After a chaotic season nine, Rise Nation continued to fumble through their relegation match. With 92 Dream Team clinching a Pro League slot in season 10, Soniqs faced off with Rise in relegation.
Soniqs’ outlook was bleak heading into the Rise matchup. Given that the team had just suffered a three-hour-long, heartbreaking defeat, the deck was stacked firmly against the Challenger League team.
Despite Soniqs’ three-hour ordeal before their matchup with Rise, the team rallied in an impressive show of force in the first match of the best-of-three series. Rise dropped the first four rounds on Villa in spectacular fashion. The soon-to-be former pro team looked sluggish and uncoordinated in the early rounds, and never really showed up.
Giving Soniqs room to breath was a massive mistake, as it set precedent for the rest of the first match in the series. It took Rise five rounds to pick up a win in the first match—a bad look coming from Pro League. Soniqs pulled out a 7-4 win in the first match.
The switch to Oregon proved to be more of the same from Rise. John “Avian” Ackerly pulled off an enormous clutch in round two by denying Rise the defuse and somehow rushing in with a knife to secure the final kill. Even though Rise grabbed two round wins off Soniqs, they seem resigned to their fate.
Even after the half, Rise continued to struggle against Soniqs. With the series sitting at 5-2 in Soniqs’ favor, Rise needed to pull out all the stops if they wanted to keep their Pro League slot. Rise proved to not be up to the task, as Soniqs brought the series 6-2—looking to clinch a Pro League slot of their own. Broadcasters Michael Stockley and Parker Mackay both pointed out that it’s been quite a while since both Challenger League teams up for Pro League slots have made it in.
Related: Here is the R6 relegation week schedule
In the end, Rise continued to falter and gave away their Pro League slot. Not only did Soniqs win over Rise, but they also wrapped a best-of-three match at 2-0 against a Pro League team. Soniqs will join 92 Dream Team in R6 Pro League season 10, which is set to be an intriguing one now that there are two new teams entering the fold.
Relegation matches continue Wednesday, May 8 with the Latin American division at 5pm CT. Fans can watch the official broadcast here.
