The Six Masters top four is locked. Wildcard, SiNister, Okami, and the Pittsburgh Knights will battle it out for Oceanic pride. It comes after an intense final week that didn’t see playoffs spots locked until the final bout.
Heading into the final week of Six Masters action, only one team was guaranteed a spot in the playoffs — Wildcard. Six of the seven remaining squads had to duke it out for three spots over three nights, and the final spot was only decided in the final map of the season.
SiNister were at the head of the chasing pack, with only one match on the cards across the three nights against Ferox last Wednesday. Sitting at 8-4 heading into the week, they needed just one map win to secure a playoffs spot, but they went one better.
While their opponents were in a considerably more dire situation on the ladder, SiNister wanted to cement second seed heading into playoffs. Vincent “Vincere” Daniele told Snowball Esports that SiNister weren’t prepared to just take a top four spot — they wanted the best possible result.
“We go into every game prepared for a fight and knew we had to prep just as we did every other week to get the win over Ferox,” he said.
It’s a clinical defence for @TeamSiNisterGG as they take a 3-1 lead on Club House! #SixMasters
— Rainbow 6 ANZ (@Rainbow6ANZ) June 10, 2020
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Starting out on Villa, SiNister broke out to a quick lead after posting an even 3-3 attack half. They managed to secure it in the final round of regulation on defense, but it wasn’t totally clean as Ferox put together a fight to stay in the running thanks to some good Ying strategies.
“In terms of the mentality during the match, we always felt in control, a few rounds just seemed to slip away from us,” he admitted.
“We shut them down early in the round, but let the Ying pick really dominate moving into execute phase, something we expected but didn’t adapt to.”
It was the same story on Clubhouse. SiNister once again got an early lead, and while Ferox mounted a comeback in the second half, they once again fell down at the final hurdle.
It was somewhat befitting of Ferox’s entire season, which featured two 8-7 overtime losses to Okami and Wildcard — two maps that if they went their way, would have seen them make the Six Masters playoffs.
“Ferox are a really good team who just haven’t been able to find consistent results this season,” Vinnie stated. “They’ve always been a tough opponent and can really catch teams off-guard if you don’t take them seriously.”
Vinnie was far from getting caught off-guard himself though. SiNister’s hard fragger yet again posted a solid performance in the final week of play, with 26 kills across the 24 rounds, including 16 on Clubhouse.
Those stats haven’t been once-offs for the star player either. He’s consistently been at the top of the leaderboard, second to only Wildcard’s Ethan “Ethan” Picard in total kills during Six Masters. However, he downplayed his successes, saying it’s part of the team effort.
“It’s been a great run for me going into the last 3-4 weeks, but my kills are entirely a representation of the Siege we’re playing as a team,” he said.
“An entry is only as good as the info he’s being provided, and I couldn’t be putting in these performances without the support I’ve recieved.”
Heading into playoffs, SiNister will be facing off against third-seeded Okami in the first round. During the regular season they shared maps with the roster — although it was early on in the season as the team was working in new member Derpeh. Come playoffs, SiNister are now a well-oiled machine, and they’re ready to show just how much they’ve improved since then.
“As a team, this season has been one of immense growth,” said Vincere. “With Derpeh coming in, we knew there would be teething pains but he’s fit in really nicely and his ability to coordinate with the team has been relatively quick to get to a competitive level.
“I don’t think anything specific needs to be changed for our matchup vs Okami, as long as we play our own game to it’s strengths, I think we’re a good chance for the win.”
“We’re super confident in our abilities coming into the playoffs, it just comes down to our preparation for each team.”
Vincent “Vincere” Daniele
In last week’s other games, Okami secured their third-seed after taking down Elevate on Tuesday, before falling to Wildcard on Thursday in one of the only 7-0 sweeps of Six Mastres.
Kanga managed to claw back their first — and only — map win against LFO, as they took down Kafe handily 7-3. They did, however, lose the other map in their series, Coastline, with the same score line.
Pittsburgh Knights managed to secure the final playoffs spot out of seemingly nowhere though. After losing to Wildcard, their hopes relied on Ferox and LFO splitting the points. That’s exactly what happened in the final series of the regular season, with the Knights winning the tiebreaker on round differential.
The Six Masters playoffs will kick off on July 3. You can catch the action live on the Rainbow Six Twitch channel.
Be sure to follow Snowball Esports on Twitter for all your Six Masters content throughout the season, including tips, analysis, and interviews.
