Season 10 of the Rainbow Six Pro League has come to a close and fans finally know which teams are headed toward the relegation chopping block.
After a season of ups and downs, the dust in each division has finally settled. While it isn’t a surprise that teams like Latin America’s Elevate and Europe’s GiFu have been placed into a relegation slot, it is surprising that North America’s Rogue and Latin America’s MIBR have fallen out of favor in the standings.
North America
Rogue
Rogue were dropped into a relegation slot during the last matchdays of the North American division. The North American staple team lost to TSM, who ultimately climbed over them in the standings. Rogue has been falling out of favor in the past two seasons and while big wins like DreamHack Valencia are impressive, their Pro League performance was not the Rogue fans expect.
Season 10 has been an odd time for the Rogue squad. Owning a 2-6-6 record, it’s clear that Rogue are on the cusp of being a middle of the pack team. Spacestation Gaming have proven that drawing opponents isn’t necessarily a death sentence but if you’re going to draw so many matches, then you’ll need some wins to back it up. Looking back on Rogue’s matchups, there are a few things that stick out—mainly two losses to the bottom-ranked team in the division.
Losing a total of six points to the bottom-ranked Soniqs accounts for two matches that should have been victories. Rogue are no slouches, their draws with a strong Evil Geniuses and Team Reciprocity say as much. The six points lost to Soniqs should definitely have been wins, and will undoubtedly be haunting Rogue fans if relegation doesn’t go their way.
Soniqs
After an impressive battle against Rise Nation in season nine’s relegations, Soniqs have failed to perform at almost every turn of season 10. It’s been interesting to watch given that the roster, in both its season 10 iterations, has a great deal of talent.
A less-than-stellar start to season nine led Soniqs to shed longtime members Jason “GhxsT” Luu and John “Avian” Ackerly. The North American organization picked up ex-GiFu players Alex “SlebbeN” Nordlund and Santino “Gomfi” de Meulenaere. The European player transfusion has been a mixed bag so far.
Given that Soniqs had won out over Rogue in a previous matchup with GhxsT and Avian, the win over Rogue isn’t necessarily tied to the roster moves. The roster move also didn’t really pan out how the org had planned it. ESL and visa issues prevented Gomfi and SlebbeN from performing at their peaks.
The two players will likely help Soniqs overcome relegations now that they’re heating up. Look no further than their final matchup with Spacestation Gaming to see the potential of Soniqs when they find a good groove.
Latin America
MIBR
After making the season nine finals, Immortals came back to season 10 in rough shape. About halfway through the season Immortals moved the team to another organization under their umbrella known as MIBR, a prominent org in the CS:GO scene.
While season nine saw MIBR securing a ridiculous amount of draws, the squad was also able to back those draws up with wins. The trend failed to hold this season as MIBR ended the season with a rough record of 2-5-7. Compare the squad’s 7-6-1 record to their season 10 performance and it’s a bit puzzling to pin down why the team saw such a sharp downturn in results.
Latin America is a highly competitive region and the division tends to dance to their own beat—Thatcher bans are the only proof anyone needs. MIBR are definitely a team capable of subverting expectations to get an upsetting win or two. Hopefully, MIBR fans will get the season 9 squad instead of the season 10 version in the upcoming relegations.
Elevate
There really isn’t too much to say about Elevate’s trajectory this season. The team narrowly avoided relegation in season nine as ReD DevilS Esports only to come back and drag behind the rest of the division.
With a 1-1-12 record, Elevate don’t look poised to make season 11 of the Pro League. With that being said, the squad did cling to life during season nine relegations, albeit with star player Vinicius “Vnx” Mello, who has since left the squad for greener pastures on INTZ.
Either way the relegation match shakes, R6 esports fans are going to have an interesting matchup on their hands.
Europe
PENTA
PENTA is another one of those historical teams in R6 esports. While the roster has seen many iterations, the org has more or less always been around. Fans will recognize PENTA as the launchpad for the infamous G2 Esports roster.
Since then the roster hasn’t seen much success in the way of international LAN titles or championships. Season 10 was a rough patch for the team, as they very publicly dropped their coach following a string of lackluster performances. The 3-2-9 performance this season speaks for itself but the squad was just narrowly dropped into relegations after failing to seal the deal in their last matchups with G2 and Team Vitality.
CHAOS climbed over PENTA by just two points near the end of the season. The European division is by far the most competitive division in R6 esports, so PENTA will have their work cut out for them. Even though the team is set for relegation matches, they don’t seem like a relegation team. The highly competitive nature of the division is most likely to blame for PENTA’s spot in relegation.
GiFu Esports
Conversely, GiFu has been settled into the bottom spot since matchday one of the Pro League. While the team is stacked with veteran talent, they haven’t been able to do much of anything this season.
Going 0-2-12 in the European division of the R6 Pro League inspires little to no confidence. Even with Jouni “Bounssi” Salo, Ville “SHA77E” Palola, and ex-G2 member Joonas “jNszki” Savolainen, the team couldn’t manage a single victory this season. The squad’s poor performance is only accentuated by their close losses to some of the heavy hitters in the division.
Standing up to the most competitive Challenger League in the whole of R6 esports with a 0-2-12 record doesn’t bode well for GiFu. Given that GiFu are backed into a corner, there is some upset potential if the squad can manage just a little bit of momentum.
There is no set date or schedule for when relegation matches will take place.
