GAMMA Leonski: “We’ve never been this close to EUL before”

Leon “Leonski” Snikkers is a well-known face to anyone who has ever watched Tier 2 Siege in Europe. He’s been a part of multiple Benelux rosters and has won the Benelux League a whopping five times!

GAMMA Gaming signed him about a year ago. So far, the pandemic has spoiled their plans a lot. They narrowly missed out on winning the European Challenger League in 2020, but GAMMA will finally get a second chance with EUCL 2021. Leonski sat down with us to answer some questions on the team and their aspirations within Siege!

Fragster: GAMMA Gaming entered Rainbow Six: Siege in the midst of the pandemic. You’ve been there from the start, so can you shed a little light on the first year with GAMMA?

Leonski: We joined GAMMA just before the start of the last season of Challenger League and narrowly missed out on the relegation game against Cowana/Rogue. We were heartbroken by this, but GAMMA had signed us for the long term. We obviously went through a bunch of roster changes after Panix retired, and by Joe and Prano joining and then getting dropped and leaving. But we have learned new things every step of the way and are the best version of ourselves we have ever been. GAMMA has been super supportive in the last year and we couldn’t have asked for a better organization to play under.

Obviously, you haven’t had a lot of chances to qualify for bigger leagues so far. But you’ve recently made first place in the Benelux league. Do you think that has prepared you well for the upcoming Challenger League?

The Benelux League has always been a side priority for us, but we never expect to just easily win it and that’s the reason why we have been able to win it so many times. The national leagues don’t really prepare you for the pressure of Challenger League and that’s why – with this being our 5th season as a core in Challenger League – we will have a big advantage over some other teams.

What are you doing now to prepare for EUCL Group D? What do you think of your opponents GoSkilla, HellRaisers, and Mkers?

We are focusing on being the best version of our team we can be. All of group members are amazing teams and I don’t think people see us as the favorites in our group. Mkers have a ton of pressure on them since they made the Six Invitional, and Hellraisers have the pressure of having recently signed with a massive organization. I know GoSkilla don’t think they have a chance to make it out of groups, which makes them in my opinion the most dangerous team. They will play what I call “Underdog Siege”, which as we could see with the APAC teams at the Major, can be very hard to counter.

If you manage to secure a Top 2 finish in EUCL, you’ll have a shot at making EUL through the Relegation tournament. Is that your goal?

Making EUL is 100% our goal, we have been so close to making EUL two or three times already and I feel like we haven’t been this mature / ready for it ever before.

What are your wishes for the future of Siege?

I would like to see more tournaments, but with the way Ubisoft is running the scene, this unfortunately is unlikely to happen. Other than that I would like to see European Tier 2 turn into a proper league format. I think EU T2 provides some of the most entertaining Siege to watch, so many teams that are often better than the bottom of the EUL teams. They deserve a podium.

Finally, if we want to follow you and your team’s journey, where can we do that?

I’m live streaming multiple times per week on http://twitch.tv/leonski_r6. If you want to follow our team’s journey, you can follow @GG_GAMMA and @Leonski_R6 on Twitter. And make sure to watch the European Challenger League on the 15th of October.

Thanks to Leonski and GAMMA Gaming for this interview!

 

(Header image via GAMMA Gaming)