Rainbow Six Siege: EU Playday 8 & 9 preview
Amid all of the chaos around the world right now Rainbow Six Pro League Season 11 will resume play on March 23.
In this segment, we will break down everything you need to know about each EU Pro League team and share our predictions for the week’s playdays.
Rogue (15 points)
The leaders in EU are matched up against G2 and forZe this week. The only team without a loss so far in Season 11 is recovering from a poor performance at the Six Invitational in February. Rogue exited the tournament in the group stage losing to both TeamSolo Mid (TSM) and Natus Vincere (NaVi), only claiming one map in those matches. This roster even back under the organization of Giants Gaming excelled in online play but failed to show up at LANs. That burden has not left this roster under a new banner. Rogue will battle G2 and forZe in Playdays eight and nine, respectfully.
Rogue’s matchup against G2 will most likely be the match of the week as G2 is showcasing their new lineup for the first time. This matchup will most likely turn into a “frag fest” and that is something Rogue does not want to happen. Rogue will tally their first loss of the season 4-7. forZe will bring Rogue back to normal Siege. Its first versus the worst in this matchup and Rogue will keep their first place spot with a win 7-5.
Team Empire (13)
Russia’s Siege war machine was unable to complete its mission at the Six Invitational. Actually, they were not even able to make it out of the group stage. Team Empire is now looking for a bounce-back performance in the second half of season 11 to push their name back up the power rankings. The well-oiled machine that is Team Empire is still a force to be reckoned with. Their opponents in the upcoming week will be NaVi and G2.
Since NaVi’s roster became official less than a week before this match they stand little chance against Team Empire. Team Empire wins 7-3. The battle with G2 will be more interesting, these two teams have been slugging it out for over a year now neither team has gotten the overall edge. G2’s new roster will surely cause some trouble for Team Empire, but as it has been shown over and over again in Siege a solidified roster wins. Therefore, Team Empire will sweep its playdays this week beating G2’s 7-5.
Team Vitality (12)
One of three teams out of EU to not attend the Six Invitational has had a lot of time to practice. The team with four different countries within their roster finally started to put it together at the end of the split, stringing together back-to-back wins for the first time all season. The two teams they beat before the split will be the same two teams they face coming out of the split. forZe and Chaos are standing in Vitality’s way this week.
Team Vitality will come out the gates firing on all cylinders and continue their winning streak this week defeating forZe 7-4. Chaos, on the other hand, will do what their name insists and create chaos for Team Vitality. The veterans on Vitality will be able to stand toe-to-toe with Choas and, tie 6-6.
G2 Esports (12)
G2 is the biggest uncertainty coming into the second half. They benched their caption and IGL Fabian “Fabian” Hällsten and filled the other empty roster spot with two young fraggers Ben “CTZN” McMillan and Jake “Virtue” Grannan. Nobody knows who is going to IGL or who is going to play support. Being the biggest question mark has its positives and negatives. On one hand, nobody knows what G2 is bringing to the table, but also it takes a long time for a Siege team to meld. Both of their opponents this week have been together for a while in Rogue and Team Empire.
As stated above G2’s fragging potential will be too much for Rogue coming out on top, 7-4. Team Empire has not made a change since season nine and that continuity will help Team Empire beat G2 7-5. This first week will be huge for G2 as they look to show off their new roster.
BDS Esport (10)
The most successful European team at the Six Invitational was BDS Esports. Their fourth-place finish will no doubt boost their confidence and propel them into this split. Their recent addition of Bryan “Elemzje” Tebessi performed very well at the Invitational. With more time to come together as a team, BDS is not out of the running to do what NaVi did last year. Going from Challenger League to Pro League Champion in one season has happened back to back times in EU. BDS is in great shape to make it a third. Coming back to online matchups their opponents are Chaos and NaVi.
Chaos is known to be unpredictable and has shown improvement, but BDS is coming off a great performance and just beat Chaos before the break. Chaos will hold on tying 6-6. BDS’s second matchup will be against one old teammate in Dimitri “Panix” de Longeaux. “Panix” might be able to give some insight into BDS, but BDS will still be hot off the Six Invitational and will take it 7-4.
Natus Vincere (7)
A few days out of the start of Pro League and NaVi finally announced their fifth roster spot. That spot will be filled by “Panix”. “Panix” has spent the last two years helping two different teams in Penta and BDS qualify for the Six Invitational. Yet, he was benched by both teams before attending the event. In addition to “Panix”, NaVi have a substitute in Byron “Blurr” Murray to fill the whole of suspended Jack “Doki” Robertson for the next month. With these changes, it is hard to anticipate what they will do next, but with two players leaving during the split are sure to bring lots of changes to the team. They will have to compete against BDS and Team Empire, both very strong opponents.
First off is Team Empire, the uncertainty of this team is no problem for Team Empire as they always run the same basic strategies. Team Empire wins 7-3. That will also lose their second game of the week, 7-4. BDS is riding high right now and NaVi has yet to show anything this season
Chaos Esports Club (6)
Probably the quietest team in EU Pro League did not do much in the split to create any noise either. Their only impressive thing the first half was beating G2 during Playday 4. Since then they have lost three straight. Chaos has a lot to prove this second half, but this week will not be kind to them. Facing BDS and Vitality is a tough task.
In their BDS matchup, Chaos will climb back late to tie BDS 6-6 to prevent BDS from moving in the standings. In their second matchup, they will not be as amped up. There will be a lot of plants in their match, but Vitality will win 7-4.
forZe (6)
ForZe has yet to show up this season, but luckily for them, there will be no relegations this season. Some expected this Russian squad to come into Pro League and dominate the way Team Empire did two seasons ago. That assumption could not be further from the truth. They two wins were very impressive, but every other matchup has lacked in just about every way. They are going to have a rough second half of the season as well. Their opponents in Vitality and Rogue are both racing to keep their top 3 spots and do not want to let forZe trip them up.
Vitality will pick forZe apart with their methodical play style and show what a break can do defeating forZe 7-4. Rogue, on the other hand, will trip on the feet of forZe. The biggest upset of the week will be forZe over Rogue 7-4.
Playday eight of Pro League Season 11 will start at 8 PM CET on Monday, March 23. The first matchup will be Team Empire vs. NaVi. Please check out the NA segment if interested.
