_{(Banner: Ubisoft / Kirill Bashkirov)}

We are finally at the end of the group stage at Sweden Major.

The major had his ups for some teams, and it had many downs for others. Here are the winners and losers in the group stage of Six Sweden Major, some of the most interesting statistics and some reflections on the best games in the tournament.

Winners and losers

Winner: Korea

Once again, APAC improved its position, and that is due to the Korean laws.

Many expected LATAM to be good, some expected APAC to excel and put two teams in the playoffs. But no one expected an APAC team to take the first seed in the death squad. SANDBOX struggled through a tough Group B to reach the playoffs as the second seed, but the real winners are the consistently improved APAC region as a whole. It’s a shame that one of the Korean teams is guaranteed to make it to the quarterfinals, but it’s quite nice that another Korean team is guaranteed to make it to the semifinals.

Losers: The spectators in Group B matches throughout the tournament

Not because there were bad teams in this group, nor was it a bad Siege that was played in these matches – the maps were simply not around. Only one map went the entire regulation period, 7-5. There were a total of five 7-1 result lines. The only group that was close to replicating this volume of one-sided matches was Group A, which had a Davide “FoxA” Bucci-dissolved oxygen in it.

Today’s statistics

Teams that play with coaches win

Oxygen and Invictus can not be blamed for their losses. The teams were forced to play with their coaches on the playlist for a myriad of widely discussed reasons. Today, their best bet was by far, giving them their first and only win of the tournament. Both teams will go home, but they will not go home empty handed.

Another strong group for Brazil

LATAM remained strong during the group stage, led by FaZe Clan, Team oNe and NiP. Of the four groups, three of them were won by LATAM teams, and several teams had three plus-point leads.

The gap between LATAM and the rest of the world does not seem to be closing – LATAM is not only the best region in terms of volume of top teams, they are also the deepest region.

Matches in the group stage

Rogue 7-5 FaZe Clan

After an undefeated 14-0 in the round count day, Rogue showed the Rainbow Six world that FaZe can bleed. Rogue are an extremely dangerous team when they are hot, and in this match they were definitely hot. This was the only match that FaZe Clan lost during the group stage.

Spacestation 7-5 Team Empire

This match saw an event with an astronomically small possibility: A one-on-four clutch followed by a one-on-five clutch. The momentum was on Spacestation’s side after these plays, but Empire went back to battle. This one was exciting from start to finish.

Team Vitality 7-5 Team 1

One of the most surprising wins of the entire tournament was Vitality’s win over Team one on the second day of the group stage, which upsets the “natural” group stage. In addition, this was the only map of Group B that went the regulated route.