How did you spend your bank holiday weekend? Well, I’ve just watched four American’s and a Canadian beat 20 of the best teams in the world to win a cool $217,000 in what could honestly be the hottest building in the world, in an industrial estate in Manchester. Welcome to the world of Rainbow Six Siege eSports.
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This past weekend saw the UK’s first ever official R6 Siege Major take place, where the worlds best teams and players fought it out to be crowned champions, bagging not only a tasty cash prize, but also valuable 350 Global Points towards the Six Invitational.
ESports Entry
If you are new to the world of Rainbow Six Siege eSports there are two types of events that take place over the year; two Majors and the Invitational. To get a place at the Invitational, you have to earn enough points across the Major’s and online events that year.
So, although the cash is nice, the real aim of winning is to bank the points, so you can get a place at the “real” event, in hopes if lifting the hammer (the Invitational trophy is replica of the game’s operator Sledge’s hammer).
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The Blast R6 Major in Manchester took place in a sold-out Manchester BEC Arena, where a max capacity crowd of 4,500 fans cheered on their favourite teams over the weekend.
Ranked Victory
The North American team, Beastcoast emerged victorious at the event. And it’s fair to say they were underdogs in the tournament. However, it was far from an easy path for the very new team, as they firstly finished sixth in phase two, before sweeping aside Faze Clan and Team Liquid in the quarter final and semi-final respectively.
This alone was a huge achievement as both Faze Clan and Team Liquid are seen as some of the best teams in the sport – having claimed countless victories at Major’s and Invitationals in the past. So, to see a fresh team that is less than 2-months-old at their first major tournament, is a real eye opener for a lot of people.
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Through grit, determination and God given skill, they earned their place in the final – where they would face Team BDS (a mainly French team; with Shaiiko, BriD and LikEfac being joined by Turkish player Solotov and Brit Yuzus) who were hands down the favourites to win and by far the team with the most support on the night of the final.
Beast Most
But Beastcoast’s Gunnar, Hotancold, dfuzr, Gaveni and SpiriTz had other plans and totally rewrote the script across the full five maps in the final, winning 3-2 in an extremely close and frantic final, that was truly full of emotion from start to finish.
Seeing Beastcoast lift the custom Major trophy aloft – itself being quite special.
As it was a bust of Rainbow Six Siege’s newest operator (and bad guy) Deimos, tearing his chest open to reveal a cavity full of shiny bullets, with a plaque on the base stating, “All according to plan”.
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This victory was in a lot of ways a redemption tale for each member of Beastcoast, as a lot of them were dropped by past teams and haven’t won anything in years, or worst of all couldn’t secure a place in a new team.
A Message to the Haters from Hotancold
And this redemption arc is perfectly clear to see from Hotancold’s post-match interview. Hotancold did not hold back: “F**k all the haters. I’ve been hated since day one, and now I’ve got a trophy, what are you gonna say now? We got it done, two months in.”
Teammate Gunnar – who was also named MVP of the tournament, having broken the standing kill total record across the tournament, added “They had everything to lose and we had nothing to lose. We were having fun!” “I don’t know what to say, this is the first time I’ve been at an event like this, it’s unreal. I didn’t think we’d win a major in two months, but we have! If you believed in us, I f**king love you.”
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This was also the first time I had attended an eSport event of this scale and it was a bit of an eye opener. To say it was “wild” at times is an understatement but in a good way, with it honestly having a lot in common with a live darts game, but for gamers…i.e. lots of chants, booze and holding up signs slagging off the opposing team.
I mean after taking my seat for my first game on Friday – Furia vs Team Liquid, cries of “your team’s s**t” and chants of “w**ker” were ringing around the arena and that was just the tip of the football-ish chants, but it was all taken in good fun by most.
Circulation Deprived
The biggest issue with the event as a whole though was the fact there was zero air conditioning in the event, which you may think isn’t a huge issue as we are in the UK. But when you put up to 4,500 loud, excited and very sweaty people in what is a huge steel shed, during a hot clammy summer’s day…you’ll quickly understand why this was an issue.
This also led into the ‘smell’ issue as well; between the overpowering reek of salt and chilli food (I’ve been put off for life), sickly sweet vape scents and good old gamer B.O. you can bet there was a real musk brewing in the place.
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Plus, the actual seats were woeful, about as comfortable as sitting on two broken bricks for 3+ hours. Though these are issues that could be easily sorted for future events.
Sideshow
Beyond watching the action there were a few fun distractions like getting to play a few rounds of Rainbow Six Siege, getting a snapshot with the lord and saviour – Chibi Tachanka and the merch shop.
Although, those looking to grab an official team shirt for most of the teams were left disappointed, as they only had a very very small selection (most of which were sold out on the first day) and what was there was extremely limited sizes. Though this may be down to the team organisers themselves, as rumour has it that they were approached to supply team gear for the event, with only a few answering the call.
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This in itself is bit mad, as it would have been a license to print money for the organisers. If they had stuck at £75 a top, they would have done very well let’s say. Though this was an issue with the merch shop overall as they sold out of a lot of stock on the first day, leaving only posters and hats up for grabs mostly. In retrospect, given the heat conditions…if they had sold Rainbow or event team designed handheld fans, they could’ve banked even more money.
There were also opportunities for meet and greets, where you could grab a picture or signature of the players and announcers on the Rainbow eSports circuit, which was a very nice touch, as most of the teams at the event were from Brazil, or America with very few having a UK element to them.
Rainbow Six Siege Sneak Peaks
As is the way with Rainbow Six live events, there was also an update/sneak peek at the next season. And, oddly, instead of having developers on stage talking about it, we were presented with a prerecorded video that was also streamed on Twitch.
However, given how the crowd reacted to the news of the new membership system heading to the game, I think it was for the best as this was unwelcome news that the crowd filled the hall with chants of “greedy b**trds”.
Major Mayhem Impresses
Overall, The Blast R6 Major in Manchester was brilliant from an eSport side, as we may have just witnessed the rise of the next super team in Beastcoast, plus getting to see players and teams I have watched on Twitch for years now, in the flesh was a rare treat.
Out with the gaming side, it was a wild house, but it had to be. Besides, despite the booze fuelled crowd at times and the chants of questionable subject matter, there were no issues or incidents to speak of.
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For being the first real Rainbow Six Siege Major in the UK, I hope this shows that the UK is hungry for events like this and that we should be next on the cards to host a Six Invitational after New York and Paris. Plus, huge bonus points for having the event in Manchester and not London.
Now, I am away to try some of those winning Beastcoast Rainbow Six Siege tactics to try and get out of Gold bracket on ranked.