Rainbow Six Siege Pro League Season 7 APAC LAN Finals, saw some of the most exciting Siege games, with some extremely close, nailbiter games, while also featuring a couple of blowouts as well. The APAC Lan Finals in Sydney’s ESL Studios were held over two days from April 14-15 which contained the best Asia-Pacific teams in the world, vying for an invitation to the Season 7 World LAN Finals in Atlantic City, held next month on May 19-20.
All eyes were on Fnatic, formerly Mindfreak to defend their title in Sydney against fierce rivals Team Cryptik, mates from down under in Viewsonic.Darksided and a reinvigorated Nora-Rengo.
As can be seen ESL went all out on this event; bringing in two teams who qualified over online matches, from four separate regions. These teams include:Fnatic, Viewsonic.Darksided, Sengoku.Extasy, Latency, Nora-Rengo, Team Cryptik, Team Scrypt and Element Mystic.The majority of these teams did not disappoint in their matches. With the exception of Sengoku and Latency, the rest of the teams who competed at the event tore the proverbial house down, with extremely impressive players, plays and strategies. While the aforementioned teams didn’t get to prove too much as the two favourites Fnatic and Team Cryptik quickly finished off both teams, with the former quickly dispatching off Sengoku with a clean sweep 10-0, while Cryptik easily eliminated Latency with a 10-4 victory over the two maps.
These first two games saw Fnatic and Cryptik merely show the tip of the iceberg of their firepower, in their successful Quarterfinal games with Fnatic’s Magnet and NeophyteR being the star fraggers, with 14 and 10 frags respectively. While Cryptik’s HysteRiX and Ysaera were the standouts for their team, fragging out 16 and 14 kills respectively. (All scoring courtesy of RageQuit_Rat – https://twitter.com/RageQuit_R6)
These two teams were here to make a statement, that they were the best in the entire APAC region. Luckily for everyone in the audience and watching at home, we got to see these two leviathans face off in the next round. Getting ahead of myself, day one still had two more Quarterfinals, with Element Mystic taking on fan favourite Viewsonic.Darksided, while Nora-Rengo took on Team Scrypt, in which would be my personal favourite match of day one. Mystic v Darksided took us to three maps, which seemed unheard of after the previous two blowouts.
Wings, a stand-in for Darksided, in my eyes proved that he belongs on this team as a full time player, as he for me was one of the best players on this roster, if not the best. Warden also proving why he is one of the best players in Australia, as he had an amazing first two maps while outshined by the aforementioned Wings in map 3. The majority of these rounds did end in 1v1 situations and clutches, however due to the smart plays by the Aussie side – utterly outplaying Mystic when it counted, the Australians took both their map wins very convincingly, however it definitely seemed like Mystic had the series in the bag after a very convincing stomp in map 1. A reverse sweep enabled the Australians to secure their spot in the Semi finals awaiting the winner of our next game: Nora-Rengo v Team Scrypt.
Now on to what I believed to be the definite series of the day, with an extremely intense game between two teams who have struggled in the past, with Nora-Rengo being eliminated first in every event they have attended, while Scrypt struggled in the sense of making a name for themselves, however just making it to this event and performing how they did in this series, in my eyes shows that this team has a bright future ahead of them. The best way to describe this series without spoiling anything (as it was an amazing series, please go watch it), is a tug of war. Right now as I am writing this, I am imagining two dogs fighting over a piece of rope. That is this series. An absolute slobberknocker till the end, with each team not letting up. Back and forth rounds and back and forth frags resulted in such an enjoyable number of hours, that felt like mere seconds. These teams seemed to know exactly what each other were thinking, which resulted in a plethora of stalemates; this series felt like it would never have a winner.
Surprised that I have any nails left on my fingers, Wonka from Nora-Rengo and Sunan- from Scrypt were absolutely the top dogs in this series. If Wonka was eliminated while Sunan was still in action, you knew NR were in trouble, and vice-versa if Sunan was down while Wonka was up. These two fragging machines absolutely stole the show, carrying their teams as best they could, with Sunan scoring a number of crucial clutches, while Wonka was the opposite as he was the opening fragger for his team. If you ever desire to get a friend into Rainbow Six Siege, show them this Pro match, and he/she will be hooked. An instant classic in the books, ended in a very close finish with Nora-Rengo edging out the victory after a three match spectacle. Thus concluding day one, with some amazing Quarterfinals, while some matches may not have met expectations for Siege fans.
Day two would not disappoint as first match of the day was the two strongest teams at the event going head to head in not only an instant classic, but a Grand final worthy spectacle. Fnatic v Cryptik, two powerhouses hungry for victory ready to prove that they were the definite best in all of APAC. By far the best series of the day, and due to the rivalry and how intense each round was, has to take the best match of the entire event for me. The story telling this series told had it all, from the cockyness of Fnatic, to the humble underdogs of Cryptik. This was a match that had it all. Map 1 took Kafe Dostoyevsky to Overtime with tension that could be cut with a knife. Each round left nothing to be desired, as Fnatic and Cryptik gave their all, with Fnatic just easing past the Singaporeans. Cryptik staring down the barrel where with one map loss, sent them packing and their hopes of competing in Atlantic City were at risk, the Singaporeans had to do something. Fnatic seeming like the mountain that just couldn’t be climbed, Cryptik played their A game in an amazing 5-0 sweep turn around on map 2. Overconfidence ultimately the hubris in Fnatic’s gameplan, as too many elaborate plans and roaming attempts ended in utter failure, while sticking to the basics resulted in Cryptik taking home the W on Clubhouse.
Unfortunately that was all she wrote on the cinderella story, as Fnatic finished off Cryptik on Oregon but not before Ysaera could show just how damn good he is, taking the overall MVP of the series with Magnet being my runner-up as he had an amazing performance on Map 3. This win secures Fnatic’s place in not only the Grand final but also secures Fnatic a spot in Atlantic City. With one match away from the event’s grand final, sees the penultimate match host Australia’s chance of making it an all Aussie Grand final, with Viewsonic.Darksided v Nora-Rengo. Unfortunately this match not living up to the hype, as NR took down Darksided in a pretty one sided series, 2-0. Not a game worthy of a Semi final in my opinion, but Wonka’s absolutely impressive performance makes him arguably the best player in this entire tournament. While Darksided goes home (which isn’t as bad as it sounds), Fnatic still provides Australia with some hope that a home team can take home the victory in a Grand final against Nora-Rengo.
Fnatic had a lot of eyes on them heading into this Grand final. Not only did they just get picked up by arguably the world’s greatest eSport organisation, but the team were defending their previous title. Fortunately for them, Fnatic seemed all over the Japanese squad finishing them off 10-3 in rounds and 2-0 in maps. Absolutely amazing performances by Acez and Lusty controlled the majority of NR’s offense and defense, where not even Wonka – the key fragger for NR could stop this Australian unit, ultimately having a pretty underwhelming performance to finish off his crazy run at the event. All players on Fnatic seemed to step up when needed though, as RizRaz, Magnet and Neo all had star performances alongside the aforementioned duo. It seemed like even if NR killed a Fnatic player, another would instantly trade frag. An absolutely dominating performance, showing that the Semi final between Fnatic and Cryptik stole the event as the true Grand final. Nora-Rengo has nothing to be disappointed about however, as a team that historically got eliminated first made it to the final two, and secured their place in Atlantic City with Fnatic to represent APAC.
With an amazing event down and behind us, down under Six Siege showcases amazing competitors and teams who will do Australia and the APAC region proud when taking off to Atlantic City from May 19-20 in the Season 7 World LAN Finals.