With just about two months to go to the 2018 Six Invitational, teams that have not already qualified through other means have been trying their hand at the open online qualifiers. The North American (NA), European (EU) and Latin American (LATAM) regions all have an open ladder system while Asia-Pacific (APAC) had an online double-elimination bracket, and will have an offline LAN qualifier.
The sixteen teams with the highest number of points in each ladder will then make it to the single-elimination play-offs. In this stage, all the games aside from the grand finals, will use the Best-of-Three (Bo3) system with the grand final being a Best-of-Five (Bo5)
As of 19 December 11AM GMT, the top four teams in each regions’ ladders are as follows.
EUROPEAN REGION
For EU, we have the French teams filling out three spots in the top four. beGenius leads with a 23-1 Win-Loss record, no small feat after replacing three players after the events of Y2S3. They are followed by Supremacy - who lost Elemzje to beGenius - with a 28-4 record, the Russian side Room Factory in third with 20-4, and finally Vitality in fourth with 23-5. The rest of the ladder is also pretty much as expected, with all seven remaining teams from the Y2S3 Pro League comfortably in the top 16.
Of all the teams, beGenius and Supremacy look to be the favorites to clinch the two spots allotted to EU to progress to the Six Invitational, with Vitality close behind. The lowest of the Pro League teams is I Don’t Know Pro League (formerly sno0ken Knows) in 11th, however they have chosen to play matches only when facing a drop out of the top sixteen in order to shield as many strategies as they can from the public eye. Another surprise showing is by sO-On, the Challenger League team comprising weskeRR and baroz, as the Spanish team finds itself in 6th place.
NORTH AMERICAN REGION
Over in NA, Flipsid3 has been getting in some good practice after a surprisingly poor showing in Y2S3, leading the way with an 18-0 record. Behind them is Rogue, last season's 3rd seed, with 17-1, followed by Bird University (formerly 1nfamy), who surprised everyone by surpassing Rogue to the second LAN spot, also with a 17-1 Win-Loss record. Finally, we have the ex-Most Wanted squad in fourth with 15-4. Same as the EU region, the other remaining non-qualified Pro League teams have room to spare before they fall out of the top 16.
While most will be talking about the fantastic records of the top three teams, especially Flipsid3 who battled relegations in Y2S3, the ladder is greatly interesting outside the top four as well. In 6th place, we have Reckless, the Challenger League team that made it as far as relegations but was unable to take the next step to enter the Pro League. The recently promoted Ronin Esports (formerly Onslaught) is also present close behind in 8th place and it will be very interesting to see how these teams stack up against the established Pro League sides in the playoffs.
LATIN AMERICAN REGION
The last region with the ladder, LATAM, sees MOPA Team (formerly BRK e-Sports) in the lead with a 20-3 record. In second is Fontt with 14-2, followed by Rogerinho with 13-2, and BRK e-sports with 22-5.
Things are a little hazy following the recent “LATAM shuffle”. Rogerinho in third features three Pro League-experienced players in Hugzord, ibLAckZZZ, and Panico, but more interesting is the showing from Chilean team rage2cuo in 13th, for they are the only non-Brazilian team in the top sixteen.
ASIA-PACIFIC REGION
Over in the APAC region, online qualifiers have recently concluded, giving us one team from each sub-region that will go onto the Sydney offline qualifiers held from 13 to 14 January. From Australia-New Zealand (ANZ) we have Mindfreak, Team CryptiK from Southeast Asia (SEA), MantisFPS from Korea (KR), and NORA-Rengou from Japan (JP). Congratulations to all four teams! We look forward to the LAN event to find out which of the four teams will be joining eiNs.gg in Canada for the Six Invitational.
That is our roundup for the current qualifiers situation for all the four regions, and we hope you will be tuning in for the playoffs, which are sure to be sensational. Who do you think will be making it to Montréal?
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