R6PL Season 3 Finals - Quarter finals recap

This weekend sees the Rainbow Six Pro League Season 3 finals take place in São Paulo, Brazil, where the top eights teams from four regions (two from Europe, North America, APAC, and Brazil respectively) face off against one another in the quarter finals to see who can advance and claim their place in the semi finals tomorrow. Stakes were high going into today, then, as a loss in these best-of-three matches would mean elimination.

eiNs vs Fontt

First up was Brazilian side Team Fontt vs Japanese team eiNs, one side with a home advantage and another with an underdog reputation respectively. After eiNs got an early kill against Fontt on Bank, technical difficulties caused delays, but when the game got underway again Fontt's defence was much more solid, with Muringa being one of the key players for the Brazilian's as they sealed out the first map, being patient as eiNs took risks.

This same dominance continued onto the second map, Oregon, where at one point Fontt developed a 4-0 lead over the Japanese APAC team, who did manage to get a point back, but ultimately they were just outplayed by the home side, who this time were bolstered by Astro, who had looked a little out of the flow in the first map. The match ended 2-0 to Fontt.

Penta Sports vs Mantis FPS

Going into the second match of the day almost everyone would have put their money on Penta Sports dismantling the other APAC team of the tournament, Mantis FPS, and that's exactly how they started on Consulate, registering a 5-1 win over the South Koreans, regularly changing their Operators to demonstrate their versatility.

Map 2 on Oregon was a similar story, as players like Pengu shone, the entire team setting up well in defence and deploying strategies effectively. There were no peeks where there shouldn't have been, and everything worked smoothly for the EU giants, so despite Mantis getting one intense round back, this also ended 5-1 to send Penta through.

Evil Geniuses vs Ence

Evil Geniuses entered the competition as the roster formerly known as Continuum, so there was high expectations, especially since Ence have had trouble at LANs in the past against big teams, although that didn't stop the EU side from taking a close 5-3 first map win on Oregon away from EG though.

With the fate of NA resting on the shoulders of Evil Geniuses, they had everything to prove when it came to Clubhouse, and pulled it out of the bag for their own 5-3 win, pushing the third map to a favourite of theirs: Border. In the only match of the day pushed to the third map, the stakes were high, but Ence's phenomenal form saw them take an early 2-0 lead, that developed into an emotional win as they advanced to tomorrow's finals.

Black Dragons vs 1nFamy

Last up was Brazilian team Black Dragons vs remaining NA side 1nFamy, who faced off on Clubhouse in the first map. This was nail-bitingly close, actually being pushed into overtime as rounds were constantly resulting in draws between the two sides, but it was the local team who clinched the overtime win, with no small support from the crowd.

It was an entirely different story on Oregon, the second map of the match and last map of the day, as 1nFamy were systematically dismantled in every round to clinch a 5-0 win and with that dump the remaining NA team out of the competition, which as expected sent the crowd wild as well.

What's next?

So with the quarter finals all done and dusted, this leaves two regions fighting for supremacy and the chance to win their slice of the $275,000 USD prize pool, as well as the all-important spots at the Six Invitational in February. These regions are EU and Brazil, so with Team Fontt taking on Ence Esports and Penta Sports clashing with Black Dragons, there's everything to play for, as well as some exciting Year 3 information and an Operation White Noise reveal.