The Rainbow Six Siege Six Invitational 2020 kicked off on Friday, February 6, and the biggest event of the year for Siege Esports promises to impress. Throughout the first weekend, it has done nothing but exceed the expectations of many with new spectator UI and new casters. The biggest surprise, though, might be the stellar performance by North American teams in the group stages.
On opening day, three out of the four NA teams present won. TSM beat EU powerhouse Rouge and Spacestation Gaming defeated Pro League Season 10 champions Natus Vincere, while in a Raleigh Major rematch DarkZero Esports finished off the NA run with a win against FaZe Clan. It was a great start to an impressive weekend for everyone in NA besides Team Reciprocity. The current fourth-place team in NA Pro League was the only NA team to not make it out of groups, losing to both G2 Esports and BDS Esports to the scoreline of 2-1.
SSG, DZ, and TSM staying in Montreal
Both Spacestation Gaming and DarkZero Esports came out as the first seed in their respective groups. After defeating Natus Vincere on day one, Spacestation Gaming defended their group in convincing fashion against TSM to be the first team at SI 2020 to reach the main stage. DarkZero, on the other hand, had to go through what many considered to be the group of death, group A. Rounding out this group was Russian machine Team Empire, APAC’s best team Fnatic and LATAM’s FaZe Clan. DarkZero’s next challenge was Team Empire, reigning Raleigh Major Champions and SI 2019 runner-ups. This match was an instant classic watching two strategy heavy teams battle back and forth. DarkZero came out on top after winning 7-4, 7-5 on the final two maps.
TSM was in group B with Spacestation Gaming but were able to work their way through Natus Vincere on Sunday after falling to Spacestation Gaming on Saturday. TSM gained the second seed coming out of group B giving NA the highest amount of teams out of one region to compete on the main stage.
Meeting these three NA teams in Stage 2 will be G2, BDS, mibr, Fnatic, and NiP. Stage 2 kicks off February 11 as the hype continues to build towards to the main stage starting on February 14.
