Rainbow Six Siege's European Mini Major Stage 2 concluded its semi-finals and the results are here. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the matches have been held online. The European Mini Major had some really exciting matches to watch this week, with all the matches played as a best of three format. We got to see a variety of maps in play, teaching us new strategies that can be implemented into our own games.
The matchup between Team BDS and Virtus.Pro was the most anticipated match of the semifinals. The first map was played on Villa, which is a defender-sided map. BDS almost never picks Villa due to the fact that the team has a bad track record with the map. However, that may change as the first round was perfect for BDS. BDS decided to defend the Aviator site with the wall partially open to get an angle into study. This angle couldn’t be countered by V.P due to the lack of time. BDS was able to take three rounds in a row without really putting in much effort. However, V.P was able to change the momentum by taking the fourth round flawlessly. The fourth round shows how impressive teams can be at countering others after seeing a strategy once. V.P was able to use the study angle created for a major advantage.
V.P’s defensive round on Library/Living showed some impressive angles and strategies for that particular site. V.P’s Andrey "m1loN" Mironov held an impressive angle from Aviator vault into living, which caught BDS off-guard. m1loN was able to kill three defenders from the vault angle, which won V.P the round. Both teams were pretty similar in terms of skill, which led to overtime. However, V.P was able to close the map with an 8-6 scoreline, which is not surprising considering BDS’s history on Villa.
The second map was played on Clubhouse, which is a defender-sided map with the Maverick and Ace ban. V.P’s defensive hold on the church round was a nice strategy that prevented BDS from taking the site easily. The roam setup and coordination between V.P allowed the team to take the first round with ease. V.P continued to dominate the scoreboard for another three rounds and then BDS took a wild turn. BDS started to read into V.P's strategies and countered V.P’s rotations, which made the attacks much easier. BDS managed to close the first half with a 2-4 scoreline, which is decent considering the bans favored defense.
BDS moving on to defense was super dominant with gunfights. Loïc "BriD" Chongthep from BDS was able to win a 1v3 situation in the eighth round by just killing one player of V.P and letting the time run out. In the end, BDS managed to win Clubhouse with an 8-6 scoreline, and every player on BDS performed extremely well.
The third map was played on Oregon, which is a defender-sided map. Round three was definitely one of the best rounds to watch, as V.P managed to almost clutch a 2v3 situation. That said, the Melusi was able to go below the Dorms site and wall bang the planter before V.P managed to get the plant down. The first half resulted in a 3-3 tie, which was quite surprising considering BDS’s aggressive plays and Oregon being a defender-sided map. Alan “Rask” Ali almost single-handedly clutched round nine for V.P, as he flanked BDS while BDS was getting the plant down and managed to get a quad kill. Rask almost clutched it, but he didn’t have enough ammo to kill the final player. Stéphane "Shaiiko" Lebleu from BDS managed to kill Rask before he got the reload down, which won BDS the ninth round.
The match was pretty intense as both teams entered overtime on the final map. The final map entered its final round, which meant the team that won the round also won the upper brackets of the semifinals. BDS managed to win the final round flawlessly, which means BDS moves on to the upper brackets against Empire.
For more coverage on Rainbow Six Siege's European Mini Major Stage 2, you can watch all the streams on Twitch or YouTube.
So, what are your thoughts on the ongoing Rainbow Six Siege European Mini Major Stage 2? Have you enjoyed the games and learned strategies from the pro players? Whatever your thoughts may be, let us know in the comments below.
