A Virtus Pro player, Alan “Rask” Ali, and an analyst traveling with the team, Andrey “Andreezy” Bavian, have tested positive for COVID-19, the organization announced today. As a result, VP won’t be able to travel to France for the Six Invitational and have been disqualified as a result.
VP’s disqualification knocks Group B down to eight Rainbow Six Siege teams: Giants, MIBR, MKERS, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Oxygen, Parabellum, Spacestation, and TSM.
As a result, the format for the tournament will change. Only one team will be eliminated from the 10-team Group A and one team will be eliminated from Group B at the conclusion of the group stage. Nine teams from Group A and seven teams from Group B will head to the playoff stage.
VP finished sixth in the EUL’s first stage of 2021 but were considered by some fans and analysts to be a dark horse heading into SI. They finished third at the EUL 2020 Finals tournament and fourth in both “regular season” stages of the EUL in 2020.
VP are the second team to be disqualified from the Six Invitational. Wildcard Gaming, from Australia, were disqualified due to travel issues both in and out of their home country.
The Six Invitational group stage will begin on May 11 and conclude on May 16. The playoff stage will start on May 19 and wrap up with the grand finals on May 23.
