Hot off the heels of qualifying for the Six Major Raleigh, the ever-hyped up TSM roster locked horns with Soniqs for the final matchday before the Rainbow Six Pro League goes on a break.
While TSM has been performing abysmally in the Pro League, they have been a force to the Six Major qualifiers. It’s odd to see this team in action outside of the Pro League—they’re absolute gold.
Soniqs aren’t much better off at this point in the regular season, so if either team wanted a win, this would be the time to grab one off of another low-ranked team.
The addition of Jason “Beaulo” Doty to TSM’s roster seems to have garnered the squad some unwarranted favor, as the pre-match community survey gave TSM the match with 86 percent of the vote. TSM is the bottom-ranked team in Pro League with only one point in the standings, but it looked like that was going to change in matchday seven.
Matthew “Achieved” Solomon stole the show in the opening rounds with some last-minute kills to lock up wins for TSM. Even with Achieved getting taken off the board early, Soniqs first three defenses fell quickly. Owen “Pojoman” Mitura clutched up in round four with a last-second one-vs-one defuser plant. Just to add insult to injury, Pojoman wrecked Soniqs by typing “Lol” in the chat.
With a scoreline of 5-0, the match was TSM’s to lose. The squad was clearly riding a high after qualifying for the Six Major Raleigh but couldn’t manage the perfect 6-0 first half. It took Soniqs six rounds to pick up a win and even then, it wasn’t the most impressive display.
Soniqs did manage to string two rounds together but the high was short-lived. TSM brought the match down to 6-2 to ensure a point in the standings but slipped up immediately after and Soniqs took full advantage of the TSM’s errors.
TSM began to look more like the usual regular-season TSM, as Lauren “Goddess” Williams trucked through the Kitchen defense. Despite a strong comeback, Soniqs dropped the ball and lost 4-7.
While TSM is fun to watch play, they’re right there at the bottom of the standings with Soniqs. The victory today means little to nothing if TSM can’t keep up this type of play against high-ranking squads in the second half of the season. Soniqs have the potential to climb out of a relegation slot but it’ll take a lot of work—especially if this is the new version of TSM.
The Rainbow Six Pro League returns in September following the Six Major Raleigh. Fans can catch the official broadcast here.
