Rainbow Six Siege: The 11th Season of the Pro League
In the second part of our eSports special on Rainbow Six Siege, we bring you a preview of Season XI of the Pro League and Challenger League in Europe. Both leagues are extremely competitive and feature a lineup of the best professional players and teams.
Many are expecting the toughest Pro League of all time for Rainbow Six Siege in Europe for Season 11. Can the series winners from G2 Esports once again conquer all, or do we expect new challengers at the top?
The race to the top has begun
It won't be easy for any of the teams, that's for sure. The eSports pros from G2 have dominated Rainbow Six Siege for years, previously as the lineup of PENTA Sports. But in the past two years, it has no longer been enough for them to make it to the Pro League Finals. Many fans are hoping for their stars to make a comeback, but the competition has been gaining ground in recent years and the relatively frequent player changes have not delivered the desired results for G2 Esports.
Last season, Natus Vincere (NaVi) finished the season in first place and also won the finals, so the team is one of the favorites for the new season. But also Team Empire, Rogue and Vitality must be on the screen in the new season. Under the banner of Team Vitality, an extremely powerful lineup was formed during the winter break. New additions are former G2 player Goga and ex PENTA player Hungry.
Also not to be underestimated are the two newcomers from the Challenger League (BDS Esport and ForZe), who both won a clear victory in the relegation against PENTA and GiFu eSports.
The experts at Siege.gg once again see Natus Vincere in first place in the Pro League for the new Season 11, followed by Team Empire and Rogue. The latter were particularly successful in the league's online matches, while performing significantly more poorly in the LAN matches in the finals.
No team can be relegated directly this season, nor does any organization have to go through the relegation playoffs, as the Pro League will be increased from eight to ten teams for Season 12, with two teams joining from the Challenger League.
How the first few matchdays went
The new season of the Rainbow Six Siege Pro League started on Monday, 1/6/2020. The first match day already saw some spectacular duels in Europe. The up-and-comers from ForZe surprisingly beat the champions from Natus Vincere with a clear 7–3 victory, while G2 Esports managed to win a close match against the other up-and-coming team BDS Esports at 7–5.
Rogue (with the former lineup of Giants Gaming) also beat Chaos by a close 7–5. Team Empire, which had been a bit shaky last year, made an impressive comeback in the last match of the day, leaving Vitality in the dust with a 7–1 win.
The second match day of Season 11 continued on Wednesday. In the first match, Empire again won a clear victory with a score of 7–3, this time against BDS. Team Empire thus led the table after two days of play, with a round ratio of +10. Rogue and NaVi went their separate ways with 6–6 in a highly competitive match, which gave both teams one point each.
G2 Esports, Team Vitality, and Chaos Esports Club each had one win after the second match day. G2 had to take a defeat against Vitality and lost narrowly with 5–7, Chaos on the other hand won just as narrowly against ForZe with 7–5.
On Monday, January 13, the Pro League in Europe continued with the following matches:
- BDS vs. Vitality
- Rogue vs. Empire
- G2 vs. ForZe
- NaVi vs. Chaos
The third match day opened with BDS vs. Vitality, where the newcomer clearly asserted itself in the defining match of the day with 7–2. With that, BDS also gained its first points in the Pro League, moving it up to 5th place with the victory.
The most balanced match of the day ended unsurprisingly in a draw, with neither Empire nor Rogue able to gain an edge, resulting in a final score of 6–6 and allowing Team Empire to remain in first place in the Pro League.
G2 Esports got back on track with a 7–4 win over ForZe, while last year's winners NaVi beat Chaos 7–5. After the third match day, Empire and G2 Esports lead the table and would, as of now, qualify for the Pro League Finals.
The Challenger League in the New Year
There is no exact start date for Season 11 of the Challenger League in Europe yet, but four teams have already been confirmed. The remaining four organizations will be added via qualification rounds. The veterans from last year remain: Team Secret and OrgLess, the latter of which almost always relied on a purely German lineup. The newcomers are GiFu eSports and PENTA from the Pro League.
Since December, RECARO has been supporting the professional players and Berlin organization PENTA, which saw itself relegated to the Challenger League after many years in the Pro League. Season 11 of the Challenger League will be correspondingly competitive. It is not yet clear how exactly two of the teams will qualify for Season 12 of the Pro League, but it will probably pay off to fight particularly hard for 1st and 2nd place.
With OrgLess, Team Secret and PENTA, there are numerous professional professional gamers with many years of experience in Rainbow Six Siege. against each other.
In the third and last part of our Rainbow Six Siege special, we look at the Rainbow Six Invitational 2020, which will be taking place in early February in Montreal, Canada.