Rainbow Six NA Pro League’s Race for First Place Gets Tenser

Luminosity’s Honeymoon is Finally Over

Luminosity Gaming entered the scene with great performances at the start of the second super week. From frag highlights to insane plays, this team was amazing to watch. However, NA Pro League teams seem to have sussed them out. On playdays five and six, Luminosity experienced back-to-back losses to Evil Geniuses and Spacestation Gaming.

Their defeat to EG was a slap in the face to the highfliers. Evil Geniuses is NA’s most prestigious team and they defeated LG in a perfect 7-0 game. Furthermore, coach Aaron “Gotcha” Chung even subbed in for Emilio “Geoometrics” Leynez Cuevas and managed to perform phenomenally well.

As for Spacestation Gaming, they are a team that trail behind the top four ever so slightly. SSG’s victory over LG puts them just shy of the top four, and that’s a scary situation for LG to be in. Falling from first to tying for third with EG is a tricky situation. LG will need to tighten their gameplay for day seven and beyond.

Despite these results being their only losses so far, LG should be able to see exactly where they can improve on, which is a good thing for the NA newcomers.

Battle for First Place

Following on from LG’s fall from the top, two new entrants have taken pole position. DarkZero and Team Reciprocity are now neck-and-neck for first place. The best bit about this is that both DZ and REC have the same score line at 4 wins, 1 tie and 1 loss.

Team Reciprocity defeated the bottom two teams, TSM and the Soniqs over the last two playdays and cruise their way towards playday seven. On the other hand, DarkZero drew against SSG on playday five, while heavily beating TSM on playday 6.

Next week, the two goliaths of DarkZero and Team Reciprocity compete against each other in a battle for first place. This will determine the number one of NA as we head into the mid-season break.

Although, the fun doesn’t end here. Both Team Reciprocity and DarkZero were fighting over the second-place finish at the end of Season 9, with DarkZero only pulling ahead by the slightest margin. This matchup has been building for a while with great prospects for the victor. Like in Europe, the battle for first will be NA’s most exciting match so far this season.

NA’s LAN Buff is Over

Prior to DreamHack Valencia, Rogue and TSM were struggling in the North American Pro League. TSM were plagued with losses with only one draw. Meanwhile, Rogue experienced a spree of draws. Using Pro League as evidence, it made sense to think NA would struggle at DreamHack Valencia.

Instead, these two teams seemed to be empowered by their international trip. TSM made their way into the quarterfinals while Rogue won the entire tournament. They were impressive given the context around their teams.

However, the LAN buff they both had seems to have come crashing down. TSM remain at the bottom of the standings while Rogue struggle to win.

For Rogue, their first Pro League game back from DreamHack Valencia couldn’t have been any more disastrous. Rogue losing to Soniqs despite coming off the back of a LAN victory is disappointing. Contrary to this result, Rogue did manage to perform well against EG on playday six. This match is surely a case of what-ifs for Rogue. Evil Geniuses had to come back and with it, they forced the tie.

As for TSM, most of their plays online just don’t seem to be working. Their recent failings range from attempting stacked pushes to getting clipped through cover at long range. This is a sign that TSM’s timings, pushes and map movement just isn’t there. It feels as if this team relies too much on luck and cheeky advantages rather than a coherent strategy. With such failures now evident through another 0-2 week, how much longer do they need to become a synergized unit?

Standings

1. DarkZero – 13 points
2. Team Reciprocity – 13 points
3. Luminosity Gaming – 10 points
4. Evil Geniuses – 10 points
5. Spacestation Gaming – 9 points
6. Rogue – 6 points
7. Soniqs – 4 points
8. TSM – 1 point