The APAC teams at the R6 Copenhagen Major are not having a good time, most of them had to go home already, after losing 21 games in a row! Oceania, Asia, Japan and Korea had seven teams present at the Rainbow Six Major and didn’t live up to the level of play at all. The play-in phase ended badly for the Asia-Pacific squads. Seven teams from APAC (Japan, Asia, Oceania, South Korea) failed to win a match against other teams from other Regions.
Crisis at APAC
The APAC region is hitting a snag in competitions. Three months ago, the three APAC teams won only one match in 12 games at the Six Invitational tournament. CYCLOPS athlete gaming from Japan managed a surprising win in the opening match against Team BDS, but that was apparently a fluke because they lost everything after that. However the R6 global format is being restructured by Ubisoft. The event will be seperated into nine regions from the initial four – Latin America, North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific.
As we're finishing the last day of Play-ins, it's time to say goodbyes to another set of teams.
Thank you so much for joining us in Copenhagen 🇩🇰@_VARREL 🤍 and @SBXG_R6 💛#BLASTR6Major pic.twitter.com/IhtrA4vHqK
— Rainbow Six Esports (@R6esports) April 27, 2023
APAC was split into South Korea, Japan, Asia and Oceania. At the ongoing R6 Copenhagen Major, each of the regions gets a spot and therefore 9 of 24 teams at the tournament were from APAC. Seven of those nine teams were eliminated right at the start without a win or with only wins against other APAC teams. Adding the R6 Copenhagen major and the Six Invitational together it means they have lost 21 times to non-APAC opponents. A bitter disappointment for the region and the teams.
Much criticism for APAC slots
This slot allocation at the Rainbow Six Major has caused a lot of criticism. APAC, the obviously weakest region gets nine slots, while NA, EU and Brazil has to make due with only four. The big disparity makes it hard for the community to understand the decision.
Despite their great performances, these two teams will be heading back home.
Farewell to @NORTHEPTION and @SixKarmaEsports, thank you for joining us in Copenhagen 🇩🇰 pic.twitter.com/6BbYca1iG6
— Rainbow Six Esports (@R6esports) April 26, 2023
Ubisoft R6S
Ubisoft tried to wiggle their way out of this argument by claiming that the APAC region is split into four parts and all of them should be well represented. Another weak argument was that Wei Yue, Esports Director at Rainbow Six claimed that those teams will be eliminated early anyway, so it doesn’t matter much. Totally ignoring the fact that upcoming talented teams might get better opportunities by getting a slot at the prestigious event. His prediction turned out to be correct.
The new global structure with 9 regions and their respective qualifications into the Majors was always created with adaptability and flexibility in mind.
The number of teams seeding into Phase 1 and 2 will be reassessed based on the competitive performance throughout the year.— Wei Yue (@Wei2Yue) April 27, 2023
Nevertheless, this reasoning did not appease the community. Wei Yue later backpaddled a little and said that future slots might get adjusted depending on the performance of each region. This means a region gets rewarded for having strong top-teams, which doesn’t necessarily mean they also have strong lower-tier teams, but its a step in the right direction. Apparently those changes will be implemented by the R6 Major in November. Seven of the nine APAC teams have been eliminated, meaning there are two left and they are SCARZ and Dplus. How the two teams will fare in the event will be seen in the coming days.