On August 21, the Berlin Major concluded in Berlin, one of the most important tournaments in the tactical shooter Rainbow Six: Siege. The victory went to the European team Rogue. One player stood out in particular: 18-year-old William “Spoit” Löfstedt even dropped out of school to make it there.
What is it all about? Rainbow Six: Siege is a tactical shooter by Ubisoft. The game is nearly 7 years old, but still impresses with its unique gameplay.
Which tournament is it? The Berlin Major recently concluded the second of three seasonal phases, with one more Major to follow, leading up to the World Championship in the form of the Six Invitationals. Thus, the tournament hosted by Ubisoft is one of the most important in R6.
From August 15 to 21, the 16 strongest teams in the world had the opportunity to compete against each other for a prize pool of around 500,000 €. It got so heated that the organizers had to come up with something to cool the players down.
Who are the winners? In the final, the European team Rogue managed to defeat the favorites from FaZe Clan. Until the last minute, everything was still open. The players from Rogue can now rejoice over a prize money of 200,000 €.
This is how the final unfolded: It was a real nail-biter. FaZe led on the first map and took the lead, but Rogue equalized on Villa, the second map. FaZe took the lead again, but Rogue equalized once more.
Then it came down to the final on the Clubhouse map. Although Rogue is usually very strong on this map, FaZe initially took a 2:0 lead. But Rogue fought back into the game, equalized, and then clinched the victory in overtime.
One player particularly stood out at the Major.
Player is barely of age, wins the Major right away
This is Spoit: The esports player of Thai and Swedish descent has only recently become a professional, and there is a reason for that: Due to the age restriction of the game, players must be 18 years old to officially participate in events (via R6 Esports).
Spoit only turned 18 on April 11, 2022. After that, everything happened quickly: On June 2, he joined Rogue. The Major was his first event. However, even before his 18th birthday, Spoit was working towards a career as a professional.
On September 22, 2021, Spoit announced via Twitter that he had dropped out of school. He wanted to focus entirely on his career as a content creator and future projects. He received much support for this, as school seemed to be more of a distraction for him.
At that time, hardly anyone probably thought that Spoit would compete with the best in the world and emerge as a winner just 11 months later. Only one person might have guessed it: Juhani “Kantoraketti” Toivonen, Spoit’s current colleague at Rogue, commented on the announcement and wished Spoit that the decision would pay off for him just as it did for himself. (via Twitter)
The bold step of dropping out of school seems to be paying off.
For Spoit not only secured the title with his team, he was also named MVP of the entire event by the online magazine SiegeGG. His K/D is +25, meaning he managed to kill opponents 25 times more often than he was killed himself. In terms of entry kills, the first kill (or death) in a round, his ratio is +11.
Here you can see Spoit’s statistics at a glance:
We will surely hear much more from the “European wonder kid” in the future.
This is how Rogue celebrates: Even the day after the event, the team could hardly believe the victory and had to process it first. The team is celebrated on Twitter. And there is also a clear statement: In response to the question of whether they can also win the next and last Major title of the season, they simply reply: “Yes.” (via Twitter)
Strictly speaking, the World Championship in R6 is the Six Invitational, yet the best teams in the world competed at the Major. However, the reigning “Six Invitational” champions from TSM were not present at the Major, as they finished only in a disappointing 8th place in the regular season in North America (via liquipedia). Not without reason, Spoit already feels a bit like a World Champion (via Twitter).
Did you cheer for the Major? Do you think Spoit deserves the MVP title or do you believe players like Cyber or Deapek were robbed? Feel free to leave a comment with your impressions of the tournament.
If you now feel like diving back into Rainbow Six: Siege, now is the perfect time. Because after the community has wished for a certain feature for 7 years, their demands were finally heard this year.
What the “Shooting Range” is all about can be read here:
One of the best shooters finally gets a feature that fans have been asking for for 7 years
