This past weekend 16 of the best Rainbow Six Siege teams on the planet headed to Montreal, Canada, to compete for the title of world champions – and a cool $200,000 (£142,850) first prize.
The event was full of surprises, unbelievable plays and gave us one of the best finals the world of Rainbow Six has ever seen, with PENTA Sports eventually triumphing.
The 16 teams were split into four groups of four teams, playing a GSL-style bracket to decide the eight that would make it to the main event.
The Rainbow Six Siege (Mike Stubbs/PA)
PENTA Sports and Evil Geniuses made it out of the first group, with Rouge and Mindfreak coming out of the second.
Black Dragons e-Sports and Supremacy progressed from the third of the groups while FaZe Clan and ENCE eSports made it out of the last group.
Some big name orgs – such as Team Liquid and Counter Logic Gaming – failed to make it out of the group stage.
However the success of teams such as Mindfreak and 1UPeSport shows that the Siege pro scene is in a very healthy place across the world and that the competition in all regions is at the highest level.
Once the tournament hit the knockout stage it became clear who the favourites for the event were.
PENTA Sports quickly dominated both their quarter and semi-finals with 2-0 wins to cement a place in the final.
They were a class above the rest, adapting to strategies on the fly and using a massive amount of different operators.
On the other side of the bracket defending champions Evil Geniuses had a much harder time, just making it past FaZe Clan in the quarters and then being just one round away from being knocked out in their semi-final against Rogue. They somehow pulled that match back and joined PENTA in the final.
The grand final was a match for the ages. EG stormed to a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five final, but a backstage team talk during a mid-series break revitalised PENTA.
They came back swinging, changing their playstyle and forcing EG to make silly mistakes. Two pretty convincing map wins took us to a final map.
Both teams put it all on the line in the last map, with the score ending up at 4-4 – meaning overtime was required.
PENTA took a quick round win to put them on match point but in the following round it looked like they were about to let it slip from their fingers.
EG had two players left to PENTA’s one, but PENTA player Niclas “Pengu” Mouritzen came up big with two quick kills to secure the world championship.
Now one of the most successful teams in Rainbow Six Siege history has finally won the biggest event in the calendar, taking home $200,000 to split between the five players and their coach.
They will surely be celebrating the win for a while, but will have to return to the grind soon as the new look Pro League is only a few weeks away.
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