Recapping EUL Stage 2: A Story Of Overachievers And Last-Minute Success
The second stage of the Rainbow Six European League Season 1 has recently concluded. BDS Esport expectedly made first place, but the rest of the Top Four was formed in upset fashion on the very last match-day.
Early on, BDS announced themselves as the best team of the league. This was no surprise given their victory at the August Major. There, they had set themselves on top of Rogue, Virtus.pro and G2 Esports, mounting an impressive reverse sweep in the Grand Finals. So the expectations for their success in Stage 2 were already quite high, and still, they managed to exceed them.
With the exception of a draw versus Vitality and a loss to NaVi, they’ve been smashing their competition all throughout. Four of their players placed inside the Top 10 rankings, with Stéphane “Shaiiko” Lebleu securing an astonishing 1.36 rating on 104 kills and 1.12 kills per round. Loïc “BriD” Chongthep was the second most effective support player in the entire league. He planted the defuser eight times and got an 81% KOST for his efforts. The entire roster scored ratings above 1.0, making them the most successful roster numbers-wise. Their results indicate that they’re also the most skilled bunch of players overall. But in the early days of the league, it looked as though they could be in for some serious competition.
TEAM SECRET: GREAT START, WEAK FINISH
The mostly German roster kicked off its Stage 2 campaign with a 7-2 win over G2 and 7-4 victories over Rogue, Chaos, and Vitality. To put that in context, Secret were on second-to-last place in Stage 1 and featured some of the weakest individual players overall. Without the heroics of Kevin “Prano” Pranowitz, they would have been dead last in the league. They made the bold choice to sign Ville "SHA77E" Palola, a former Chaos player who performed below average in Stage 1, as well as Peter “pacbull” Bull. This was quite a gamble, as the latter in particular hadn’t even been successful in Challenger League before. Under the CR4ZY moniker, he finished sixth in CL Season 11, well below any of the teams that would eventually qualify for EUL.
Click to enlargeSo when they had their first victories and were tied for points with BDS after the fourth match-day, the experts definitely took notice. Once again, Prano was leading the charge, but being backed up by the likes of Fynn “Drvn” Lorenzen, Vincent “Hife” Flinkenwirth, and even pacbull himself. The in-game-leader put up some great performances, for instance in their match versus Chaos, during which he earned himself a 1.17 rating and clutched out two rounds.
Unfortunately, their victory on the fourth match-day was the last great result for them. Afterwards, they only managed to secure a draw versus Virtus.pro. They lost to Tempra and Empire on the last two days of competition, both of which have ended up in the Top Four. So what’s the reason for their sudden decline?
We know how honeymoon periods work. At first, some new teams just click, and players manage to work off of each other to great success. Competitors haven’t yet figured out how the fresh team plays, and so the roster can work with the element of surprise to some extent. But as the other teams catch on and the first issues between the players arise, this performance is undercut, and the future of the team depends on how well they manage to adjust. So have the teams of EUL already found Secret out? Can pacbull now make the necessary adjustments for them to succeed?
Perhaps this is too harsh of a judgement on this young roster. For one, the entire playing field (with the exception of BDS and Rogue on both ends) has been incredibly close. One victory would have secured a Top Four placing for Secret, and the teams they lost to were the ones who got the Major ticket. But at the same time, all of their wins were against teams that have struggled throughout the season, perfectly represented by Rogue in last place.
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LET’S TALK ABOUT ROGUE
What a shameful finish for this roster of talented players. Granted, they only had their full lineup present for half of their matches, but there are so many situations that they should have won overall. The fact that they were unable to win a single match even after the return of Maurice “AceeZ” Erkelenz just goes to show that his absence wasn’t their primary issue to begin with. After finishing first in Stage 1, they are now 0-0-9 in Stage 2 and heading for relegation. So we might not even see them compete in Season 2 if they lose out in the relegation tournament. Their performance right now doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence in their abilities.
WHAT DO WE MAKE OF TEMPRA AND EMPIRE?
The two sides very unexpectedly made it to the Major. The point distribution before the last match-day meant that the winners of Empire versus Secret and Tempra versus G2 would secure a Top Four finish. Secret and G2 were the favourites given their past performance and display versus the other teams of the league. Both failed spectacularly and got upset by teams that were not thought of as Major prospects. But Tempra have been lying in wait for quite some time now. They did the opposite of Secret and lost on the first few days, until they started to mount a successful comeback. All four of their victories came on the last four match-days. Empire, on the other hand, were actually quite competitive early on, only losing to BDS and Virtus.Pro. They would have performed even better if they hadn’t been forced to forfeit their match on Day Seven due to internet issues.
Overall, these two teams have now definitely proven that they deserve a Major spot, but that doesn’t mean that they’re going to be competitive on the big stage. Now, all the ‘easy wins’ are out the window and instead they’ll have to deal with BDS and Virtus.Pro, which both have lost to. Not only that, they’ll have to beat the likes of Shaiiko, BriD, and Pavel “p4sh4” Kosenko in Best-of-Three and Best-of-Five matches if they want to succeed. That’s definitely going to be a tall order, but fortunately, they have plenty of time to prepare for the Rainbow Six November Major.
Images via SiegeGG | @TempraEsports | @Secret_Pacbull