Milan Heats Up as the R6PL Season IX Finals LAN Kicks-Off

All season has led to this one LAN event in Italy, where the best teams in all Rainbow Six Pro League regions will meet to crown the Season IX Champions. With one round in the books, the field of teams has been halved and for the most part, it went how everyone would assume.

The Quarterfinals at the Milan LAN Finals were a best-of-three matchup, and each game would be a first-to-seven rounds. 

Let’s see how it shook out. 

Nora Rengo 0 - 2 Fnatic

Europe’s Fnatic is a dangerous looking team, at least that’s what most thought heading into this tournament. Other would look at the 2-0 sweep of Japan’s Nora and say that they are that team. However, the scoreline doesn’t do the head-to-head justice. Nora Rengo takes far more out of this result than Fnatic does, as they’ve proved they can hang with the big boys. Each of Fnatic’s two wins could have easily gone to their opponent. 

Moving forward, Fnatic is going to have to shore up some sloppy play in order to make it past the Semifinals in Milan. 

Team Empire 2 - 0 DarkZero Esports

The DarkZero squad from North America looked lackluster heading into the finals weeks of the regular season, and they carried it over to Italy this weekend. Dropping to Team Empire in the first round of the Pro League Season IX Finals just proves that DarkZero are the team that we thought they were before the tournament even started. 

Empire should be feared in the next round, where they will play Fnatic. 

LeStream Esport 0 - 2 FaZe Clan

Too many people ignore LATAM as a formidable region in Esports. Especially in Rainbow Six Siege. Thankfully, FaZe Clan showed up on Saturday and walked all over the second seed from Europe, making a statement that Latin America is home to some stellar talent. LeStream, on the other hand, must feel frustrated that they had such a dominating season in EU just to underperform and get sent packing right away. 

In the Semifinals, FaZe Clan will have to get through a far tougher opponent. 

Evil Geniuses 2 - 0 Immortals

With the pride of North America on their shoulders, Evil Geniuses stole the top seed from DarkZero in the final few weeks, and dominated Immortals in the first round of the Season IX Finals LAN live from Milan. EG are probably the heaviest favorites to win it all this year, but their challenges aren’t over just yet. With the loss, Immortals will retread their mistakes and hopefully come back far stronger in the next season for LATAM. 

EG faces off against FaZe Clan in the next round, where the LATAM #1 seed will look to get revenge on the NA team for knocking out their regional brethren. 

Semifinals

The second round of the Season IX Finals will take place on Sunday, May 19th, followed the say day by the Grand Finals. 

You can watch it all unfold on the Rainbow6 Twitch channel starting at roughly 4:30 AM Pacific Time, or catch it here with this handy embed. 

Watch live video from Rainbow6 on www.twitch.tv

Who do you think will win their Semifinals matchup and punch their ticket to the big dance later in the day on Sunday? Will it be AZN’s Fnatic, EU’s Empire, LATAM’s FaZe, or NA’s Geniuses?