Today, the 2019 Six Invitational Quarter Finals has begun. This is where the road to garnering the Rainbow Six world title truly beings with eight teams from around the world competing to become champion. The event began with an orchestral piece and a quick behind-the-scenes look of how this year’s Invitational’s trophy was made. This was followed by all eight teams being introduced and taking the stage. Here is who will be competing throughout the weekend:
• Fnatic (Australia)
• Team Liquid (Brazil)
• G2 Esports (Germany)
• Spacestation Gaming (United States)
• PET Nora-Rengo (Japan)
• Team Empire (Russia)
• Evil Geniuses (United States)
• Team Reciprocity (Canada)
The Six Invitational is a single bracket elimination. This means if you lose, you are out of the tournament. Quarter Finals and Semi-Finals will be a best-of-3 match series; the first team to win seven rounds wins the match. At the end of the Quarter Finals, there will only be four teams left. These teams will duke it out on Saturday to determine who will be competing in the Grand Finals.
Fnatic vs. PET Nora-Rengo
The first match between Fnatic and PET Nora-Rengo was a back-and-forth affair. The first few rounds were not the best from Fnatic despite winning the first round. Nora-Rengo won rounds 2 and 3 due to the lack of aggression from the Aussie squad. After some technical difficulties, it seemed Fnatic regained confidence and winning both rounds 4 and 5. Some really solid plays came from both Fnatic and Nora-Rengo during rounds 7 and 9 respectively. Fnatic was able to extend the round by getting the defuser up-and-running leading to victory. Nora-Rengo ended round 9 as a defending squad by jumping out a window to get the last kill and victory. Going all the way into overtime, Nora-Rengo took the first map.
Most of the bans made for the second match were in response from the first removing the likes of Jackal and Maverick from the mix. Unlike the first match, Nora-Rengo dominated on Villa despite being a clear underdog in the Invitational. It was an impressive display from the Japanese team who were simply outplaying Fnatic. Only losing one round, Nora-Rengo move on to the Semi-Finals. Although they did great today, we’ll have to see if they can keep this momentum going throughout the weekend.
Winner: PET Nora-Rengo def. Fnatic (2-0)
Team Liquid vs. Team Empire
Next up, we have Brazil’s Team Liquid and Russia’s Team Empire on Coastline. Similarly to the latter half of the Fnatic/Nora-Rengo match, the beginning half of this match saw a dominant performance from Team Liquid. There were some close rounds but Team Empire only won one round from the first seven played. The Russian squad made an impressive comeback in the last half of the match but couldn’t keep the momentum going. Team Liquid picked up the first map win.
The second match, we see the two teams take the fight to Consulate. This time around, Team Empire gave Team Liquid a run for their money. The first half saw Team Liquid with the advantage albeit with some close rounds throughout. However, after round 8, Team Empire tied things up to 4-4. The Russian squad then takes the lead (5-4) with an impressive display during round 9 and winning round 10 giving them a 6-4 advantage. It only took them one round to grab the win and the match point.
What seemed to be an easy Team Liquid win became a longer match than they probably expected. With this being the first match of the Playoffs to go to three matches, one would assume we would get a good, competitive match to end the first half of the day. Well, that assumption would be right/wrong. Again, Team Liquid starts strong winning the first two matches. However, Team Empire is able to tie things up at the end of round 4. Empire managed to carry that momentum throughout the rest of the match to garner the unexpected match point advancing them to Semi-Finals.
Winner: Team Empire def. Team Liquid (2-1)
G2 Esports vs. Spacestation Gaming
With PET Nora-Rengo and Team Empire each advancing, this year’s Six Invitational seems to be the “Year of the Underdogs”. Now with G2 Esports and Spacestation Gaming up next, the clear favorite to win this match – and one of the favorites to win the entire tournament – is G2 Esports. But with two upsets, there seemed to be some hope for Spacestation Gaming.
From the beginning half of the first match on Clubhouse, it looked like G2 Esports was going to get an easy match point as they led 5-1. However, Spacestation Gaming dug deep and managed to find a way to bring the match to overtime. G2 had the advantage, winning the first overtime match only needing to get one more win to get the point but Spacestation didn’t give up, making things even in overtime. Surprisingly, Spacestation was able to take the first map.
Carrying the momentum from the first match, Spacestation starts off taking the first round on Bank. The next round saw a sloppy defense strategy from Spacestation making things an even 1-1. There was a bit of back-and-forth but G2 ends up finding their stride with a 6-2 lead after round 8. Spacestation only took one more round before losing the map.
If you asked me before the first match started, I would have said this would be an easy win for G2 Esports. Yet, here we are with a third and final match between G2 and Spacestation on Villa. The third match saw both teams evenly matched as they alternated taking rounds from each other. G2 was able to stray away for a little bit midway into the match. Round 7 saw Spacestation come in with a brilliant clutch play bringing hope to the underdogs only down 3-4. Up until round 12, Spacestation managed to stay just one game behind at 5-6, now needing to win two more rounds to make it to Semi-Finals. Round 13 almost saw Spacestation bring this to overtime but just couldn’t get to the defuser on time. G2 Esports are going to Semi-Finals.
Winner: G2 Esports def. Spacestation Gaming (2-1)
Team Reciprocity vs. Evil Geniuses
Another favorite to win the Invitational, Evil Geniuses face-off against Team Reciprocity. The first match brings them to the Bank where EG is favored to take. However, Team Reciprocity kicks things off with the first round win. EG takes Rounds 2, 3, and 4 with the latter two seeing the U.S. team with the third and fourth aces in the tournament. EG continued to dominate sitting at 6-1. Team Reciprocity managed to grab one more in round 8 until the inevitable loss giving EG the map win.
The second match saw the two teams go to Villa. Team Reciprocity managed to just take the first round again by seconds. Although EG got one round, Reciprocity had a nice 3-1 lead after round 4. Round 5 saw EG make a comeback ending the round on a triple kill, with round 6 evening things out to 3-3. There was a bit of back-and-forth between the two but in the end, Reciprocity took the map.
Like the G2 Esports/ Spacestation Gaming matches, I fully expected Evil Geniuses take this easily. Especially seeing how they destroyed Reciprocity on Bank, I thought they would be taking Villa. Now on Coastline, the third map of this series, Reciprocity show they had what it takes to keep up with one of the best.
The first few rounds we see Reciprocity with the advantage winning the three of the first four rounds of the map. That doesn’t stop Evil Geniuses from evening the score by round 6. Things seemed to stay even until round 9 where Reciprocity dominated for the rest of the match, earning a spot in the Semi-Finals
Winner: Team Reciprocity def. Evil Geniuses (2-1)
That is it for the Quarter Finals. The Semi-Finals will commence at 12 PM EST; a Day 1 recap will begin the stream which you can watch on the Rainbow Six Twitch channel at 11:30 am EST. We are here in Montreal at the 2019 Six Invitational for the weekend and will be covering the matches happening all weekend. The full reveal of Rainbow Six Siege‘s Operation: Burnt Horizon will be on Sunday during the Grand Finals so be sure to check back for more information on the Australian-themed update.
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