Spacestation Gaming came into the Six Invitational 2021 with varied expectations and a few grand storylines.
Troy “Canadian” Jaroslawski was placed back into the Rainbow Six Siege team’s starting lineup after a heart-wrenching retirement due to Spacestation’s inability to renew a passport for his stand-in, Luke Slota. In the first stage of the 2021 NAL season, Spacestation couldn’t close out several overtime games, which dropped them well below their standards in the overall standings. They entered SI 2021 as the defending champs, but according to many analysts, repeating their title is a bit of a long shot.
Despite the questions about Canadian and Spacestation’s form, there’s another unexplored angle: the current excellence of Alec Fultz and Nathanial “Rampy” Duvall. They were the top-rated entry players in the NAL, notching a staggering +20 on entry plus/minus for Fultz and +17 for Rampy.
They were the two highest-rated players in the league in the statistic that tells the most about their role. League MVP Pablo “Gryxr” Rebeil was third at +7.
“It’s really just about communication,” Fultz said when asked about the pair’s success. “It’s really the timings of when to get aggressive off info.”
“Our teammates are great droners,” Rampy said. Rainbow Six is a team game, to be sure, and Spacestation are well known for having eyes everywhere. It’s of paramount importance to have pinpoint information when playing the entry roles, but both referred to the chemistry between themselves as well.
Spacestation’s strength is in their communication. And despite the NAL results, there’s reason to believe that they can make another deep SI run. The X-factor is Canadian and how much gas he has left in the tank after noting burnout in his retirement. For what it’s worth, Canadian and Spacestation aren’t worried about any questions of motivation. In the press conference, Canadian mentioned that he’s not convinced he can return to Spacestation long term, but he’ll be perfectly fine for SI.
The natural cohesion of Spacestation feeds into Fultz and Rampy’s success. Their ultimate strength is in their teamwork and the entry statistics highlight this strength.
