Yeti reflects on Soniq’s Mexico Major, aiming for playoffs in Sweden – SiegeGG
(Banner image: Ubisoft / Eric Anamalay)
Alexander “Yeti” Lawson speaks a mile a minute, words fly out of his mouth like the rapid staccato of machine gun fire, and every quick phrase or sentence is punctured by a pause of a fraction of a second.
“Looking back and reflecting on the goals we had for the year, we did not expect to be at such a level at all,” said Yeti, uncharacteristically slowing down his quick speech to discuss Soniq’s recent years. , which has surprised even him.
For many, Soniqs came from nowhere, their rapid rise to the top of the NAL board came as fast as a phrase from Yeti’s mouth. They are made by the old eUnited core, which showed promise but was one of the statistically worst teams in 2020 NAL games, and Seth “supr” Hoffman, who was the only remaining member of the 2020 Soniqs who was close to hitting top four grid lid.
Now that the year is in fact over regionally, you can reasonably argue that Soniqs has cracked the traditional “top four”, or at least extended the regional elite status to five teams.
Step 1 turned the North American “Rainbow Six Siege” upside down. Oxygen was the only permanent NA power that cracked the top four: NA would have sent Oxygen, Soniqs, Mirage and Disrupt to May Major, if SI 2021 had not been postponed until May.
Of the four teams that broke the tradition, only Soniqs has remained in the top four places every step of the way. They are actually the only team in the region with that award.
“You know we never really felt we had that respect from the top four teams or even the middle of the team,” Yeti said of his time at eUnited, and how things have changed in NA since he started with Soniqs. “You know, we’ve always been like the tough guys. So when we got to a LAN stage, you know, I can finally see these people, we can all finally see people when we beat them, obviously we let them know how we feel. in our own way. “
For a significant portion of fans and some players, for better or worse, Soniqs has been called NA’s “villains”. Yeti are good with the distinction, noting that “you are what people say you are”, but they did not plan to be the bad guys. They have their own reasons for their actions, and as the Yeti correctly says, “people miss the passion for toxicity.”
Everyone can feel how they feel, it does not change the raw results on the scoreboard. If we go for the holistic NA year-long circle, you could argue that Soniqs is the best in North American regional competition.
“Top four for each stage, would have qualified for three majors [had SI not been postponed], Invite, NAL Finals … This is crazy, man! It’s crazy, there’s a lot to take in, there’s a lot to be proud of, ”Yeti said.
For fans and analysts, their regional skills meant high expectations in international competitions, not just regional competitions, and this is something that Soniqs has not lived up to yet – they are still learning. Internally, Soniqs emphasizes learning from every loss, and tries to find a way to turn every single aspect of the game into a lesson that can be used in the future.
While their Mexico Major group consisted of BDS, a constant favorite, Team one, the eventual Major champions and CAG, who were the key to the APAC emergence of Mexico Major, Soniqs did not perform technically well. They won the first match of their group against the final champions Team one, but fell flat in the five matches after that.
“We learned a lot from Mexico Major, in terms of which teams from other regions or which teams are qualified for that event in general to bring to the table in terms of preparation,” Yeti said. “It was very impressive, very eye-opening in a way to see how some teams simply change their arsenal from top to bottom.”
Yeti says the Soniqs saw how each team changed their style of international play, noting how specific teams will only stop everything they did in regional competitions to do “weird” things to force specific teams’ hands. He notes that the overall structure of how they play is unlikely to change, but “Rainbow Six” is a very situational game, and throwing a wrench into your enemy’s preparations is very valuable.
Sweden Major is just around the corner, and that’s the next step on the road for Soniqs. As always, they are untouched and are prepared to take everything in stride, one step at a time, no matter what their detractors say. “Our goal will be to get out of groups until we can consistently start getting out of groups,” Yeti said. One step at a time.
Soniqs will start its Sweden Major campaign on November 8, when the group game in the competition begins.