Six Invitational 2023: LOS oNe Deep Dive

LOS oNe have qualified from LATAM and have arrived in Canada to play their third Six Invitational. Let’s take a look at the team’s history.

History at the Six Invitational

Team oNe joined Rainbow Six in 2018 and right off the bat took part in one of the greatest (and random) moments in Rainbow Six: Siege history, to the point where it will never happen again. In 2018, places were made available in other ways, some by placing well in the Pro League finals, others by invitation (such as FaZe Clan and Liquid who were arriving on the scene and still did not have their own places in the biggest tournament in R6), others by regional qualifiers and the last vacancy was by a vote on Twitter. Yes, it happened. Team oNe ended up not ranking in the voting among Brazilian teams and were left out of the final vote (with one team from each region) and consequently also left out of the 2018 Invitational.

Team oNe Six Major Mexico champions – Image via Ubisoft / Kirill_Vision

Between 2019 and 2020, the team failed to qualify for the Six Invitational, not even through closed qualifying. But in 2021 the team managed to qualify for the Six Invitational for the first time. The lineup that attended this tournament was Lorenzo “Lagonis” Volpi, Eduardo “KDS” Fontes, Karl “Alem4o” Zarth, Juliano “Levy” Andrade and Caio “Neskin” Szazi. In the group stage, which contained ten teams, Team oNe had a good performance, winning four of the first six matches. Their performances dropped sadly on the last day as the team suffered three defeats and ended the group with a 4-5 score. This was not amazing but it secured them a top-five placing in the group. In the playoffs, the team eliminated the Americans from Spacestation, but in the next round, they lost to Team Empire. Since they were already in the Lower Bracket, they were eliminated from the competition.

There was no way to change the lineup for the 2022 Invitational, mainly because of the organization’s first international title in Rainbow Six, at the Six Major Mexico. This victory was due to a heroic campaign that ended in them beating Team Empire in the Grand Final. The team arrived at the Invitational with morale but ended up being eliminated in the group stage with a lot of complaints about the format and the scoring system that year. Three points were given for a clean victory, two points for a victory in overtime and one point for a loss in overtime. Team oNe won two games in overtime but were left out for NaVi and Oxygen, who only won a single game but due to it being a clean win and two losses in overtime (while Team oNe didn’t lose in overtime) they were placed above the South Americans. The regulation bothered the Brazilians, who were in fifth place and were eliminated in the Invitational group stage.

LOS oNe stats in 2 seasons at Six Invitational

In September 2022, Los Grandes purchased Team oNe the updated team “LOS oNe” reflects that. Los Grandes started as a Free Fire team but now has a huge presence across all major Esports.

Present

After the Six Invitational, Team oNe reformulated their lineup: KDS, Levy and Neskin left for 00 Nation, while Alem4o went further and crossed the sea to play for G2. Taking their places were Leonardo “dash” Lopes, João “Dotz” Miranda, Gabriel “Maia” Maia and Renato “rhZ” Luiz. In the first stage, the team achieved a good classification for the Elite Six and then their place at the Six Major Charlotte, which was not close to the team’s expectations and not due to tactical performance but due to its structure. The team had to play from Mexico due to visa problems, where they played with ping problems, hindering the whole experience but still, they qualified for the playoffs. In the playoffs something curious happened, Dash, rhZ and Lagonis were able to go to Charlotte and decided to play as three in person, while Maia and Dotz were unable to play and therefore continued in Mexico. The attempt was good, they even won a map from DarkZero (which would win the major), but it wasn’t enough, and they were eliminated in the first game.

In Stage 2 the team peaked. They eventually finished in fifth place and were left out of the Elite Six by just one point (losing to Ninjas in Pyjamas). It was the last stage of Lagonis for Team oNe, and the young captain said goodbye to the Copa do Brasil trophy with a beautiful clutch in the decisive round of the game. In his place, the team called Júlio “L0BIN” Gabriel, a player who was standing out in tier-two nationally. In Stage 3 they hit the post again but now losing in rounds to Black Dragons.

Leonardo “dash” Lopes at Six Major Charlotte after winning the round – Image: Instagram / dashr6s

Now as LOS oNe, the team competed in the Qualify LATAM to play the Six Invitational, where they managed to qualify. Player Dash commented on Qualify’s preparation: ‘œIt was a really tiresome preparation period, we were coming sooner and leaving way later than usual, and in the game week we relaxed a little bit’. The team managed to qualify for the Six Invitational after beating Maycam, Six Karma, and Furia.

Dash, who will play in his first career Six Invitational, talked about his emotions before the event: “The dream of every player is to play in a tournament of that size, everything is incredible, from the anxiety of travel to being on the stage playing the biggest R6 tournament. I’™m so happy to make my dreams come true when I watched the games of the Brazilians any hour of the daybreak and see the legends who inspired me, that now are my opponents. Really happy and proud.”

According to the player, the team arrives confident in the tournament: “Really high expectations, I don’™t think we came as just another team, like Charlotte. I’™m confident that we are coming strong, way more prepared”. He explains where the confidence in the team’s performance comes from: “I think our playstyle fits pretty well with the actual meta, surprising opponents with some aiming, being aggressive during the rounds and game knowledge, including our confidence, which is on the prime”.

But he also says about what can be a roadblock for the team: “Probably the lack of experience in these international tournaments, principally in the SI, but I don’™t think this is going to be an obstacle, all of us are with very high confidence”

The Six Invitational starts on February 7th in Canada and will be broadcast on official Twitch and YouTube channels.