Rainbow 6 Siege NA League Awards

After three stages of play, the North American League has reached its end. To celebrate the end of the season we wanted to present awards to the best (and worst) teams and players from all three stages of play.

• Best Team- Stage 1 DarkZero Esports

  By Sebastain Rooney

  This award came down between DZ and Asralis. Although Astralis finished in first place for both Stages 1 & 2, DarkZero was able to win the Charlotte Major during Stage 1. Being able to perform at your best when the lights are the brightest is what makes great teams great. They don’t let the pressure of the moment get to them hence them being able to walk away with the Thermite bust back in May. While they may not be competing in Sweden next month, they are focused on the Siege Invitational and look to bring back the hammer to North American soil.

• Rookie of the Year- Nuers from Oxygen Esports

  Nuers has been a lock for this award since the conclusion of stage 1. His play helped Oxygen propel themselves into a team that is able to strike fear into any opponent. Being one of the top fraggers not only in NA but in the world, is something that you don’t see often. Especially when going from Tier 3 competition to Tier 1. His transition was seamless and he even walked away as the Stage 2 MVP.

• L+Ratio Award- Team SoloMid FTX

  This award is for the team that fell off the hardest. Despite them finishing 1st in Stage 3, Stage 1 & 2 were abysmal for TSM. Coming off of winning the biggest Siege tournament of the year, the Siege Invitational, you would expect TSM to be favorites for Stage 1. That unfortunately wasn’t the case. Stage 1 and 2 saw them finish 9th and 8th respectively. The most popular team in NA got hit with a bad case of SI hangover but it seems that they have righted that ship.

• RKO Award- Stage 3 Mirage

  The award for the team that came outta nowhere. In this history of the NAL, Mirage has been seen as the punching bag of the league (unless you were Beastcoast). With back to back stages being ranked 10th, change was in order. They ended up dropping Marmalade and Nyx and picked up 2 rookies in Mohesse and Dexter. This ended up being exactly what they needed. From bottom feeders to a major qualifier it is safe to say that this jump came outta nowhere.

• The 'Chanka- Stage 2 Playday 3 Sweater

  Throughout the year, some of the players showed a literal different side of them. This award recognizes the best “alter ego” from the year. In Stage 1 we were introduced to the Batman of Siege, Iconic from Astralis, and in Stage 3 we had caped crusader Forrest, also from Astralis. But no one came close to the dominance of one man in particular. Catboy Sweater. Leading his team to a dominant win over Spacestation, CB Sweater dropped 21 kill and what better way to cap off an already purr-fect day than by taking home the MVP award for the day. 

• Game of the Year- Astralis vs XSET, Stage 1, Playday 8

  There were plenty of games that went to max OT throughout the year. However, no other match felt like it mattered more than this one. This was a match between #1 Astralis vs #3 XSET. At this point in time XSET was playing for their major spot while Astralis was trying to play spoiler. The game started in streaks. After dropping Round 1 Astralis won the next three. Then XSET went on their own run to secure three consecutive rounds of their own. In the second half of the game it went back and forth thus sending the game into overtime. In OT it went the extra three rounds where Astralis would go on to secure the win and put XSET’s fate into someone else’s hands. There is only so much that can be explained in an article but I would recommend watching the VOD. The link to it is right here. 

• MVP- Iconic, Astrallis

  What else can be said about the Batman of the NAL. He was one of the main reasons that Astralis found themselves in first place for two of the three stages. Among players that played in all three stages, you would find Iconic ranked 4th in rating and K/D (kill/death). But his value lies more in his impact. Iconic was second in the league in 1vX situations (clutch moments). Many times throughout the year he was able to bring back a round from the brink. His consistency was something that was unmatched and all though the team itself came up short of making the major in Stage 3, Iconic found himself being the best player on one of the best teams all year long.