From North America, to Latin America, and now Australia, Elevate becomes the fifth international organisation to sign a Rainbow Six squad in the region, picking up the ex-Oddity Esports roster.
The North American organisation announced the move on March 5, just two weeks after ditching their Latin American roster.
“The opportunity to sign a top roster in the ANZ region and potentially APAC representative on the world stage was one that we could not pass up,” said Justin Tan and Brandon Hatfield, the owners of Elevate.
“With this roster, we hope to grow and help them reach the potential that we know that they are capable of,” they told Snowball Esports.
The new Elevate roster has already shown their potential in the Rainbow Six Pro League in Season 11. They currently sit in second on the standings with six maps to play, only one point behind ladder leaders Fnatic.
BOOM. IT’S A HUGE 3K FOR @Vast_R6! 🔥🔥 #R6PL
— ESL Rainbow Six (@ESLRainbowSix) January 16, 2020
📺https://t.co/Fl2ghZOVAc pic.twitter.com/VfdEm0YjK0
The roster has come tantalizingly close to spots at the APAC Pro League finals, and with this new organisational backing, they hope to finally break through on the world stage.
“With the team barely missing out on APAC Finals last season, we know that they are on track to make it this season and be one of the representatives for APAC in the Pro League finals,” said Tan and Hatfield.
“Although we are in a good spot, we are definitely not comfortable with where we are sitting so we still have a lot of work to do,” added team captain Isaiah “Vast” Patterson.
“We have to get more results and the backing that Elevate has provided us has been a huge motivational boost with addition of relieving some stress.”
The team has their sights set high though — just making it international isn’t enough. They want to cement themselves at the top of ANZ, APAC, and global Rainbow Six for the years to come.
“We want to be the best ANZ team however long it takes and we want to be at LAN events frequently,” Vast said.
While the team received offers locally, they decided Elevate was the best fit for their goals, and the North American organisation is looking to show their commitment to the scene from across the Atlantic.
We did receive quite a few offers from various orgs during this mid-season break, some offers were very similar,” said Vast. “The team gravitated towards Elevate after our initial conversations for a number of reasons.”
“Elevate is an international organization that is always looking to field the best talent in the games that we enter,” added Tan and Hatfield. “If there is an opportunity to support more ANZ esports, you can be assured that we will be looking into it.”
On top of the organizational support, Elevate has made a slight roster change during the transition to their new team. Jonathan “Gio” Lanciana has departed the squad, with Kanga’s Patrick “Worthy” Gleeson filling the vacancy.
Elevate’s roster is as follows:
- Raine “DgTl” Wright
- Luke “Redd” Cini
- Isaiah “Vast” Patterson
- Jake “GodLeg1on” Harris
- Patrick “Worthy” Gleeson
Elevate’s roster will play their first game under their new banner against Six Invtiational 2020 attendees Wildcard Gaming on March 19 at 7pm AEDT. You can catch the action live on the Rainbow Six Twitch channel.
Follow Elevate on Twitter.
