EUL: BDS Choke, Secret Up to Two Wins

On the second day of play at the European League we were gifted a few surprising and exciting matches. BDS shocked everyone with their overtime loss to Team Vitality and the new Secret lineup made it past Rogue. Now, Peter “pacbull” Bull and his men are even leading the standings! But the distance to the other teams is so small that things could change rapidly within the next week.

Empire really aren’t getting any breaks. They needed to win against TrainHard, but on Oregon, they already looked down the barrel after a 1-5 half. While they did attempt an admirable comeback on the defensive side, they failed to make it past the finish line. Even though they’ve secured one point for the standings now, this is a bad sign considering their trainwreck on the first day. After all, TrainHard should rank among the lower teams of the league. Empire are yet to face G2, NaVi, and Secret.

Virtus.pro are the only team to not have won any points in EUL so far. They followed their critical 1-7 loss from Day 1 up with another 1-7 finish against Cowana Gaming. This underperformance is dangerous and already makes their chances of securing a Top 4 slot increasingly slim. Cowana, on the other hand, are building on their Stage 1 delivery. Back then, they landed a strong third place. After their victory over Virtus.pro and their very slim loss to Vitality, they are showing their potential once again and at least stand a chance to retain their level in Stage 2.

G2 BACK AT ZERO?

After their phenomenal showing on the first day, G2 were back weaker and followed things up with a 4-7 loss to Natus Vincere. While this doesn’t sound half-bad on paper, it could just as well have been a 1-7 defeat, were it not for a small comeback. So NaVi have compensated for their loss to Secret earlier on. For the standings, this means that they’ve placed somewhere in the middle of the pack. The G2 progress hasn’t come as far as we might have guessed from the first day. This is obviously not tragic and shouldn’t come as a surprise. After all, Jonas “Jonka” Kaczmarzyk and Lucas “Hungry” Reich only arrived a few weeks ago.

But even after these unusual results, EUL kept throwing surprises at us. BDS entered the server against Vitality. This match should have found a rather quick end, but suddenly, Team Vitality held a 6-4 lead. So BDS had already lost at least one EUL point, but they still had to fight all the way to overtime. There, Vitality ended things with two fantastic rounds and BDS suffered a 7-8 defeat.

So what does this mean for the Frenchmen? They’re not invincible. We already knew that from Stage 1, but back then, they absolutely crushed it on the first four days. Only afterwards, they lost to NaVi and stumbled in their last two matches. This has happened way too early in Stage 2. Placing towards the top has just gotten a little harder, considering that they’re still bound to face NaVi, G2, and the rest of the top squads.

Secret, on the other hand, are back at it again. Just like during the 2020 Stage 2, pacbull has come into the lineup and immediately elevated them to first place! All that time ago, they crumbled under the pressure, ending up outside the Top 4 in the end. Maybe they can retain their level this time around.

WHAT CAN WE EXPECT FROM MATCH DAY #3?

On June 28th, the Rainbow Six Siege European League continues. Empire will face Vitality right after their performance slump. After the French team has already won over BDS, this seems to be an outright impossible task for the Empire squad. In the form Virtus.pro, Secret might get their third victory handed to them. At least this outcome seems more than likely given the VP performances so far. Rogue are going up against BDS and get the chance to prove that they haven’t reached peak performance with Pascal “cryn” Alouane just yet.

Cowana are facing G2. If Jordan “Kayak” Morley and his men still need more time to get started, it wouldn’t be a shame, but it would severely hamper their chances to making the Top 4. Going up against TrainHard, NaVi are given the opportunity to secure three quick points and close the gap to the top of EUL.