All good things must come to an end, and so must our favorite R6 tournaments – but, at least, not quite yet. While the first regional divisions and leagues are drawing to a close, the Latin American region is a little different.
LATAM has three big divisions and each is sending their top teams to fight it out in the Elite Six Cup or the Copa Elite Six. This is the first of three planned Copa Elite Six tournaments, with one to be held after each stage of the league. It’s set to run between the 20th-25th of April.
The first results arrived late last night, as NiP is off to a blazing start in the competition. Here’s all you need to know.
Professional Rainbow Six Siege is one of the many things that Covid-19 has disrupted. The Six Invitational and its US$3m prize pool was postponed until May which then resulted in the smaller May 2021 Six Major being cancelled entirely. In its stead, most regions will redistribute the US$500k prize pool from that tournament between the top four teams of each of each regional stage.
For LATAM this means the Copa Elite Six has a total of US$125k up for grabs, with the winner taking home US$62500. Both Mexico and the South America regions are sending two teams each, while the Brazilian region is sending their top six teams.
The teams representing Mexico are Fenix Esports and Atheris Esports, while South America is represented by 9z Team and Malvinas Gaming which both hail from Argentina. Brazil has the Brazilian organizations MIBR, FURIA and Team oNe. Additionally, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Faze Clan and Team Liquid are also representing Brazil as their teams consist entirely of Brazilian players.
The tournament has two parts starting with a group stage in a single round-robin format playing a best of one. As with all 2021 Global Circuit matches in a league format, a default win earns three points, an overtime win earns two points, and an overtime loss earns one.
The best of three playoffs consist of a single-elimination bracket. The second and third place teams from both groups, fight a quarter-final match for the right to play the group winners in the semi-finals.
The map pool consists of: Chalet, Clubhouse, Consulate, Coastline, Kafe Dostoyevsky, Oregon, and Villa.
© Rainbow Six Esports
NiP played their openers against Atheris and Mavinas last night and won both matches with a combined 14-3 record. Both matches were really important for the team, as they face off FaZe Clan and FURIA next in the competition. The two wins pretty much secure their advancements into Playoffs, and every match that follows can only improve their seeding.
Considering how the Brazilian season went, they will prefer evading MIBR and Liquid in Playoffs. Both of these opponents already secured opener wins in their group. Both are on a good trajectory to secure Playoffs for themselves.
The Ninjas are better off beating FaZe Clan in their next match if they want to secure preferential seeding. They already beat FaZe in Stage 1 domestically and could potentially go for a repeat at Copa Elite Six.
NiP is set to meet FaZe Clan tonight tonight (April 21). Check with our esport betting sites for match odds and markets.
Considering how the pandemic is evolving, we might not be seeing the Brazilian teams at Six Invitational 2021 at all this year. Ubisoft announced earlier today that the French government has blocked all flights between the two countries and they are currently problem solving the issues it created. Additionally, this means Elite Six Cup could potentially be the only time we see this powerhouses battle out internationally for a long while.
You can follow all the action Copa Elite Six action at Twitch and YouTube in Brazilian Portuguese (Twitch, YouTube), Spanish (Twitch, YouTube), and English (Twitch, YouTube).
Read next: Six Invitational 2021 – Format, Schedule, Predictions and Betting Tips
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