Rainbow Six Siege's North American League 2020 stage two concluded its seventh playday and the results are here. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the matches have been held online. The North American League 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 TSM and Oxygen Esports was the most anticipated match of the seventh playday. The first map was played on Coastline, which is an attacker-sided map. The Pulse and Ace ban was quite interesting from OXG, as the ban got rid of smokes and an operator that can open huge lines of sight on reinforced walls. TSM are pretty comfortable on Coastline, being a team full of fraggers. TSM attacked the Hookah site on the first round without dropping a single body on their side.
The third round on Service/Kitchen site was definitely a TSM round, but Slash was able to stop the defuser from going down at zero seconds by just focusing on the opponent who was planting. The eleventh round was a heartbreaking defeat for OXG, as OXG managed to get the plant down early in a 5v5 situation. However, OXG's Braden "Chala" Davenport killed the planter on the Service door and started to counter defuse while TSM pressured the opponents who were outside the map. TSM was able to take Coastline with a 7-4 scoreline.
The second map was played on Villa, which is a utility-heavy map. The Mozzie ban from TSM was confusing, but it was probably to stop OXG from denying intel and having a fragging operator at the same time. TSM was pretty dominant on the attacking split and considering Villa is a defender-sided map, the team played extremely well and got the first split with a 4-2 scoreline.
OXG was able to bring the game back to a 6-6 scoreline with Franklyn "VertcL" Andres fragging out and clutching rounds playing Ash. It was surprising to see OXG coordinate this well and come back from a deficit. OXG then was easily able to clear the final two rounds and take the second map with a 7-5 scoreline.
The final map between TSM and OXG was played on Clubhouse. The first half ended with OXG taking the advantage and a 4-2 scoreline. Davide "FoxA" Bucci beautifully clutched the sixth round as Melusi in a 1v2 situation. FoxA rotated from the site to Lounge and managed to stop the planter at 0 seconds from below. The rest of the matchup was pretty heated with gunfight-only situations. Three players on TSM, Beaulo, Achieved, and Merc, had 13, 15, and 13 kills respectively.
The player who really stood out for OXG was Gabriel "LaXInG" Mirelez, who single-handed clutched three rounds for OXG and got OXG to the match point. Unfortunately, he final round was pretty depressing for OXG, as the last round came to a 1v1 situation between LaXInG and Emilio "Geometrics" Leynez. Geometrics was able to deny the plant with ease in the last dying seconds, allowing TSM to take the map with an 8-7 scoreline.
Another good match to watch was between eUnited and Disrupt Gaming. The first map was played on Clubhouse, which is a defender-sided map with Thatcher and Maverick banned. The first split ended with DG taking a 4-2 lead, which is decent considering the bans were totally in DG’s favor. Even though eUnited was able to take multiple rounds on defense, DG seemed pretty prepared as DG countered eUnited’s setup with ease. The match was pretty close in terms of score, but DG clearly had the upper hand in terms of strategy and the team took the first map with a 7-5 scoreline.
The second match was played on Oregon, which is a utility-heavy map. This match was even closer in terms of score, and both teams performed exceptionally well. Neither team showed us any impressive strategies, as the strategies used were just variations of the ranked meta that ranked players traditionally use. That said, DG was able to win the final round on overtime match point by fragging their opponents and winning with an 8-7 scoreline.
For more coverage on Rainbow Six Siege's North American League 2020 stage two, you can watch all the streams on Twitch or YouTube.
So, what are your thoughts on the ongoing North American League 2020 stage two for Rainbow Six Siege? Have you enjoyed the games and learned strategies from the pro players? Whatever your thoughts may be, let us know in the comments below.
