Six Invitational Qualifier: Who Are Mkers?

The European playing field for the Six Invitational Qualifier featured teams like Secret, Vitality, Rogue, Chaos, Natus Vincere, and Tempra Esports. At the end, a team called ‘Mkers’ took home the SI slot. Until this point, these players had achieved close to nothing in an international context. So who are they and how did they manage to win the Qualifier?

The five players all hail from Italy. The majority of the roster got together in September and with the signing of Lorenzo “Lollo” Massucio, the lineup that played in this Six Invitational Qualifier was complete. So far, they haven’t really had any international experience.

MKERS AREN’T EVEN CHALLENGER LEAGUE MATERIAL

The team that has now beaten Chaos, Rogue, Natus Vincere, and Tempra Esports, is not even part of EUCL. Im the Closed Qualifier for the Challenger League, they made second place behind Cowana Gaming. So they just narrowly lost out on a league spot – so close in fact that they played overtime on the last map!

So with a few more rounds going their way, they would have made Challenger League. But even such a success would hardly justify or explain what has happened last weekend. Secret, Rogue, Chaos, Vitality, and Natus Vincere are all European League caliber. Tempra were even featured in the November Major after beating out G2 Esports for the slot. It seems almost impossible that these teams could all fall for this unknown Italian lineup – and yet they did.

THE UPSIDE OF BEING A NOBODY

How can teams prepare for an opponent like G2 Esports? In theory, that’s pretty easy to do. There are sufficient amounts of VODs on YouTube and Twitch to conduct a thorough analysis of their game play. There’s more than enough material out there on the likes of G2, Secret, BDS or Empire. So even smaller teams have the ability – or at least the means – to construct actual counter-strats.

However, the opposite direction doesn’t work in the case of Mkers. There are hardly any recording of them out there on the internet. That one match versus Chaos in the European Raleigh Qualifier is more than a year old and featured an entirely different roster of players. So there’s virtually no material for the likes of Secret to actually study. But even if there were plenty of VODs, would the other teams really have used them to prepare?

A FALSE SENSE OF SECURITY

After the Tempra boys had successfully taken down G2 Esports, they felt like a top team – and rightfully so. Provided they’re not obsessively interested in Italian Siege, they will arguably never have heard of Mkers prior to this Qualifier. For them – and for the other teams in the bracket – there was no real reason to take these Italians seriously. Their first victory against Rogue was put down to the overall shakiness of the German squad. Their danger only really revealed itself when they won over Chaos as well. But as Secret eventually took Mkers down, their miracle run seemed to have reached its end. Nobody in their right mind would have expected them to play this way in the last phase of the Qualifier.

Now, Mkers are part of Six Invitational 2021. Teams such as Secret, Natus Vincere, and Tempra Esports will have to sit this one out. Not all of them really had a shot at making the event, but this outcome was still not on anyone’s radar. However, the Italians’ victory is well-deserved. They mounted a near-perfect run and proved themselves against the best teams in the Qualifier – there are just no excuses for the other teams. This has definitely been the craziest upset of the year. What a fitting conclusion to an already crazy 2020.