The Dust Starts to Settle for Rainbow 6
Now that playdays 7 and 8 are in the books, the dust is starting to settle in the North American League. Teams have been confirmed as well as eliminated for the Sweden Major but more importantly the Siege Invitational got its first confirmed team.
What Happened
Going into playday 7 almost every team had a chance to qualify for the Sweden Major and by the end of playday 8 most teams found their place. Oxygen became the second team to be eliminated from major contention. Despite looking like their Stage 1 and 2 selves by beating Soniqs and DarkZero, it was far too late to make a run at the major.
Astralis found themselves on the right on the edge of the major, finding themselves 5th after beating XSET and Soniqs. While these 2 wins did not secure them a spot in Sweden, it did confirm them as the first team in the world heading to the Siege Invitational.
XSET, DarkZero, and Parabellum all found themselves eliminated as well by the end of day 8 after not walking out from this week with any points. On the flip side, TSM and Spacestation became the first 2 teams in the world to qualify for the Sweden Major.
Spacestation was able to pull off the most dominant week in North American League history by sweeping Beastcoast and dropping only one round to XSET. Beastcoast finally got their first win of the season by beating Mirage in playday 8.
What’s Left to Play For?
Going into the last playday there are 2 major spots left with 3 teams all looking to secure their spot. Soniqs, Mirage, and Astralis are the final teams that do not have a clear future until the final playday in the NAL. Mirage and Soniqs play each other where the winner of that will be going to Sweden. Astralis is playing Oxygen, who seem to be back to form. If you are an Astralis fan you are also a Soniqs fan as a Mirage loss would be the easiest path to the major for Astralis. The other notable match is Spacestation vs TSM but since both of these teams have already qualified this is more for bragging rights and first place in the NAL.
Be sure to catch the end of another exciting stage of North American League Rainbow 6 on Wednesday at twitch.tv/rainbow6 and youtube.com/rainbowsixesports at 11am PST.