Why Was Renshiro The Highest Rated Player Of The R6 Europe Major?

At the Rainbow Six Europe Major, few things went according to plan. As the winners of Europe League Stage 1, Rogue had certainly expected to at least reach the Grand Finals of the Major, but they ended up exiting the event in last place. BDS, the runners-up of EUL, lost their initial match to G2 decisively. However, as they went on to beat Rogue and Virtus.Pro, they found themselves in the Grand Finals of the event. Going up against G2 Esports once more, they lost the first map and were on the brink of defeat already. However, they managed to mount a perfect reverse sweep and went on to hoist the Major trophy. 

Olivier "Renshiro" Vandroux was the key playmaker for his team. His individual stats reveal how much he contributed in virtually every aspect of the game. Especially in their victory over Rogue, he was the reason why BDS managed to stay in the game. When the Frenchmen were almost down and out of the Grand Finals, he helped his teammates excel and secure the victory. In our interview with Loïc "BriD" Chongthep, the player explained his colleague's role within the BDS roster:

Renshiro is the second support and second flex. His role is mostly to hold some specific lines and put in some headshots.

Looking at the stats, it becomes evident that Renshiro has played this role out to perfection at the European Major. The BDS player got the defuser down four times, only second to their main support, BriD. Whenever BriD didn't survive, Renshiro went in and got the job done. He quite literally put in some headshots as well. With a 66% headshot rate, he had the highest percentage out of his team, and the second-best out of the Major participants. Add to that an astonishing 0.93 kills per round and you have the recipe for a star player. 

With this performance, he even outplayed Stéphane "Shaiiko" Lebleu, who was supposed to be their killing machine during the event. While Shaiiko certainly did deliver on this promise to a large extent, Renshiro was just unstoppable - and fulfilled his job in the supportive department of Rainbow Six as well. This becomes most apparent in his choice of operators. 

• Read More - 'Best Team EU' - How BDS Won The European R6 Major

In the Losers Match against Rogue, Renshiro opted for Thatcher. This operator plays perfectly into his strengths. On the one hand, Thatcher supports his team by throwing EMP grenades, helping BriD's Thermite open reinforced walls and hatches. But on the other hand, Thatcher is a brutal killing machine with his ACOG Sight. On defence, he opted to go for Bandit. Obviously, this is a very supportive operator, forcing him to remain on-site and dedicate his time to stopping his opponents from breaching reinforced walls. In this position, he will also be one of the last players alive, further feeding into his support role within the team. 

In their match versus Virtus.Pro, BDS opted to ban Thatcher. As Virtus.Pro didn't want to pick Twitch or Kali, they chose to play entirely without EMP support. This freed Renshiro up massively. On defence, he previously had to stay on-site and actively counter his opponents' aggression. But now, he could just use Mute to set down his Signal Disruptors and then play off-site. This made him a powerful roamer. He even got the first kill of the entire match by camping at the bathroom window where Artyom "Shockwave" Simakov was trying to enter.

On attack, BDS first didn't even care for the usual hard-breach operators like Thermite or Hibana. Instead, they opted to go for a soft-breach duo between Renshiro on Zofia and Shaiiko on Ash. BriD picked Maverick, and Bryan "Elemzje" Tebessi manned Twitch to destroy Signal Disruptors. This worked out beautifully, and allowed Renshiro to go for kills, all while staying relevant for his team. 

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Throughout the event, he has also gone for operators like Valkyrie and Sledge. This perfectly encapsulates his personal game plan. On the defence, he wants to contribute early on in the round with his utility. When the fighting takes place, he either wants to be freed up in order to roam, or tries to stay safe, so that he can eventually clutch out the round. On attack, he chooses supportive operators like Thatcher, who are still equipped for the big gunfights. If that’s not possible, he picks into soft-breach operators (say, Sledge or Zofia) to contribute mid-round, and to remain a capable fragger throughout. 

This strategy has certainly worked out for the team overall. He is incredibly effective as a support player, and was definitely the second most impactful supporter for BDS at the Rainbow Six Europe Major, helping BriD out whenever necessary. Additionally, he was also the top performer across the board. Just as BriD put it, Renshiro put in lots of headshots for BDS. Countering him will become a prime objective for the other teams heading into EUL Stage 2. 
 

Images via SiegeGG | DreamHack