After earning a poor 4-0-10 record in season nine, Team Secret found themselves bound for the highly-competitive European Challenger League.
MnM Gaming crushed Team Vitality’s hopes of instantly being promoted to the Pro League, though, leaving Vitality to demote Secret instead.
Broadcasters Ghassan “Milosh” Finge and Michael “KiXSTAr” Stockley noted that while Team Secret had taken down G2 Esports and CHAOS in season nine, the European Challenger League is stacked with former Pro League talent. That much was apparent in the MnM vs. Vitality matchup earlier in the day.
Even after playing a full best-of-three, Vitality took the first round on Consulate off of Team Secret—further showcasing the raw talent that’s been seen in the European Challenger League. While Secret forced the first match in their favor, it wasn’t without a fair share of opposition from Vitality.
Secret’s roam game was key in this match. Wasting Vitality’s time proved to be Secret’s best weapon against the Pro League hopefuls. David “STiZze” de Castro wrapped match one of the best-of-three at 7-4 with a beautiful Yellow Stairs ace.
Vitality continued to give Secret a hard time on Oregon, picking up a one-sided victory at 7-3. Secret’s roam game failed to carry the team like it did on Consulate. The Challenger League team was fully prepared to focus on roam clearing. The result of Vitality’s efforts was a rather professional looking roam clear, too.
Bank proved even more problematic for Secret. Giving up the first two rounds didn’t instill much confidence in Secret and fans were reminded of the points that their favorite team left on the table during season nine. Vitality closed out the relegation tournament as the newest Pro League team with a 7-3 victory over Secret.
As broadcasters have been pointing out all season, the European Challenger League is absolutely stacked with talent, and it showed in this matchup. Nobody can say that Team Vitality didn’t earn their Pro League slot, especially since they’re coming from one of the most competitive scenes in R6 esports.
Team Secret will now head back to the Challenger League for at least six months. R6 Pro League season 10 should be interesting given the amount of Challenger teams that made it into their respective divisions.
