*Disclaimer: This was from almost 3 weeks ago. We had some audio issues so we couldn’t get the podcast up so we transcribed it into article form. A lot of things and roster changes have happened since then and we will hit on it in our next podcast before Pro League Finals in Mid-November

The North American Rainbow Six Pro League is coming to a close with several teams still fighting for a shot at heading to Brazil for the season finals. Three weeks ago our staff sat down with a guest appearance from Yeti, professional Rainbow Six player for World’s Best Gaming to talk about both Groups, what has happened in the Pro League, and what the future holds for all the teams in the North American Pro League, including everyone’s favorite, ROSTERMANIA!

The first topic is the 1nfamy and eRa rematch. eRa looked strong on Skyscraper then sort of fell off, what happened? Also, Easily’s emergence as 1nfamy’s top player, let’s talk about that.

Tyler: Obviously eRa looked strong to begin with, it looked like it was going to be a 5-1 right out of the gate and then 1nfamy made their comeback and almost took the map in overtime. I’ve said it all along, 1nfamy goes as Easily goes. He’s clearly one of their best players and makes all the right plays that puts them in positions to win.

Genesy: Honestly, I think 1nfamy just started clicking. Easily went off.

Chandler: Yeah, Easily played well.

Tyler: Skyscraper is one of eRa’s best maps clearly, with the other two maps do you think it was how 1nfamy wanted it to go or more a counter-ban?

Yeti: Honestly I think it was more of a counter-ban. Skyscraper has been known to be one of eRa’s strongest maps whereas the other two favored 1nfamy. I wasn’t that shocked when eRa took Map 1. I think 1nfamy did a really good job of counter-banning them. eRa most definitely had momentum after Map 1 but 1nfamy took that right back. Easily and squad had a lot of chemistry on those maps, they play those maps a lot in scrims so they were more prepared for it.

So with counter-banning, is that an essential thing, is that something you guys tried to do against Rogue and Elevate and such?

Yeti: It’s crazy in Pro League, no matter how great a team is one map can make a team great or it can make a team bad. It depends on how well you go into the map prepared, if you have anything spicy going into it, anything new maybe meta breaking. It just really depends how much time you put in it. With the new system you have two weeks to prepare for some maps, if you can’t bust out something that will be worthwhile then you just lose. You just gotta play your maps.

Let’s talk about Easily’s emergence this season. Was it coming?

Chandler: He’s a top caliber player, he came off a bunch of experience already with Elevate. Even xbox pro league playing under pressure, he’s an experienced player and with an experienced player like that you expect him to set the tone and go off.

Yeti: Yeah, he’s the backbone of their team. He’s their strategist, he’s their IGL. As far as one person standing out in any game, anyone can do that but I think he’s a little more consistent because he’s more tenured. On skyscraper when they started coming back it wasn’t Easily popping off, it was VertcL. All it takes is one play to shift the momentum in favor of elsewhere.

We’ll move onto the topic that everyone wants to hear about and talk about and that’s Elevate. What happened with them this year? Both maps went 6-5 overtime, and what was up with Skys the last two weeks?

Tyler: Yeah, with Elevate this was the biggest surprise for me. I think everyone was predicting them to go to LAN again. I mean, they’ve made it every season since they switched over from xbox and to see them almost get relegated is kind of mind blowing to me to be honest. I know everyone is thinking it, but is it Geo? Is it England? I’m not sure either of them or one of them are the answers for their problems after dropping Chap. I know that England plays support and he’s a damn good support and has some nice clutches, but maybe it’s time for a change of pace? Also, with Skys I’m not sure what happened. Dude is normally a top fragger, but it seems as if his role might have switched up. Your guys’ opinions?

Yeti: I agree, I think that has to do a lot with the roles he was playing. Skys is known to be a fragger but he’s also known to be a loose cannon and move around. I was shocked to see him play a lot of smoke and his playstyle just isn’t it. For example I was an Ash Main and moved to smoke this season. It takes a little bit of practice. On attack he was just getting shut down, Most Wanted did a really good job of playing off their picks and the mistakes that Elevate made. Skys really was just a weak link for them against Most Wanted. Shuttle and Laxing were trying their best to pull through it just wasn’t working for them. They just didn’t have their guy, Skys is their playmaker and gives the team a lot of momentum at times and they just couldn’t do it. Also, I find that Elevate struggles against really aggressive teams and teams who do stuff outside of meta. They’re a LAN team.

Chandler: I don’t know man, Skys has been that Ash main since the beginning of rainbow. That’s what he’s been known for, he’s very in your face, gun on gun wanting to push stuff and he’s been very good at it. I think if they would have done what they normally do they wouldn’t have had a big problem against Most Wanted. Switching stuff on that may have just threw the team off and maybe threw Skys off of his game.

Yeti: If you want to talk about a game that talks about who the better team is overall, this is the game to look at. Look at both playmakers on both sides. Chala went 8-15 just like Skys, it shows which team was more balanced. Laxing and Shuttle pulled through but if you look at their stats there’s another on Elevate’s roster that was really struggling and that England. I think the reason they made the switch with Skys to Smoke is because of England and his struggles this PL season. He wasn’t top notch against us in our match and he wasn’t in the first match against Most Wanted either. He’s never at the top of the stats board because he’s a support player and he’s a great support player but if you look at Most Wanted’s stats besides Chala, the other 4 pulled their own weight as well.

Do you think Elevate need to make a roster change or stick with this roster?

Yeti: Chemistry wise, I think they’re one of the more mechanically sounded units in the game right now. They play really well together and play off each other well. It just depends on if Skys can come out of the slump or not. Even at LAN I noticed that England wasn’t playing very well, I think he needs to find a way to up his game. If he ups his game then they’ll have no problems. I don’t see them making a roster change at this point. Skys, Laxing, and Shuttle have been really good friends since the xbox days, and then Geo and England have been playing with them for a really long time as well. This is honestly that same team that won invitational besides Bosco.

Tyler: We’ll get into the Continuum vs Most Wanted match. Continuum is a team that I think is the best in North America right now.

Yeti: Continuum, in my opinion, is the best team in North America right now and it’s not even close. I think adding BKN as coach is what has made them a better team as a unit. I think they were having chemistry and timing issues and trying the wrong things. There was a lot of role changes throughout their last two seasons and I don’t think that’s what they needed to do. The strats were there, the talent was there, I just don’t think the coordination was all there. From a personal experience of us having a coach, what they do is they help with strats and everything but the main thing is they really criticize how each individual player should do this when another player is doing this. If you watch cTm they’re really heavy on getting trades and so is Rogue. I think Most Wanted has their hands full and they have to come prepared but if there is one team that can beat them, I think it’s Most Wanted.

Tyler: Yeah, the addition of BKN was huge for Continuum. I think the addition of BKN as coach has just put them into this tier above everyone else. I know Canadian has talked about how he’s helped him become a better IGL and really break out of the shell that he was in.

Yeti: 100 percent. He helped PENTA get two championships and that doesn’t go unnoticed. PENTA is a great team, I’m not saying they couldn’t do it without a coach but there’s definitely something behind the coaching. Ever since they won the championship with two coaches that was really eye-opening for every team. A lot of the Brazilian teams got coaches, EU teams got coaches, and now a lot of the NA teams are getting coaches. There’s a pattern for every team once they got a coach and how much better they’ve gotten.

Genesys: I think the way Continuum has been playing all season, I don’t think anyone will beat them all season. Even at LAN, I think they’re going to win PL finals pretty easily.

We’ll move onto the 1nfamy vs Rogue match, what are everyone’s thoughts on this match?

Genesys: I think if 1nfamy shows up and everyone shows up they’ve got a good chance. If not one person shows up then I think Rogue will win. Rogue is just so good and can capitalize on small mistakes like that.

Chandler: Yeah, I keep doubting 1nfamy man. I doubted them going into the eRa match, didn’t think they’d pull it out against them. Having Easily lead them and come up with their strats is what has really been helping them and their sudden emergence, but I do keep doubting them and I don’t know if they can take a team like Rogue. I don’t even know what to expect from Rogue. Like Yeti said before, they are such an unorthodox team and you never know what they’re going to come at you with. You see something new with them every time you watch them, I don’t know if 1nfamy is at the level where they can adapt to them.

Yeti: I think Rogue wants to make a statement, they want to be the number one team in North America, so does every team, but the thing they’re really coming for is that they haven’t made it out of round 1 at LAN. They’re unorthodox playstyle comes from how slow paced they are. The way you have to beat Rogue is you have to get early picks. They are such a heavy trade team that you have to put yourself in the best position at all times, if not they will absolutely demolish you. They are very passive to an extent but towards the end they flip a switch and they are so organized and calculated. As far as 1nfamy goes, they have a nice balance between aggressive and passive players. They have a great support backing up their slayers, but as aggressive as Beastly and VertcL are, I see them getting shut down. I think on offense they’ll be fine but as far as roaming goes, Slashug and Eclipse are fantastic at what they do. Honestly, probably the best slayer duo in the game next to Canadian and NVK.

We’ve talked about both matchups and what we think will happen, let’s get into predicting the outcomes for these matches. We’ll start with 1nfamy vs Rogue.

Yeti: I’m going a 2-0 Rogue vs 1nfamy.

Chandler: I’m going to have to agree with a 2-0 for Rogue. I don’t see 1nfamy pulling it out here.

Genesys: Yeah, I’m going out on a limb here and saying 2-1 1nfamy.

Yeti: Respectful.

Tyler: Yeah, I’m going 2-0 Rogue as well. The thing that keeps coming back to me is, will 1nfamy beat the hangover of getting beat by cTm 10-1?

Chandler: I think if this match was played next season, it’d be taken to a deciding map 3.

Genesys: I have faith. I think if 1nfamy can get Rogue on a map and counter-strat it as much as possible, I think they can take it. But they have to get them on a map they’ve seen them play this season. If 1nfamy wins, every game goes 6-5.

Yeti: Yeah, if 1nfamy wins every round is going to go down to the wire. Rogue is a really tough team to beat.

Now we’ll get predictions for Continuum vs Most Wanted, thoughts?

Genesys: I’m going 2-0 for Contiuum, they’re the best in the game and I don’t see them losing a single map to Most Wanted.

Yeti: I’m going to go with a 2-1 Most Wanted over Continuum. I think they bring a different playstyle to this matchup and can definitely beat them.

Chandler: 2-1 Continuum. I think Most Wanted can steal a map off of them but I think in the end Continuum is just too overpowered for them.

Tyler: I am too going to go with 2-1 Continuum over Most Wanted. I think Most Wanted can get a map off of them, but I think it has to be a map that Continuum isn’t counter-banning for and it will catch both off guard.

We’re about to move into everyone’s favorite topic when a season comes to an end or teams face and early exit and that would be rostermania. Flipsid3 just dropped Chapstick, where do you think they go from here?

Yeti: Them dropping Chap is kind of interesting. Obviously Chap is a really good support player but when you play this game as much as us pros do, you kind of have to have a healthy lifestyle as well. Laxing doesn’t play this game as much but he also lifts and works out a lot, so I think that helps him a lot. Simple the CSGO player wrote an article about how he played the game so much and then just stalled out and got bad. You have to have something outside of Rainbow to do. As far as F3 goes, the 4 they have on their roster are really close. I think they may have picked up Exclusive, the old pro player from like season 3 who eventually stopped playing. We’re about to see a lot of old pro’s come back since the prize pool is rising and they miss the game. I see Flipsid3 making a hard comeback in Pro League next season. I just think Chapstick wasn’t what they wanted and didn’t fit them well, like I said he’s a great support player but I don’t think he had much to do outside of the game.

Tyler: Yeah, I’m curious to see who they pick up. They went from being a mainstay in Pro League, making LAN almost every season, to now having to come out of relegations, I think it’s eye opening for them. I’m curious to why they dropped Chala though, he’s easily been one of Most Wanted’s best players. I know Chap had some great clutches for Elevate last season and even at LAN but I think there were times where I saw he would go 0-8 or 1-8 and the other 4 really had to step up for them and win them their match.

Chandler: Yeah, I think we put a vote on whether or not we saw Flipsid3 making it out of relegations and I can’t remember the vote exactly but I think it was the majority of us thought they were going to make it out of relegations and back into PL, they’re too talented and experienced to not make it back.

Yeti: There’s been teams that have been together a long time, I’m a firm believer if something isn’t working for a long time then change is needed and it will bring a fresh look to everything. With Flipsid3 making another roster change and picking up someone they want, I think they’ll get back there.

Genesys: Talking about change, and I know we were going to get a little more in-depth with them but what about Elevate? Maybe not a roster change but maybe more of a role change. Everybody remembers, Geo is a slayer. He is not a support player. You can ask Skys, anytime you ask him, he does not like playing the slayer role. Switch those two and let Skys play support and Geo play slayer and I think they’ll be better.

Yeti: I agree with that, especially now that they have the time to make that change. Skys always jokes about how he likes playing Doc and he’s the new Doc main, I think if the put the time into it they can make that change.

Chandler: Hitting on something else with Elevate, what about England?

Yeti: He’s a touchy subject. He’s a tenured player and he’s a veteran of this game. He’s earned his spot as a top player in this game, he’s an XBOX champion, he’s been playing this game for a while now. He’s also a comic relief for the community as well, with the Mark The Shark, and Easily the detective thing. It’s great, it brings the community together. I think a big problem with the Elevate guys is a lot of them don’t play this game as much. If you look at the top successors of their team it’s Geo, Laxing, Shuttle, and Skys. Laxing is really good but he doesn’t play a lot, so I think he’s on a little bit of the inconsistent side.

Tyler: So I’ve heard this from a little birdie, so take this with a grain of salt, who has heard it from playing ranked with a lot of the guys in the community and what they’ve been hearing and he told me that once Godly becomes of age that Elevate will be dropping England for Godly. Is the kid even 18 yet?

Yeti: He’s still not 18, he’s either 16 or 17.

Genesys: Even if they did drop England for them, I think that adds too much slaying power for their team. This is one game where you need a balance of slaying and support. You’ve got Laxing, Skys, Shuttle, and Geo who all have that slaying mentality and it only leaves England as their lone support guy.

Chandler: I just don’t think it would be smart to replace England with somebody who isn’t experienced with that role and who isn’t in Pro League, you’ve got to be smart with the role. Just not a good idea to pick up a guy who is fresh and somebody who hasn’t played a whole lot in that environment.

Tyler: I know a lot of people call for England’s head because “he doesn’t get any kills, he doesn’t do this.” and all of that but in Pro League, kills or your KD don’t mean a damn thing. It matters how you play the round and you could be that guy who holds off a push for 30-45 seconds and that goes unnoticed a lot of the times.

Yeti: Yeah, that doesn’t mean a thing.

Genesys: I don’t care how many kills or deaths you have. If you have 1 kill it doesn’t matter. That one kill could have been a 1v1 that gave us the round advantage and helped us win the map.

Yeti: I wish there was a stat for 1v1 or crucial kills. Like the stats of how many times you’ve stopped a push onto a bomb site, or you killed the planter. Those are the kills that matter the most.

Now, what about eRa? Do they make a roster change or do they stick together?

Genesys: I think they might pick up Chapstick.

Yeti: I don’t think they’ll make a change.

Chandler: Yeah, I don’t see the making a change either. I think they’ll stick together and ride this one out, they’ve been through too much I just don’t think it’d be the right move to make a change.

Genesys: I agree with you guys, or I think pick up Chapstick.

Yeti: I see Chapstick going nowhere.If you really want my opinion.

Tyler: With Chap, does he take a spot on a challenger league team or does he hold out hope that he gets picked up by a PL team?

Yeti: I don’t see him taking that to be honest. A lot of pros would think of that as a stab in the heart. No offense to Chap, I think he’s a great player but the last 3 seasons have not benefitted the guy.

Genesys: I think what made him the bad eye in the community was that he didn’t play so hot in the games they lost but he did great in the games they won. And that’s the thing with this community, no one pays attention to the support player until they play bad.

Since we have you here Yeti, what’s the next move for you and WBG’s roster?

Yeti: Honestly, I can’t speak too much on it but we’re looking to improve on our faults and weaknesses. We’re looking to make it out of relegations, coming back into pro league we have the experience and Gun Havok is a smart player and he knows what to do. This was my first pro league season but I’ve had the experience because I’ve been playing this game since the closed Alpha. 4 out of the 5 of us it was our first pro league match and it was shaky for us, a main reason we didn’t do anything against Rogue. Being in Pro League is awesome, an incredible experience. We have KenZ as our coach who has been helping us out a lot, our progress from Rogue into Elevate was insane. We got 10-3’d by Rogue and then go into the Elevate match and take a map off of them and then finally started to show some life on Border. It was a crazy amount of progress.

Chandler: So you guys are feeling confident going into relegations? Are there any Challenger League teams you’re looking out for?

Yeti: I would say so, yes. I think that INT is a really solid team, Delete is a good team. VG offers a nice bit of talent and experience. They’re like INT, they’re a team full of slayers but at times they stall. VG has a group of solid fundamental players. Bio has been a really good IGL for VG, I know he gets a lot of flack from the community, he doesn’t have the best shot but he is a really good IGL.

The cheater from across the pond, Shaiiko of beGenius. This was some big news for the community and it makes sense after their game against Penta.

Yeti: four, four, four, four.

Genesys: Do they know what his macro did?

Yeti: They have no definitive proof. They just know he was using a macro which leads to DQ.

Chandler: It doesn’t matter what he did it’s just the fact it was there.

Yeti: There’s a couple of rumors.

Genesys: It definitely had something to do with slaying, because they said he was playing better against Penta than Millenium.

Yeti: The rumor was that it was a shooting macro, or it was a toggle like a quick toggle for walls. So it was going so fast that wire couldn’t catch it. He was hitting 4 at an inhumanly rate, most likely when he pressed it he saw a box of a character on the screen. Cheating is scummy and it’s the thing that ruins this game. Articles have been released that have said Siege and Pro League have taken a direct blow because of it because there’s not a system that’s effective enough to catch the cheaters. It sucks for the rest of his team because they worked hard to get there and he just ruined it for all of them. They’re likely not going to get picked up again because they played with a hacker.

Chandler: Yeah, I think it hurts the whole community as a whole too though. Investors and org owners see those articles and makes it seem like the scene isn’t backed by the developers. Thought the action they took after it happened will look good in the eyes of people because it shows they’re not messing around when it comes to that stuff.

Yeti: 100 percent. It’s good they took the extra step to investigate him without protests and on their own behalf. They’re paying attention to the competitive scene, for the fact they looked into the moss files to find out is good. There was a tweet talking about should they remove moss files, well this is the perfect example. Battleye doesn’t always catch everything but the moss files most definitely help.

Tyler: I know beGenius tried defending by showing a video of him playing against Millenium and with a webcam directly on his keyboard, but that was just against Millenium. Where was the video for the match against Penta? That’s what makes it look suspicious and that they knew what was going on.

Is there anything else you’d like to say maybe about your team or any of the other teams moving forward?

Yeti: I don’t think so. Just have to thank my org for supporting me and the guys throughout the Pro League season.

It was awesome having you on here, we want to do this more and have more guests such as pro league players, challenger league players, we want to do this every week. We want it to be enjoyable for people to listen to and hear from an outsider’s perspective on it.

Yeti: It’s good for the community, thanks for having me on.