DarkZero Esports Win Rainbow Six NA Major

The players from DarkZero Esports have long waited for a trophy, but they were constantly overshadowed by their bigger brothers in the North American scene. Now, they have finally stepped out of the shadow of SSG and TSM. They have completely crushed their domestic competition on the way to the Rainbow Six August Major trophy.

DZ and TSM have both made it to the Grand Finals of this epic event. While TSM wer certainly predicted to make it far, DarkZero weren’t on anyone’s radar. At least not until they booted the favorites, Spacestation Gaming, from the event. DarkZero came from the Upper Bracket and thus received a map advantage for the Grand Finals. This meant that there were only four maps to play – two for them to win and three for TSM.

THE KAFE COMEBACK

On Kafe, TSM were looking great. They were obviously much better prepared than in the first match with DarkZero and almost immediately, they started collecting rounds. At half-time, they were leading 4-2. Only three rounds separated them from the map win and this certainly was a grim outlook for the DZ side. But their defense proved to be immensely strong. In a decisive sweep, they took five consecutive rounds to win their map pick. Now, they were only one map away from Major victory.

THE OREGON SWEEP

Oregon proved to be the final nail in the coffin for TSM. DarkZero quickly jumped onto a defense lead, which they managed to extend to 5-0. At that point, the TSM players had only one round left to win in the half. They attempted to enter the building through Tower, where Paul “Hyper” Kontopanagiotis was positioned. Unfortunately, TSM hadn’t gathered enough intel. They didn’t know that he was there, so he got a free kill. TSM had to waste two players in total to eliminate Hyper, after which they could finally proceed. At that point, however, more than a minute of time had already elapsed. The players were unable to get to the site in time, conceding the last round of the half.

So they arrived on the defensive side with a 0-6 deficit. And DarkZero would have run away with the match right there, had it not been for the heroics of Jason “Beaulo” Doty. In the 7th round, he clutched a 1v3 to keep his team in the game. After that, they slowly managed to grind out rounds on the defense. But in round 9, the TSM players made crucial mistakes, which allowed DarkZero to eliminate two players early on. As the ceiling above them was blasted to pieces and the walls around them started to crumble, Braden “Chala” Davenport and Emilio “Geometrics” Leynez Cuevas could only try to hide from the attacking operators. Soon, it was only Geo in a 1v4. Quite fittingly, Kyle “Mint” Lander sealed the deal for DarkZero on Blitz.

THE ULTIMATE UPSET VICTORY

DarkZero should not have won against Spacestation Gaming. They should not have won against TSM and they should certainly not have won against TSM twice. The DZ that played NAL would have been downed and out in the first round already. Here, we have witnessed an entirely new team play Siege. Michael “KiXSTAr” Stockley tried to frame the differences in playstyle and came up with a fitting conclusion. After always trying to execute a perfectly planned strategy, DarkZero finally let the rounds unfold and adapted their gameplan to fit to their current situation. The players made individual choices, rather than try to stick to some preconceived strategy.

And it has certainly worked for the North Americans. Most of their players have had to wait years for their first big trophy, but here they finally have shown to be ready for the big stage. We can’t wait to see them perform against international top teams again!