This was big for not only the German community, but the entirety of Europe. Traveling to and finding things to do in Berlin is quite easy, and with a 2 month head’s up, tickets flew off the shelves. With seats full of 1700 fans, European teams got massive cheers, and so did Elevate from APAC.

However, it was Xset that provided yet another ¼ finals knock out for Wolves, and Rogue who, in 2 overtime maps, took out the EU favorites G2. It was a genuine nail biter of a game, with Spoit bringing the heat to the stage.

Unfortunately for Elevate, and despite their best efforts, W7M closed an overtime Border for a 2-1 win, advancing to the semi-finals to face off against Faze Clan, who themselves had a tough fight the game prior versus Furia, although the theater was quite a bit quieter by that point.

W7M had heart, but not the level of experience Faze brought to the table. That was a decisive difference with Bullet activating and taking the favorites Faze into yet another final. They fell to NiP in Gaevle, but lessons were learned.

Xset rolled over Rogue on Bank, but the Europeans exacted swift revenge on Chalet & Oregon for a spot in the final. Rogue, and Spoit in particular, were walking the golden road. What transpired in the grand final is probably one of the best most entertaining finals,

With Faze & Rogue trading blows one map after the other. This best of 5 saw 69 out of the total possible 75 rounds played. With both teams neck and neck. The chants from the crowd got louder and louder,

Both from the European & Brazilian side up on the balconies, drowning out the arena and the center of Berlin. Each one of the 10 players put marks on the board, it was a clinic of a game showing any aspiring player something to learn. Except for one tiny but crucial mistake.

On round 15 on Clubhouse, Rogue chose bar and stage for their defense final stand. Not a common pick given the possible vertical control, but Rogue chose to roam. Faze knocked out Kanto & Leon for the top floor, but lost 2 of their own in doing so.

The commotion also left the oil pit ladder unguarded, without the usual claymore placed. With Faze focused on the site, and looking for a plant, Cryn had snuck up oil pit, and slowly dipped into lounge & bar with camera support from Deapek’s Echo.

With time running out, Faze had to execute. Rogue had all the information needed, and Cryn seized the moment to collect the final 2 kills to close out the round. Some would call it a fluke, the same that won Team One the Major in Mexico.

But against all odds, Rogue, the reformed roster with Spoit at the tip of the spear, had walked the golden road, and went from zero to hero in one stage in front of the home crowd. EU was back into the Championship running, it was anybody’s game.

It was an incredibly exciting time to be a Siege fan to say the least. There were also some roster changes leading into stage 3 and the next Major, to be held during Dreamhack Winter in Jonkoping. W7M, the massive Brazilian hopefuls, had long time veteran Julio join the team on top of

Volpz & Jv92 who joined in stage 1, with Gdn being put on the bench. Also in Brazil, Liquid had managed to sign Lagonis, the incredible IGL that was instrumental to TeamOne’s victory in Mexico. The squad felt directionless, and the fresh talents of Ask & Resetz would benefit from a leader like Lagonis.

In NA, Soniqs’ legendary Supr moved to a managerial role, and with Yeti departing, the organization brought on the young prospect Gunnar from Parabellum, and the one and only Geo from TSM. BDS had also made a change of their own. Yeah you heard me, the intangible French roster,

Who hadn’t had a swap since Rxwd to BriD in 2020, had made 2 swaps. Bios had been replaced with Stooflex, another ancient history name from 2017 Vitality, and long time flex Rafale stepped down in favor of the hottest French prospect, Likefac.

Adding to the list of up and comers, APAC South’s Fury from Thailand & Dire Wolves from Taiwan had come out of nowhere and sprinted past the region’s heavy hitters, denying them a shot at more SI points, and of course the Winter Major spots.

In Brazil, that pattern was reflected in Black Dragons, with veteran OG Ion at the helm, hitting the top 4, pushing out TeamOne, Furia & MIBR. And finally, in NA, SSG and TSM had bounced back from their slump, with Mirage of all

Teams, the org now known for cycling players every other day, sneaking their way past Darkzero, Astralis, OXG, Xset & Parabellum and into the top 4. So when I say it was anybody’s game, it really was. The Group stage was played in Stockholm before the top 8 were shipped off to Jonkoping.

Soniqs looked incredible, as did Liquid & Faze. Wolves had problems closing games but managed to top their group. BDS & TSM meanwhile had inched their way into the playoffs by only a hair. And W7M stood there a cut above the rest. Undefeated with a 6-0 cleansheet in groups, the young bloods seemed unstoppable.

With all but APAC having a spot in playoffs, it was a real shock discovering that all 4 quarter finals would be regional matches, giving NA, EU & Brazil a guaranteed spot in the semi-finals. First up was NA with TSM vs Soniqs. Geo brought intimate knowledge from his time

On TSM, and Goddess & Jobro’s coaching & analysis, eased Soniqs into the semis with a clean 7-2 on Club. For EU, it was an all French derby. Wolves had improved since Berlin, but Mowgli & Shinka had felt the pressure of the stage. Shaiiko sprang back into life and scored 27

Kills in the 2 mapper. Brazil made it quick. W7M & Liquid rocked Black Dragons’ & Faze clans’ socks clean off. The ultimate game for best in Brazil saw the experience of Team Liquid, guided by Lagonis, push W7M to a frustrating edge. Despite W7M 7-0ing Liquid on map 2 Skyscraper,

Liquid’s resolve looked untouched on Villa, and closed the match 8-6 in Overtime. W7M were devastated, but Julio, ever so calm, huddled his teammates and comforted them through their tears. He knew this squad had championship material, they’ll bounce back.

Soniqs had all of NA’s hopes of redemption on their back, they took map 1 border, but maybe the pressure was too much. BDS executed a clean Clubhouse & Bank, and were onto their first ever Major grand final. Liquid had been here before. They’ve lifted trophies, but that Major

Win had eluded them ever since Atlantic city way back in 2018. BDS opened strong on Theme Park, a favorite map of theirs at this point after much training. But Liquid brought back Bank & Oregon with 2 7-4 scores. Unfortunately for Liquid, Kafe was a homeground for the EU team.

And finally, Skyscraper showed Liquid’s map pool weakness on “non-conventional” maps. BDS took the series 3-2. The squad that has been on everyone’s lips since their inception, you’d think they’d have taken over the World, had finally lifted the trophy they oh so deserved.

BDS had finally hit a win streak, from Gamers 8 in the summer, to the Japan Invitational just before Jonkoping, onto the Winter Major, and ended up capping off the year with a 1st place finish in the 2022 EU League finals.

2 NA wins, 2 EU ones, and Brazil seemingly always a literal step behind. 2022 came to an end, and marked a high point in Siege’s lifespan, reviving the esports scene by showing that viewers around the World wanted more, and the game updates themselves

Promising more and more quality of life features and operator additions that would now no longer be under quarantine, and be immediately available to play in tournaments. Safe to say, hype was building up to a boiling point for the next chapter. Back to where it all began.

Montreal, would finally be home to another Invitational after 3 years of separation. This would also be the last SI that would be exclusively held in Montreal, with future Invitationals moving from one nation and city to the next. Siege was coming home.

SI23 would continue the event’s 20 team format, with the same double elimination playoffs bracket from SI22, including the removal of the controversial upper bracket finalist map advantage. The top 16 global teams in the SI points rankings would be the first invited, with 4 more squads,

Each from every region, joining from the local open qualifiers. Let’s break down the regions first. Korea was missing from the tiny 3 team APAC lineup this year. What’s important with SI points is not just having one good stage, but being consistent throughout the year. A side effect is, for example, 2 teams in

One, especially smaller region, performing well in 2 different stages can lead to none of them qualifying to SI and reducing the slots that region sends to SI. This was the case here with APAC. Elevate, Cyclops & DIre Wolves came in with high hopes, but were the first eliminated

In groups. And the dark horse of Group D, Team Secret, also joined the airport shuttle. The list of first place teams in Groups is an odd mix. KOI had surpassed both G2 & W7M in Group A. MnM had flawlessed their run in B even when up against Soniqs, Wolves & Liquid.

LOS+One, the rebranded Team One, pulled 1st vs BDS, OXG & Astralis in C, but only just, since 2-0 victories in the Group stage Best of 3 matches rewarded you with 4 points, whereas 2-1s rewarded 3 for the winner and 1 for the loser.

And finally, M80, who had acquired the XSET lineup, had managed to come out on top of a fatal four way between them, Heroic, Darkzero & Fazeclan, with only 3 points separating the squads. Heroic, G2 & BDS immediately fell down to the lower bracket to OXG, Wolves & W7M respectively,

Joined by Soniqs who failed to close versus Darkzero. OXG versus MnM was a real nailbiter, with Vertcl pushing the NA team on 2 max Overtime maps and into the semifinals. Actually, OXG just swapped the workload onto to Nuers who, against Wolves esports who had passed the LosOne test earlier, just carried

It on a 7-1 Clubhouse. OXG had been back in the semi finals they last knew as Reciprocity all the way back in 2019. In the meantime, Koi had bumped Darkzero down to the lower bracket with the sheer force

Of Spoit, whilst W7M triumphed against M80, coming back from a max OT border for a 2-1. Spoit vs Jv92 was up next. The battle of the up and comers of EU & Brazil, the future legends. Aaaaand it was a bust.

W7M just kind of rolled over Koi 2-0, and rubbed salt into the wound with a 7-0 on Villa. Up next for W7M was OXG. Theme Park was a short but sweet win for Brazil, but OXG was on a tear and brough W7M to their knees on Border with a 7-0.

Imagine the whiplash you’d face here after your performance versus Koi. And somehow, with pure gusto, and a helping hand from Herdz, W7M closed Clubhouse 7-5 for a spot at the World Championship grand final .. Can you believe it? I mean, they barely could, but W7M, with the guidance brought on by their

Coaches Abreu & Igoor, were on the cusp of lifting the biggest trophy in Siege. Let’s come back to the lower bracket. Liquid, Heroic, Faze & Astralis would be the first eliminated, with SSG, Darkzero, LosOne & MnM following soon after.

Astralis however had continued with a fire lit under them made of pure lava from hell itself. Despite a hiccup on Clubhouse, Forrest had brought Astralis back, and closed their game versus EU favorites BDS 2-1, knocked them out of yet another Invitational.

The EU culling would continue with KOI. An incredibly back and forth game insued, with the crowd feeding off of Iconic & Shuttle’s energy, and spitting it right back at them like it’s god damn son Goku with a spirit bomb.

Astralis had only just sunset KOI with a max overtime border, and sent them back across the pond. It’s at this point that EU fans were pooping themselves. The region was supposed to be back, and better than ever. It was pure disarray. Chaos had overtaken even the coolest of minds.

And it’s here, that in our darkest hour, that a savior would emerge, forged from the depths of Berlin’s greatest kebab shops, and sweatiest nightclubs. G2 Esports, had rolled into town. You want nailbiters? G2 vs Astralis was a clash like no other,

Trading blows on Chalet & Theme Park that both went to overtime, and had Benjamaster been wearing a different pair of pants that day, could’ve been an Astralis win. And yet it wasn’t. G2 keep their cool versus NA. They run it back against OXG. 8-6 on Bank? No problem, G2 make it a 7-0

In Skyscraper to give OXG a taste of their own medicine, courtesy of Alemao. The Old Dynasty. Headed by the 2 time world champion, coach Fabian, stood face to face against W7M. I wonder what went through G2’s minds that day. Alemao wanted to build his own dynasty, and they made it this far.

W7M however had learned from their mistakes over the past year, made the necessary changes and investments. Rookies they weren’t anymore, they had earned that respect, and would claw it out of G2 if it had to be done. Clubhouse kicked off with a W7M 7-5 win as Kheyze & Volpz played back to back.

But .. oh no. G2 had taken bank, a 7-2 even. Benjamaster almost solo-ing the game. Up next was Kafe, and something had to change. W7M started with a clean 3 rounds on Attack, a great half time score, as Kheyze kept piling up kills.

But kills trickled back for G2’s side, Doki & Benja fired up the grill and pulled a 3rd map in a row. People call Oregon the map great teams go to die on. I believe it. Jv92 had also shown himself on the board,

But so did Virtue. On round 1 of Overtime, an Xkairos enabled teamkill bled W7M’s morale. The Brazilians took their time to talk it out, but attack had been the favored side on this map so far. G2 pulled a sneaky one here. They sent their attack down into freezer for

A basement take, with Benja watching the flank and baiting W7M into his line of fire. And in 15 seconds, it was total collapse. G2 had built a dynasty in 2018, but from the ashes of the Three Kingdoms rose a new phoenix.

Benjamaster started from nowhere, Doki wasn’t even there when NaVi won in Tokoname, Blurr had competed since 2018 and was finally lifting an international trophy, Alemao had talked so much shit that everybody loved to hate him, Virtue had uprooted from Australia to

Germany for the chance of a lifetime, Titan had finally found a squad that deserved his incredible skills as analyst. And Fabian had lifted another hammer. The only 3 time. How the hell does he do it? SI23. In the birthplace of Siege.

The first audience at an SI since 3 years. And what we got was history repeating itself. The more things change, the more they stay the same. The New Deal It was time to usher in a new time in Siege esports, a fresh face. Enter, Blast.

During SI23, Ubisoft announced a partnership with Blast, the Danish tournament organizer famous for their Counter-Strike event productions. This partnership would come with a series of changes & overhauls to the esports format. Let’s start from the top of the funnel, the regional Leagues.

Regions would be split into different tiers, each qualifying a set amount of teams to the Majors. It was a substantial expansion, with EU & NA remaining the same, LATAM & Brazil becoming distinct entities, and so was the case with Japan & South-Korea who were no longer part

Of the APAC-North subregion. Much the same was APAC-South, now split between Asia (Southeast Asia) & Oceania. And finally, Middle East North Africa or MENA, my actual home region, would finally enter the global scene after years of competition being restricted to inter regional tournaments.

Almost every region would have a group stage followed by a playoffs bracket, where the top performers are automatically seeded into the Major playoffs. Tier 1 & 2 regions would also see the addition of Last chance qualifiers or LCQs to Majors,

Meaning that even if you weren’t at the top of the League, you could still grab spots for the play-ins that I’ll explain in a moment. It was a substantial change of regions, but it showed a global vision for the R6 ecosystem.

As for the Majors themselves, a system Inspired by Counter-Strike’s “legends vs challengers” would be put in place, and so Majors were split into 2 phases. A pre-Major play-in phase, where lower rated, LCQ and Minor region teams would hash it out

Between them in 4 groups of 4, with each group running a double elimination bracket. The end result is 8 teams from groups, seeded against the top 8 that directly qualified. Slash it again by half in a Swiss format bracket where the more you win the better the teams

You play against are (i.e: if you win 2 games and lose 1, you’ll only play against teams with the same score and so on). I won’t bore you with Buchholz calculation system explanation, sorry Hap & Sprabuni, so let’s back to the story. Let’s take the post-SI23 roster fallout region by region.

In Europe, the former team Empire had merged back into Virtus Pro, with P4sha being the “difference” since the old roster in 2022. Wolves esports had benched longtime veteran Risze for Swiss newcomer Deadshot, who had impressed in the French Nationals & Challenger league under Acend.

MnM brought in a major surprise. Julio, who had pretty much done everything under the sun at this point in Siege, joined the team as coach, with Eden swapping into the analyst role. KOI had suffered a substantial blow. Shortly after SI, Spoit would depart for a

Spot on the NA roster M80. Kantoraketti had also left for TT9. With little time to react, KOI brought in Leadr of NaVi fame, and Nudl who had played in various European Nationals, and even had a stint playing in the Mexican Championship in 2022. Sadly, this wave of change hit one team the hardest.

Heroic, who had slowly climbed their way up the ladder in EU, were now seemingly unable to hold down a consistent roster for no longer than a few weeks. Benja, Sloth, Nudl, Grizzly had all left the organization. But a fresh hope came in the

Form of Blaz, Kayak & Skiddy, all of whom had substantial EU experience be it in Proleague or CL & Nationals, with Blaz even having played in NA under Parabellum – to be the second French player, after Alphama, to have moved to NA for a spot.

Take a second to appreciate the Alphama x Yeti lovydovy era. Hell of a time. In NA, M80 was collecting all the hottest talents they could get their hands on. Iconic & Spoit were a massive win for the team, as both were incredible players in their

Own right, and with guidance from Budega, would eventually see the light. Darkzero had signed Achieved, and set Skys free. You might be thinking, wait, isn’t achieved on TSM? And isn’t Iconic on Astralis?? Yeah about that .. I didn’t want to burst your bubble, earlier, but TSM and Astralis

Both announced their departure from Siege esports. A big blow to the scene, especially when they fielded such talented rosters. The upside is that SSG collected Callout, Forrest & J9O in one fell swoop. That’s a hell of a catch if you ask me.

With OXG also picked up Yoggah, and Vertcl departed for the newly formed Beastcoast roster with notably, big hitter Hyper. Onto Brazil. Cameraman, a name synonymous with Faze and being one of the best out of Brazil, and Bullet were now completely out of Faze clan. The org had picked up Handy, KDS.

In a response to a close loss at SI23, W7M picked up Felipox & nade to replace Julio & volpz. Some big shoes to fill, but a necessary change. For MIBR, felipox had of course left the team, but Peres & Lukid joined the roster with new analyst Dudds.

And finally, Team Liquid replaced Ask with Volpz. In the global APAC region, there were only a few changes. Most notably are Fishoguy joining Bliss in OCE. Onigiri had also stepped away from Elevate as the entire roster disbanded and was reformed with Speakeasy, Healthcare, Barcode, Tolji & Ape joining.

Fury, the Thai squad, brought in KritJ who had climbed the ladder through Elevate Academy. In Korea, Sandbox had rebranded as Fearless Foxes (which is so adorable) or FearX, with veteran Demix rounding out the squad. And finally, Lavega had picked up the seemingly inexperienced roster of Prep esports that

Somehow made it to the first Blast R6 Major. Copenhagen was upon us. I didn’t touch on every single team, opting for the biggest changes for what we now know are the Major competing squads. MENA of course was the latest addition to the league, and like I mentioned before, had

Played in regional tournaments for many years even though they weren’t part of the global esports circuit. Falcons & Geekay looked to be the best from the region, but with a limit of 1 for the event, it was Falcons, with P9, Valentino, Jallad, Joker & OKillz that headed to Copenhagen It was quite the pleasant surprise that Team Falcons had topped Group A, joined by MnM Gaming. SSG & NiP out of B. Soniqs & Mexican squad Reven Club out of C. And W7M & Wolves out of D. Predictions were overall lining up. The groups playoffs is where things change however.

W7M had continued their flawless run, even with difficulties against Liquid & Soniqs. Faze, NiP & Liquid also headed into the quarter finals as 4 out of the 8 ¼ finalists were from Brazil. Joining them were MnM Gaming & G2 from EU, Soniqs from NA & Scarz, a massive surprise, from Japan.

Let’s continue with Scarz then. I have to say, for a team who’s experience maxxes out at the Japan Nationals, it spoke volumes for the quality of play in said Nationals when Scarz took Skyrscraper back from Faze with an excellent attacking half.

Sure, Scarz would end up losing the series 1-2, but to say that APAC is washed when each stage a new challenger comes up and does something like this is arguing in bad faith. The region has what it takes, but unstable rosters and the lack of proper practice due

To ping & distance have always dealt a backhand to APAC as a whole. Remember, that the distance from Seoul to Tokyo is greater than Paris to Helsinki, and that’s the two closest countries. Anywho, another surprise was the World Champions of G2 being knocked out by Team Liquid.

For intents and purposes, this was a rematch of the 2018 Atlantic City proleague finals, and Liquid had repeated the same score now in Copenhagen. W7M would also pull a 2-1 against MnM Gaming, who enjoyed large support among the European

Crowd. Kafe might have been a close call, but Villa sealed the deal as MnM just couldn’t get past W7M’s defense headlined by Keyhze. Lastly, NiP fought tooth and nail, but Soniqs had so much resilience that Gryxr could hold the line on Chalet & Bank. 3 out of 4 semi finalists were from Brazil.

And 2 of them made it quick. W7M & Liquid took out Soniqs & Faze like it was nothing. It would all play out in the final for the prize of the first Major under the new order. In Jonkoping, W7M seemed to lack the experience to push past Liquid.

That was before their roster swap and even their run at SI23. This was a different beast altogether. Skyscraper would go to W7M off the back of Felipox and an extra win on Defense. Liquid would take it to Overtime on Bank, but despite Paluh’s efforts, Jv92 shut down

The flank, and allowed Kheyze to drop the defuser an instant before it got planted. And on Chalet, Liquid, much like versus BDS, had crumbled under the weight of a W7M who, as Ace had called it, had kept a new gear for the final.

On round 10, it would all be decided. The team that a year ago were just some nobody rookies had gone through the entire gamut of trials and tribulations. W7M were Major champions. What’s impressive is just the size of the team on stage lifting the trophy.

From players to coaches to staff, it was a huge concerted effort to push the squad past its limits to achieve its true potential, potential that even the legend Julio had touted as endless. Unfortunately, the summer had become a long off-season. It’s necessary to have time off, but people were itching for more.

Thankfully there were regional tournaments to hold things off. R6 Combine & Rainbow Rumble in Europe, Element One and Game Rogue in NA, Japan Invitational & Summer Cup in Asia, with Gamers8 coming back for its second year. To say that viewers were beyond ready for Stage 2, and the Atlanta Major, would be an

Understatement. Atlanta ran with the same format as Copenhagen. The Group stage challengers were quickly locked in: NiP, who need no introduction, and Geekay, the newest up and comers from MENA who had come in with nudl & leadr, passed the test in Group A.

LosOne were back in action, and so were Bleed led by the one and only Mentalist, both out of Group B. G2 & DZ were no surprises from C, same went for SSG & Wolves in D. They all faced off against M80 & Soniqs from NA, Faze & W7M from Brazil, Scarz and Dplus

Who were back again from Japan & Korea, and BDS rocked up to the stage with the updated Virtus Pro at their side, basically old Empire + P4sha. It was a bloody mess in the Swiss bracket, where it’s not uncommon to spiral out when your scores start dropping and others start stacking up wins.

When the dust subsided, we ended up with a pretty even playoffs bracket. Faze faced SSG, an incredibly tight series, where J9O gave it his all. All for none unfortunately, as the first Brazilian squad advanced to the semis. LosOne closed a 7-5 on Chalet against DZ, but sent them home packing on Skyscraper 7-0.

With one fell swoop, NA had been decimated on home turf. Another set for Brazil. It was on W7M to add a 3rd into the mix, and had Geekay to play against. The young MENA/UK team had gusto, but nowhere near the level of experience needed to go

Deeper in the tournament. An excellent result, but a loss nonetheless. And finally, to break the monotony, EU was guaranteed a semis spot with G2 facing BDS. Which actually went by much faster than you’d think, with G2 figuring out their French rivals, and sticking Doki in every possible wound to rub it in.

The semis were also kind of a mid-fest themselves, with G2 stumbling over W7M once more, and Los, with Cameraman now at the helm, had sought revenge against Faze, and he’d finally have it. Both games closed at 2-0, 7-2 / 7-5. Oh how history repeats itself. Another event, another final with a top tier

Brazilian team, and this time it’s Copenhagen 2.0. Let’s remember that LOS are just a slight modification on the TeamOne roster from early 2022. Many of the players hail from Brazilian Serie B, that regularly interacted with the Tier 1 of the region.

W7M kicked off the score 2-0 with a clean finish on Consulate & Chalet, with Felipox utilizing Fenrir to his absolute maximum. Bank crossed over to LOS, as W7M faltered on their Attacking side, an oddity on this map. It all came to a head on Kafe. With Felipox once more playing a perfect support

Role on Grim, W7M locked a 4-2 Attacking half. Jv92 then collected kills on defense, and held down the fort. Despite all their efforts and a monty pick, it wasn’t enough for LOS. W7M had once more lifted a Major trophy, the second and final one of 2023.

We can argue over a dynasty, but there’s no doubt in their excellence and domination. The rookies had become the masters, and all who wish to enter the halls of Siege greatness, have to pass through them. The next big thing (greenscreen, sitting down on a mattress)

It’s a shame we closed the year with Heroic & Fnatic exiting Siege, and MnM Gaming imploding from alleged unpaid wages. But hey, there’s a whole treasure at the end of this rainbow. We covered a lot in this video, but there’s one final thing to go through. SI24.

Of course, I haven’t yet unlocked the gift of foresight, and so here’s some things we know and can expect! Like I said over 2 hours ago, this is the very first event being held in Brazil since the November 2018 Proleague finals, and the scheduled but cancelled May 2020 Proleague finals.

And much like the past few years, the tournament format remains the same. With 4 groups of 5 teams each, the double elimination bracket, and the top performers seeded in priority. With all matches being best of 3s until the best of 5 grand final with no map advantage.

As of writing this, not all team rosters have been revealed, but let’s highlight the biggest most exciting changes. First up, Darkzero. Nafe from old MnM had been brought over to NA, marking his 3rd Invitational and 4th Major event. Without a doubt, the biggest addition to any roster is Beaulo,

The “retired world champion” coming back to competitive play. Funny how so many people just cannot suppress that adrenaline of playing on stage isn’t it? With Gunnar departing, Soniqs had brought on Ambi. A promising prospect that will have their first and biggest test this SI.

M80 have also picked up Yoggah from OXG, a superb pickup given that his old roster isn’t attending SI this year. in Korea, Dplus & FearX are bringing huge squads, not just in size, but in prospect. Dplus had brought on Dmaly from Lavega, and RIN was back in competition with FearX.

In Mena, Geekay seemed to have locked in their roster, and Falcons have brought in the veteran coach Twister for some insight on Brazil. So I’m happy to say that for the first time in a while, and aside from Darkzero, there aren’t really any earth shattering transfers, which is honestly kind of nice.

It just means however that the post-SI transfer window will be PACKED, so prepare yourselves for a very busy stage 1. If you ask me, W7M are without a doubt the biggest favorites to win, but don’t sleep on any team, I tell you, this sort of hubris can bring any squad down.

So .. that’s it. We just went through the entire history of Rainbow Six Siege esports. I want to thank all of you for watching, sharing and talking about this video, even more so that we don’t have a sponsor to fund this sort of operation.

It all took a significant amount of work to put together, so I’m forever thankful for Mallow & Menix and their incredible editing, and for Ubisoft & SiegeGG for many of the clips & videos you’ve seen. And also, a huge thank you to Liquipedia, who help document esports in a superb way.

I recently tried finding old photos of us in Brazil for Proleague in 2017 & 2018, and unfortunately those official photos are no longer online. I hope this video serves its goal, to remind us of where we started and how it all began.

I never want people to forget this game and what it has done to change people’s lives. It took up the past 8 of mine, and was the reason why I met the most amazing human who is now my wife. This is a gift, you know. I won’t forget it.

——- I recently tried to find old photos of us in Brazil for Proleague in 2017 & 2018, and realized that they are unfortunately no longer online. It’s possible that they’re sitting in someone’s cloud or hard drive somewhere but maybe…they just don’t even exist anymore. I had to come to terms with the saddening

Fact that I will most likely never see them again. I missed the chance to save or archive them because I thought I had plenty of time. Just 7 years have passed, yet countless memories slip away, fading into the haze of nostalgia

Or vanishing entirely, lost to the aether. We often believe we’ll hold onto everything forever: the triumphs, the emotions, the memes, the people that shaped our experiences. It’s the blissful ignorance of youth that propels us forward, chasing the next thrill, the next challenge, the next shared moment, perhaps without ever glancing back.

Many of the colleagues I once worked alongside have moved on to new endeavors, a natural part of the circle of life, isn’t it? While the absence of those familiar faces in front of the camera is strongly felt and openly acknowledged within the community, there’s

A silent tribute owed to the unsung heroines and heroes who worked tirelessly behind the scenes, pouring their hearts into crafting exceptional productions, yet often remaining unrecognized. Rainbow Six went through so much transformation over the years – much of which revitalized the game while also stripping away elements

That will never return. And as much as I want to celebrate evolution which is so very vital for a healthy game and a wholesome community, I also allow myself to truly feel that loss of a long passed Zeitgeist and give room for the grief it comes with. Many changes have

A bitter-sweet quality after all. And it’s important to ask ourselves: How do we want to remember R6 today, or one year down the line, 10 years down the line? And probably even more important: What feeling do we want to preserve when thinking about R6? To me it’s this: Gratitude.

In a way, R6 is a coming-of-age story for so many of us: We mature alongside it. For many of us, it’s not just a pastime but also a profession. Which also means that we sacrifice a level of playfulness for the responsibility of making it our livelihood. And whether we

Work in it or just enjoy it as viewers, we realize that we’re part of something larger than ourselves. It’s not just the game itself that we hold so near and dear to our hearts – it’s the relationships we build through it. Be it our teammates, our colleagues, our

Friends or even a chosen family. As much as I cherish R6, I also recognize that one day, hopefully faaaar in the future but still – one day – the franchise may reach its conclusion. Nevertheless, the emotions shared, the creativity expressed, and the memories we actively choose to preserve will stay with us forever.

I hope this video serves its goal, to remind us of where we started and how it all began. I never want people to forget this game and what it has done to change people’s lives.

It took up the past 8 of mine, and was the reason why I met the most amazing human who is now my wife. This is a gift, you know. I won’t forget it.