Spacestation Gaming's Five Best Maps
Over the past few months, Spacestation Gaming have played exactly 20 maps. They have won twelve of them, and their map distribution shows some clear favourites- so we assembled Spacestation Gaming's five best maps.
SSG have unfortunately had a rough weekend. Coming into the Rainbow Six August Major as the clear favourites, they were expected to win their opener against DarkZero. In stunning fashion, the underdogs overcame them and sent them to the Lower Bracket. There, they narrowly won against Oxygen Esports, before losing to Team SoloMid in the Lower Bracket Finals. Troy “Canadian” Jaroslawsky, in particular, had a disappointing few matches.
But before the Major, SSG got through the North American League with relative ease. In the regular season, they picked some maps more often than others, so we present to you the best maps of SSG. We define ‘best’ as having the highest win rate for the team - which brings us firstly to Theme Park. SSG have had a total of three encounters on this map recently - and won all of them. Even when they’re not performing to their full ability, this is a map that they can still comfortably win. Take the NA Major as an example. In the Lower Bracket finals, SSG were soundly beaten by TSM - but not on Theme Park. There, they were able to win most of the rounds as defenders and attackers.
Click to enlargeSSG LOVE VILLA
Villa is their most played map. With four encounters in total, they have spent more time on this map than on any other. However, their win rate is at just 75%. Their only loss came at the hands of TSM in the aforementioned match. There, SSG played a weak defence, and on attack they were unable to string any rounds together. However, this was most unusual for the team. In their previous matches, they were always able to win the map, and just half a month ago they completely dismantled DarkZero Esports on Villa.
Their third best map is Coastline, with two out of three wins. They could have kept a perfect record on the map, had it not been for the incredible performance of Jason "Beaulo" Doty in the Lower Bracket match. In the last round of the map, the series, and indeed SSG's Major run, he delivered an ace. With the clock running low, the three remaining SSG players only had a few seconds left to plant the defuser. Bealo entered the site and eliminated two players. The last SSG player alive could only try to stick to the plant, and quickly fell to the shotgun of Bealo. Apart from that match, Spacestation have been performing relatively well on the map. They almost always let their games go to full length, but they usually come out on top.
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Next in line are Kafe and Oregon, on which Spacestation have struggled in recent times. Since the rework of Oregon, SSG have only played the map twice. One loss came at the hands of Oxygen, but the other time, they were able to achieve an overtime win against Disrupt Gaming in the North American League. There, Alec "Fultz" Fultz was the top performer with a 1.3 rating. Kafe tells a similar story. They were able to get a narrow 7-5 win against DarkZero in the regular NAL season. But in their August Major opener, they were absolutely demolished by DZ. SSG were unable to get any rounds on attack at all.
WHAT DO THESE NUMBERS TELL US?
These map statistics tell a compelling story. If you take away the losses from the recent Major, on paper, SSG boasts an insane win rate on most maps that they like to play. But taking a look at these individual games reveals that, oftentimes, these victories were incredibly close calls. A 7-5 against DarkZero on Kafe in NAL, an 8-7 Oregon victory against Disrupt Gaming, 7-5 against TSM on Theme Park - the list goes on.
So maybe, the downfall of Spacestation Gaming was a long time coming. Their domestic competitors have edged ever closer to winning against them, and until now, SSG were able to prevail. With the recent August Major, this has changed. Their losses to TSM and DarkZero perhaps go to show that they have lost their number one spot in North America. Even their win against Oxygen, who had played abysmally in their opening match, was so hard-fought that it can hardly be called a victory at all.
Is it that SSG have lost their power, or have the other teams just caught up to them? That’s impossible to answer without seeing them compete in a few more matches. The next events will show whether their tragic Major tournament exit has broken their confidence, or whether they will be able to reclaim the #1 spot in NA. With NAL Stage 2 coming up sometime in the future, they will have to face all these teams once again.
Images via SiegeGG | Ubisoft
