Leading up to the Six Invitational Closed Quals, I asked a bunch of CL talent about their thoughts. This is a particularly interesting bracket as every team has a chance of winning, even the underdogs like RealityTV and Mirage. RTV in particular stands out as they’re the most competitive Challenger League team we’ve seen despite losing stars like Gaveni and Packer.
The favorites were of course SSG and TSM, with TSM being slightly more favored due to their playstyle SSG. Some have concerns regarding how SSG will perform internationally even if they do win the Closed Quals. RTV was given a certified underdogTM status by many, but there are concerns around their roster woes leading up to the event. Only one person believes in another (Mr)Biblical performance out of the CL team. Mirage seems to be written off.
Now, onto the actual thoughts
Forceful
I don’t think there will be any upsets, SSG vs TSM finals, SSG takes it.
Crow
TSM is the favorite to win.
SSG are really good but they haven’t performed as well internationally as other NA teams.
RTV has a chance to upset.
Fellow
It’s been a little more challenging to gather info on TSM and SSG since they haven’t played a streamed game since the last Major, but for general thoughts:
For TSM, I think they’ll do much better compared to MRG. They have a similar map pool, so it would just come down to the better structured team, which falls with TSM.
RTV/SSG will be the more interesting game for sure as that could go either way depending on the day.
Good chance we see a TSM/RTV Final with TSM winning, but RTV showing brilliance.
Big handicap though for RTV has to be the lack of time they’ve had playing with Ryce, who’s filling in Valor’s spot
Lynxx
I’m not confident in predicting either of the two initial matches. I think Mirage could overperform and beat TSM just as I think RealityTV could pop off and beat SSG. However, I’m of the opinion that, no matter what the initial results are, the grand final will be TSM vs SSG.
When you are playing Bo3s, especially multiple Bo3s in a row over multiple days, consistency becomes a bigger and bigger factor. I think TSM has players that can consistently perform at a high level and I think SSG has a system that can persevere over the course of multiple series
Cookiez
TSM over Mirage, TSM is infinitely more experienced everywhere, has more resources, have a more clear team direction and have a better map pool. The needle is breaking off the scale for this one. It would take herculean performances from Currency (Benjimoola) and Hyper to even barely take a map it seems. It would require an implosion in which we’ve never seen before in the history of Rainbow Six Siege, from TSM.
TSM should make it out. I think they are similar to RTV in that they have the crackhead playstyle that has ALWAYS given SSG unbelievable fits, no matter who it is. While the diff between them and RTV being able to pull an upset is that obviously TSM is much more stable as a roster and isn’t getting poached to death so they should actually be able to materialize an ideal result.
I must add, MRG is also in a form of turmoil. They’re really just learning what works as they go, and dealing with extramural circumstances on top of it. That COULD be an advantage, but I’m not going to make that stretch. Saying they’re a Major team that has it all figured out would be the biggest cap on the app, coming from someone who wanted them to make it. They DEFINITELY benefited from rebuild mode DZ and OXG to make the Major, and in a Bo3, which last I checked is this event, they would be hard pressed to beat anybody above their weight. I think they really benefited from Bo1 season format, but aren’t built to make a serious deep run in anything.
[There was a section on the SSG/RTV match, but it has been removed the reason being:]
I was in MrB’s stream for 20 mins and heard all I need to hear.
I’m picking them