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Team Empire wins 2019 Six Major, avenges February loss to G2

Team Empire strikes back on G2 Esports, winning the 2019 Six Major and avenging their Grand Finals loss from February's Six Invitational.

Ozzie Mejia

August 18, 2019 4:42 PM

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An exciting weekend of Rainbow Six Siege action in Raleigh, North Carolina has concluded. Two of the game's best teams met again in the Grand Finals of the 2019 Six Major. But the ending was different this time, as Team Empire prevailed to win the Six Major 3-1.

G2 got off to a fast start on Coastline, looking to extend the series to five games. But an early 3-0 lead was not safe, as Empire roared back to take the next six rounds, culminating with a flawless Round 8. Empire went for the kill on Round 10 with Eugene "Karzheka" Petrishin running out to try and ambush G2, but that plan quickly went sideways. It proved to be a minor setback for Empire, as Danil "Joystick" Gabov pulled out a quick double kill and G2 fell fast from there, giving Empire the Six Major.

Both teams came out with their very best in Game 1 on Border. G2's Juhani "Kantoraketti" Toivonen started things off with a quadruple kill, which would be the big highlight in any other game. However, it was immediately followed by Empire's Joystick with a clean ace. Momentum remained with Empire for the rest of the map, as they went on to take three straight rounds to build an insurmountable lead. They did manage to ward off a G2 comeback in order to polish off Border and go up 1-0.

The second map on Kafe Dostoyevsky continued to go Empire's way, but as they took a two round lead, G2 started to bring it together. G2 started scoring C4 kills and putting intense pressure on the Russian team, tying the map at four rounds a piece. Both teams traded wins, going right into Overtime. Empire looked to keep the Overtime party going, but a dying Daniel "Goga" Mazorra downed Dmitry "Scyther" Semenov with a single HP. That left the door open for Niclas "Pengu" Mouritzen to finish off the round and tie the Grand Finals at one map a piece.

Both teams continued to go back and forth on Clubhouse, with Round 11 starting with a 5-5 tie. Artur "Sheppard" Ipatov forced match point with a pair of kills. G2 looked to bounce back on the next round. The idea was that they'd ambush Empire by coming through one of the Clubhouse hatches, but Fabian Hallsten's Thatcher died early, forcing a different game plan. They weren't able to adjust fast enough, as Sheppard and Karzheka polished them off to take Clubhouse and take a 2-1 series lead.

This meeting between rivals G2 and Empire is noteworthy for being a rematch of their Grand Finals clash six months ago at the 2019 Six Invitational. That prior meeting is remembered for the longest Rainbow Six Siege match in the game's history, one that went 22 rounds.

For their victory, Team Empire takes home $200,000 out of the $500,000 prize pool. G2 Esports wins $80,000 as the runner-up. This has been an eventful weekend at the Six Major, with new DLC revealed for Rainbow Six Siege. For more on that, be sure to check out our hands-on preview for Operation Ember Rose.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?