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SI2021: Playoffs Pairings are Set

After six days of Siege competition, all teams at the Six Invitational have completed their Group Stage matches. Meanwhile,... Fabio | 17. May 2021

After six days of Siege competition, all teams at the Six Invitational have completed their Group Stage matches. Meanwhile, a few favorites have set themselves on top, but we’ve also witnessed a few disappointments along the way. Now, the playoffs are about to commence, in which we will finally get to see some Best-of-Three matches.

With the exception of CYCLOPS, all teams have made it through in Group A. The Japanese players were close to qualifying, but ultimately failed on the last leg. Their SI journey has come to an end, but G2 Esports and Cloud9 have narrowly made it through. Their group is being dominated by EU teams. BDS and Empire seem to be almost unbeatable at this point. The Frenchmen had to concede an overtime game to Empire, who themselves lost a closely contested match to DarkZero Esports. The Brazilian teams and DarkZero make up the middle portion of the group. Our European frontrunners are entering the Upper Bracket alongside FaZe and Liquid.

So G2, DarkZero, Team One, FURIA, and Cloud9 are down to the Lower Bracket. There, they will already have to fight for survival, as half of the teams will exit on the first day. Mkers, Parabellum, and Spacestating Gaming are joining them there. After an impressive second match day, Parabellum have dropped five whole spots. Even though they’re still heading to the playoffs, they have missed their shot at the Upper Bracket. In their place, MIBR have climbed up to second place.

TSM have topped Group B. After failing miserably during NAL Season 1, they seem to be back on track like nothing had happened. However, their win ratio is not nearly as high as that of Empire or BDS. So who are the real favorites of the upcoming bracket?

HOW WILL THE SIX INVITATIONAL PLAYOFFS GO DOWN?

Last year’s winners, Spacestation Gaming, are stuck in the Lower Bracket. Troy “Canadian” Jaroslawski may be up to his former level again, but the team’s chances are still not that great. If they manage to survive against Team One, Oxygen Esports or Team Empire will follow. In both cases, this should be a challenge too tough to handle.

G2 Esports won’t have it easy either. The Canadians of Parabellum have shown lots of upset potential during their Group B campaign. At least Jordan “Kayak” Morley and his men can rest assured that they have an entire Best-of-Three they can play out, and no tournament exit after just one map loss. Nonetheless, their Lower Bracket prospects are incredibly grim. Since the start of the Six Invitational, all players except for Ben “CTZN” McMillan have failed to show up.

Empire and BDS will only clash later on in the Upper Bracket. The SI2020 finalists, NiP, will have to contend with the Frenchmen from the start. This will be their big test, and if they can’t survive that, there is no chance of them winning the title anyways. The likes of Liquid and TSM will at least get a second chance if they lose out to the favorites early on.

The Six Invitational 2021 playoffs are about to commence, starting with the Lower Bracket openers. On the first day we will already see four teams exit the event, after which the playing field will be reduced to just 12 competitors. Following so many months without international competition, Europe seems to be pulling ahead. However, NA and Brazil are putting up enormous pressure as well. Will Empire and BDS really manage to set themselves on top of these incredible teams?