I had the opportunity to talk with Lachlan”MrB” Brown about In Game Leading, the NSG Summer Championship, Challenger League , and Attacker Repick.
You can follow MrB on Twitter at MrB_R6
The first place I always like to start with these interviews is how did you get your start in Siege and comp siege as a whole?
I saw some YouTube video, I don’t remember who’s, and with that I basically was able to find Red Cube Rainbow Six. And I watched a little bit there. I was like, Wow, this is really cool, this is what I want to do. So I first joined a team that was like, I don’t know. Probably a last place team in RC R6. They didn’t really want to practice. So after a week, I was like, Okay, this team isn’t doing things. The first day I was there they did a scrim and I was like, Wow, this is awesome, this is so cool. Right? I was like, Scrimming is awesome, I like this. And then they were just barely doing it. I was like, I can do this myself, I don’t need these people. So I went out and went to the mix of the CCS discord and then the official Rainbow Six discord and I built a team of players. Went to Red Cube R6 Season 2, and we qualified. Actually did really well and somehow qualified. You know, we got in, played a couple game days. And then I got picked up by a different team after a few game days, with Skeeboza as the IGL.
He’s a really good IGL. I played under him for a little while. And he’s kind of I would say he’s where I really learned how to play competitive. I didnt IGL at that point. But the next team after that, IGL’d and I pretty much have been an IGL ever since.
With that kind of framing of you getting your IGL start, what are your thoughts of IGL as a role?
So I think it really depends on what kind of team you’re working with, right? So if I’m working with a super aggressive group of players, do you remember the Chess Club roster?
Nyx Mid. I’ll say it
Lachlan “MrB” Brown
Yeah, I watched a few VoDs.
Yeah, so the Chess Club roster was filled with a ton of players that all they could really do was walk at people and shoot. They’re really good at that. By being able to add a little bit of just, This is where you need to walk and shoot. We were able to do super well. We were the best team in Tier 3. It’s not like I was directing their every move, because that’s not what they needed. Allowing them to have that freedom was actually what made them more successful. But they still needed that sense of direction. That’s all I really gave them, is a sense of direction or where they need to push. Then when it came down to 3v3s, I helped them learn how to play the situations a bit better. Because one of the things about being the IGL, it’s typically the captain. And if you don’t have a coach, especially in Tier 3, you’re also the coach. So basically, I would make the strats I would teach people how to play these different situations, communicate better, all these kinds of things. All that stuff, it pays off. So in game, I’m not actually doing nearly as much for a team like that.
But on a team like TTK, where we’ve got some straight gunners who can shoot, but we have a little bit more structure in there. We want to push things a little bit more coordinated. I can set up a bit more, I can adapt a little bit more. And that doesn’t mean every single round I’m bringing in some new creative ideas, but I can. I have the ability to, and I can win us rounds by doing that. I think one of my best examples from last season would have been against Nokturns. I think that was my best game as an IGL. I just kind of out IGL’d every single thing they did. I think it was a little easier that day, probably because Poison- really just Poison wasn’t there. I know Nyx was technically IGL. But, you know, Nyx mid. I’ll say it.
Oh, wow, okay, hot takes already. Let’s go.
Yeah, I don’t know, I think the fact that Poison wasn’t on that team was kind of disgraceful.
What are your thoughts on how much of a voice the individual players who aren’t IGL should have, then?
I think that it’s important for them to have a voice. I think the thing is, what a lot of people want is, “Oh, yeah, you always have to listen to your players,” right? And there’s a certain point where you’re running down, you have a minute left on the clock, and you’re making a call. None of your players, even if they have a great idea, should interrupt that call. Because you just gotta get something done. If you’re stalling out, you’re not finding anything, and one of your players says something, absolutely. That’s perfectly fine. Right before the round, if you’re not actively making a call as to what you’re going to do, go on ahead. It’s basically, if the IGL is speaking, typically shut the fuck up. Because they got a lot more experience in this than you do, most likely, and as well as you just can’t have more than one person speaking. But if your IGL is not speaking, or it’s just a point in the round where it doesn’t really matter, like, first minute, go ahead. Say whatever you want. You can IGL that round, for instance. You know, there was a few rounds last [stage of CL] that you’d heard Trist really tuned on in and really helped out there.
Right. Yeah, like having that decisive mid round call of “I see a gap, this is what we need to do.”
Because they have information they don’t have, or they just see something I don’t see. And that’s great. Right? The problem becomes when you know, it tries to be a bit more than that. In the last 30 seconds, you’re trying to make this call, and it’s like, come on, just shut up. I just gotta make something happen here. Even if it’s not perfect. The biggest thing is, with IGLing, and just playing as a team. It’s better to do the wrong thing together than the right thing alone.
Last summer with Chess Club, you guys won the NSG Summer Championship and then followed it up with a 3/4th place ranking in SCS. How was that?
So winning. NSG was awesome. The team was really good. I think we had some little problems with people just not really meshing too well. I didn’t get along too well with Bills. Bills is a much younger player and no flame to him, he’s a great player, I think he’s even quit at this point. But he was there to have fun, not improvement, and that’s fine. But I’m there to improve and you can tell that by the fact that Bills doesn’t play comp anymore. He quit right? He’s a barber I think.
And that’s fine. But we had some disagreements there because they’d have fun and stuff, but the rest of the roster is now all in CL, so that’s you know, that kind of goes to show [the talent]. Then when it came to SCS we switched out some players, I think it was Reed[sink].
But we brought in Gunnar. And even from day one. We kind of decided we were gonna do it before we even scrimmed with him. And from day one, we realized it wasn’t really working, because Gunnar’s not an IGL, but he likes things to be played his way. Right? And he doesn’t respect many people. I’m sure now going into PL he respects his teammates, it’s not gonna be a problem. But at the least, he didn’t really respect me. So I would try to make calls and I just wouldn’t be able to do so. By the end of it, it ended up being like, nobody was really IGL’ing, and he was just kind of saying his thing, and I was just doing my thing, and other people would say other things. That’s why we struggled as a team. We had the best roster. It’s just communication. None of that matters if there’s that kind of communication breakdown. He’s a great player. But, it just didn’t work.
Sometimes teams have the firepower, but something doesn’t work chemistry wise. And the on-paper [potential] never translates to in server [performance]. It happens, so it is what it is, right?
Yeah, well, I’m a difficult person to work with. I know that, I’m fully aware of that. I really want to win, I need things to be done to some extent my way, right? Like, if I’m talking, shut the fuck up. It’s not me being rude. That’s what we need to win.
I don’t care about second place. I’m here for first.
Lachlan “MrB” Brown
How do you think the season went overall for TTK?
I think it went really well. I think actually looking back at it we probably should have won the Ellysar game which we lost. We probably should have lost the Gaiming Gladiators game which we won. And then the last few games of the stage, so actually the last week, so ATK, Karn & co. and Outlast. We’d already decided we are dropping two of our players. Two of our players knew they were being dropped before we played any of those. We were already doing tryouts for different players. So the fact that we still managed to win the ATK game but lost the other two, which was terrible. It’s not surprising losses, but I was trying to get ahead of the game for making these [roster] changes. Because of some of the stuff I was dealing with in the offseason, that didn’t end up really working out.
Were you trying out people at that point because you guys knew, “Hey, we can’t win this stage. We can’t make top two?”
We couldn’t get first. It kind of sucked because we were 7-2, we had the best record. But because we’ve gotten so many overtime wins it didn’t really matter. We couldn’t get first. We could have gotten second, which is great, we get second place. But second place is…you know. I don’t care about second place. I’m here for first. So I was already working on filling out the roster and getting in some good players.
With that said, going into Stage Two, what are your expectations? Because I think TTK showed a lot of promise last stage, but obviously, you’re coming into it with a new roster this time.
I think because of how difficult my offseason has been, I think we’re gonna do our best, but I doubt we will be the best roster in CL. If we’re the best team in CL, it’s not because we’re the best roster. I’ll tell you that much. We have some good players. But in terms of experience, in terms of all this other stuff, we just don’t have it. We’re gonna do our absolute best, and I think we’ll win some games, but my goal is to finish in fourth or third.
Now that may be possible, it could be worse than that. We’re not in a great position right now is basically the gist of it. We’re gonna do what we can, I think we can do it. It’s possible, but it all depends on how much practice we’re willing to put in.
So then, given what you know about the offseason and roster changes, who do you expect to be the best team in Challenger League in Stage Two?
I think Nokturns are going to be really good this stage, but they’re gonna have to come from the bottom. So I don’t think they’ll be able to finish first or anything. But I think you’ll see them and they’ll be incredibly strong. I think they’ll probably end in the top seven, maybe top six. I think Arial Arise is gonna have another really strong stage. They didn’t change their roster at all from my knowledge. So they’re gonna have another super strong stage. I think the new team, so Max’s (Max1ly) team with all those guys, Max, Adapt, all of them, I’m not gonna leak the whole roster. but you know, thats going to be the core of the team. I think they have to start from zero points. But if they didn’t lose a game this stage, it wouldn’t surprise me.
I think CL is pretty stacked right now roster wise. I think I think really what you’re going to be seeing coming in the next few stages is the teams that kind of get that like structure in that coaching staff and all that kind of stuff. are gonna find a lot more success.
Lachlan “MrB” Brown
Okay, so what about 1Shot? Obviously, I don’t know what the roster is doing, Drip is making fun of the roster changes online and all that. But what are your thoughts of where the roster could potentially be going? And like, where do you think it compares to the old 1Shot Roster?
I don’t know. their new players at all, but I think it’ll be worse no matter what. They’ve kept some solid players. It just all depends on who they pick up. But I doubt the pickups will be so amazing that it will be worthwhile for them.
Slippery is an odd one. I don’t know why they dropped him. Subarctic I could see but he also had an all right stage. Nobody on their team had a bad stage. I think it’s a little odd. If you’re going to remove anybody, I think it would be nvK. But I think he brings a lot to the team.
It’s definitely an interesting team. Right? You feel like you have higher expectations for it than they actually have.
I don’t. I think their success is largely due to teamwork. They play well as a team. Well, I think if you’re actually looking at the rosters they should be like bottom 6 probably. So I think they did well last stage, and I think they’ll probably do alright this stage but yeah, I think CL is pretty stacked right now roster wise. I think I think really what you’re going to be seeing coming in the next few stages is the teams that kind of get that structure in coaching staff and all that kind of stuff. are gonna find a lot more success.
What are your thoughts on attacker repick now that you’ve had some time with the mechanic? How do you think it is, especially how do you think it is in comparison to sixth pick?
So I think it’s fantastic. I think a lot of people really dislike it because it changes the entire way the game is played, it makes the game more Attacker sided, all these kinds of things. But I think that’s actually really good for the game. I think it’s been really boring over the last I don’t know, I guess, three years, where you’ve kind of brought the same exact lineup every single round on Attack. Unless you know, suddenly what site to go into or something, and you can’t really know that. So I think with the attacker repick, I like it as it is because you can genuinely switch your lineup depending on what site they’re going to and what you think they’re going to do.
Now, it all relies on how good your droning is, and your info gathering is. But I think it’s really good and I think it allows teams to actually counter strat on the fly and not just have analysts behind the scenes be counter stratting for them. I see that they’re doing a trophy hold on Oregon, I can switch up my take, depending on that. If I see they’re not running Wamai or Warden or any of that stuff. I can bring on a smoke/Ying meta. Old metas can be brought out on attack, depending on what the defense is bringing. But that in turn, has turned the Defense into just being super aggressive. So it makes a much faster pace game. I think there’s good parts of it, bad parts of it. I think it would be good if the early aggression could be turned down a little bit. I think there are ways and means of doing that. I think having one 1.5s on defense is not good. I don’t like it. There’s no reason to have 1.5s on Defense to an extent. But I also think right now with how we defend, we still need to remove it.
It’s kind of a necessary evil, which is the worst kind because you see Alibi being taken more often for the 1.5 and shield, than you know, her utility.
So the reason Alibi is brought is, she’s got a 1.5, that’s a huge part of the reason. But it’s basically you could bring Alibi or Aruni when you want to have a strong gun, 1.5, and you can make holes for a roam. That’s the biggest thing. It’s that you have a way to make holes for yourself. So you’ll see most every site that they’re doing any kind of roam and Alibi or Aruni will typically be brought. That or they run double shotgun. But most teams don’t want to bring a double shotgun. So that’s the reason you see those ops brought.I think that would be another good thing, is having more defensive operators have some kind of secondary shotgun. I think it’s a really good thing for the game, especially with Defense being weak, it would be nice to see.
Especially because Mozzie lost his secondary shotgun way back. That really opened up the meta for a while and opened up flexibility. You didn’t have to run a Smoke as religiously.
For sure. I think with the nerfs to the Roni I would not mind seeing him get that back at all. There’s a bunch of operators, Jaeger getting some kind of secondary shotgun would be really nice to see.
To close out the interview. This is a bit of a joke question, but if your name is your handle is short for Mr. British, right?
No, it is not. So, I used to go by lmrb8. Right. Lachlan, Michael Robert Brown. And 8 was when I started playing video games properly. That’s when I needed my first user name. But people would always think it was imrb8. And so one day, it was like after I just started playing comp, somebody looked at my name and was like, “oh, it’s i Mr. B.” I aM RB, so I know. And I was like, “Wait, that’s pretty good.” So I kind of took that. I just removed the the L that looks like an I because it was lowercase. And so technically it stands for Michael Robert Brown, but that’s where it comes from.