The 2018 Rainbow Six Siege Invitational Grand Finals match was a nail-biting success that drew as many as 321,000 peak concurrents during the finals' climax. In fact, Ubisoft announced more than 6.2 million hours of the event’s live stream was watched across all channels. And how could fans not? The finals match between North America’s Evil Geniuses, the reigning world champions formerly known as Continuum, and EU’s PENTA Sports, the team that has enjoyed a meteoric rise the past couple of seasons to achieve more wins than any other in Pro-League.
Despite EG’s position as title defender, PENTA’s momentum the past couple seasons clearly made EG the underdog. Following its last championship win, the North American team seemed slow to respond to the changing meta from Europe. And despite extensive roster changes, EG had not shown the dominance it was once known for.
The first map of the 2018 Six Invitational grand finals took place at clubhouse. In the first round, PENTA opted for a textbook basement hold at Clubhouse and easily secured a flawless win. The start did not bode well for EG. As talented as the players on EG are, many speculators feared PENTA’s ability was at a league of its own. However, EG found their groove that we haven’t seen since the Continuum days, and preceded to bulldoze PENTA in Clubhouse and Oregon, a map that historically favored PENTA, to secure a commanding 2-0 lead.
It was a staggering upset—during the grand final’s halftime break, commentators started to doubt PENTA’s ability to counter EG’s air-tight performance. Team ENCE captain Willkey commentated his concern that PENTA has failed to show any tricks up their sleeves to disrupt EG’s rhythm.
Round 3 of the grand finals brought the teams to Kafe Dostoyevsky. EG’s Canadian and BC really proved their mettle with some precise frag grenade kills and C4 throws. However, NVK, a notoriously strong fragger for EG, struggled to get hot. Meanwhile, PENTA regrouped and crawled back as Pengu brought back an old Montagne push to throw off EG. With a win to stop a potential 3-0 sweep, PENTA also managed to bring back some of the momentum.
Bank is the map for Round 4, where PENTA once again started the match with a quick win. However, EG captain Canadian responded against PENTA’s aggression with a nasty four-kill clutch that re-energized the team. In fact, it was nearly an ace as Canadian was the last man on the team to stop PENTA’s the bomb plant. The ebb and flow continued as SHA77E’s Echo play helped PENTA stop EG’s push. Momentum continued in PENTA’s favor with a successful Montagne play by Fabian that stopped Necrox from a clutch for EG. EG’s early 2-0 dominance disappeared as the scrappy PENTA team managed to outwit and outplay the best team in NA. What could have been a 3-0 sweep for EG is now a nail-biting 2-2.
The last round goes to Coastline, a map that has seldom seen competitive play for both EG and PENTA. However, PENTA hinted before the match that a new strategy had been developed for the map. They backed it up too—PENTA quickly pressured EG with a 4-1 lead. Just when all hope seemed loss, Necrox woke up once again to stop PENTA’s plant, this time successfully taking down the team and smashing the diffuser. EG would proceed to follow Necrox’s efforts with a flawless round to bring the score to 4-3. Canadian starts the eighth round with a swift spawn peek to take out jOONAS’s Glaz. EG’s early aggression and swift defense pushes Coastline to 4-4 Overtime.
The first round of Overtime was EG’s to lose as Canadian and Yung must hold down a plant in master bedroom. However, Fabian’s C4 toss lands squarely under Canadian’s Ash, and manages to stall just enough time to win. Finally, it was EG’s turn to defend against PENTA. A risky push by SHA77E yields a diffuser plant inside the smoke and his team manages to hold off the retake to end Coastline with a 6-4 win.
PENTA regarded by many fans as the strongest team in Rainbow Six Siege, finally has a championship to back it up. Unfortunately, EG’s strong comeback from a 4-1 deficit ultimately ended in the most heartbreaking way.
For the Rainbow Six fans, PENTA vs. Evil Geniuses has become by far the most nail-biting match in Siege Pro-League history. Both teams had incredible matches that demonstrated map dominance, insane clutches, unreal comebacks, brilliant strats, as well as risky plays that yielded great outcomes. While Ela is known to be a staple operator in the current meta, we also saw unbelievable plays by classic operators like Canadian’s Pulse and Fabian’s Montagne.
The imminent arrival of the Rainbow Six Siege Chimera update will bring new attackers Lion and Finka, and no doubt new metas that will revolve around their new special gadgets. I can’t wait to see how Rainbow Six Siege Pro-League will continue to evolve in its seasons ahead.
