Ground Zero has a chance to become the first Contenders team in the new format to go undefeated across all four weeks of action, netting yet another win against the Sydney Drop Bears in Contenders Australia 2020 Season 1 Week 3.

The win was one of their most dominant, yet again only losing one map in their run. After sweeping ScrimBux, they had a slight hiccup on Oasis against Mindfreak, before turning up the heat against the Drop Bears in the final.

However, the team wasn’t as confident as they were in previous weeks. According to Felix “ckm” Murray, the break had thrown the team off slightly, and scrims were looking closer than ever before.

“This [win] is especially sweet,” the veteran DPS told Snowball Esports. “We weren’t feeling as ahead this week in scrims as we had in other weeks, so to pull up on match day like we did is a good feeling.”

It’s been a triumphant return for arguably Australia’s most storied flex DPS. After announcing his retirement in mid-2019, he’s come back with vengeance after the World Cup with Ground Zero, and has found the perfect balance between competitive Overwatch and his studies.

“I started planting seeds with Signed and Unter at BlizzCon about this season to slot back into Contenders,” he said. “So far I’ve been able to manage my time well enough, really just means sometimes I have to sacrifice some social activities when things get busy.”

The four weeks off gave Ground Zero time to refine their strategies ?— no matter how far ahead of the rest of the region they seem. On top of that, it gave them a chance to refine their communication, after a mad scramble before the start of the season saw many teams alter their rosters drastically.

“Communication has been a struggle for a while,” he admitted. “It’s really only been coming together recently and we have tons of work to do on that front still.

Regardless of how their communication might be behind the scenes, it’s almost impossible to see a flaw in their play. Their flexibility has allowed them to navigate whatever hero pool is thrown at them, and they have the ability to play counters better than their opponents can play their comfort.

This will become ever crucial with the release of Echo. Overwatch’s latest DPS is now unbanned, and while the Week 4 hero pool hasn’t been confirmed yet, if she is available to play, Ground Zero are ready to pick her up with open arms.

“I think the thing that makes Echo interesting is that she’s a strong dive and poke character, meaning she’ll be able to slot in as a key hero in numerous comps,” he said. “If she’s meta I assume everyone will be jumping on the chance to play her, since she’s fun as hell.”

Contenders Australia Week 3 – Top 5 ???

HD: https://t.co/g2dfJvHa9h
Full VOD: https://t.co/y1xeMe3LAx#overwatch #esports #contenders #australia pic.twitter.com/KcKQEn542R

— Blizzard Esports ANZ (@BlizzEsportsANZ) April 29, 2020

With only one week separating them from a perfect run in the new format, ckm stated Ground Zero aren’t getting too far ahead of themselves. There’s still a job to do, and if anyone can do it, it’s ckm and their veteran roster.

“Obviously we’re not getting too ahead of ourselves,” he said. “Things can change quickly with the fast changing metas. Provided we stay on top of our practice we should be good.”

In other results, Warriors broke into the top four for the first time this season, and locked their place in playoffs, after NoWeaver failed to submit a roster in Week 3. The French organization parted ways with their old roster during the mid-season break, but still currently hold the slot.

Kraken Esports Club also made their mark, jumping straight from Open Division into the top eight after taking down PowerAnchors in the round of 12.

Paradigm Shift, ScrimBux, and Athletico currently hold the final three playoffs spots, but with some teams hot on their heels, next week is going to prove ever crucial.

Contenders Australia 2020 Season 1 will return for Week 4 on May 11.

You can follow ckm and Ground Zero on Twitter.

Produced by Josh Swift

A trip to Germany for a Battlefield 4 event triggered a dream of Counter-Strike world domination for one young Kiwi.

Despite a lack of funding, events, and viewership in New Zealand the passion of the community has given Adam “Cookie” Cook hope for a competitive career in one of the world’s favourite esports.

It was competing in a Battlefield 4 event, all the way back at Gamescom 2015 in Cologne, that first ignited the 24-year-old South Islander’s passion for Counter-Strike. It would be the start of his journey in the competitive esport.

“I just remember being incredibly jealous of the size of the crowd and the stage of the CSGO event,” Cook said, reminiscing on his time in the German metropole.

“I said to myself then, I have to get better at CSGO so it could be me on that stage one day.”

And despite his “fair share” of ups and downs, he says one of the benefits of competing in Global Offensive is the clear route for career progression.

“There’s a clear pathway for players to go from social competition, all the way to the professional stage,” he said.

• Read more: Emagine — In the footsteps of the Journeyman

Now, Adam plays for the only team to source all its players from New Zealand ?— Black Sheep New Zealand. Formerly known as Breakaway Esports, the team is backed by the New Zealand Breakers basketball team.

“I’m only just now starting to feel that I’m able to compete on an individual skill level at the higher end of Australasia,” Cook said.

Born and raised in Westport, on the West Coast of NZ’s South Island, Cookie was gifted a closed beta key for the latest installment of CSGO in 2012 by an old-school Kiwi player, Bryan “Simcore” McLean.

“Shoutouts definitely for him for getting me hooked,” Cook said.

Sharing his time between Global Offensive and EA’s Battlefield 4, where he competed in several events, Cook was hovering around the second tier of competition in teams mostly made up of Australians.

After losing his spot in Oceania then-top 5 team, Paradox Gaming, Cookie decided it was time to throw in the towel.

“I decided to take a step back from the game and focus on myself and studies,” he said. “All the while, I had Samual “Hue” Uitermark of the now Black Sheep roster asking if I’d play with their team.”

Adam said he wasn’t keen to compete at an amateur level, but he liked the idea of competing with a full New Zealand roster. “I decided to join the squad and take on the opportunity of rebuilding myself,” he explained.

“What I didn’t expect to see, though, is serious potential in this team – especially my teammate Addict, who I think has the potential to make it to the world stage if he puts his mind to it,” he continued.

“Now that we’re practicing and competing regularly against other top teams in the region, I think we’re definitely on track to be competing at the highest level in Oceania.”

Cook said the best thing about the New Zealand esports community is the passion.

“Especially for those operating the competitions and teams, as more often than not they’re volunteering to work on their own time,” he added.

“I can’t thank those people enough for all of their work over the years to help build what’s turned into a special community. There’s a lot of talent that’s come out of New Zealand.

“But unless you’re in one of the top four teams, you rarely get to play at events and in the end, that’s what we’re all playing for, that opportunity to compete on stage.”

Black Sheep New Zealand roster

• Samual “hue9ze” Uitermark
• Christian “addict” Pendleton
• Adam “cookie” Cook
• Jonathan “jono” Do
• Daniel “jeepy” Farnsworth (sub)

Follow Cookie & Black Sheep on Twitter.

Produced by Josh Swift

Ground Zero have locked their place into the Overwatch Contenders Australia Season 1 2020 playoffs after claiming their second victory in a row, although they faced new opposition in Sydney Drop Bears in this week’s final.

Ground Zero’s firm grip on the rest of the Contenders field was tightened in Week 2, after the Perth-based org secured their second weekly win and another 100 points. However, instead of getting a rematch with NoWeaver, they faced down the old dynasty of the Sydney Drop Bears to run it back.

The three-time champions of Contenders Australia look vastly different from when they were winning titles back in 2018, although the same fighting spirit lives on. After a 3-4th place finish in Week 1, the Drop Bears clawed their way back into the final of Week 2 after taking down NoWeaver 3-0.

It was redemption for Winter “Winter” Thomas and his squad, who had to recuperate after a tough loss to the French organization.

• Read more: Ground Zero settle into Contenders Australia with almost flawless first week

“The first week’s loss was tough on the boys,” he told Snowball Esports. “We knew we were better but just played awfully on the day.

“That week we also had me on hitscan and thk on projectile which we thought was good, but in the end it wasn’t, so over the past two weeks we put me back on projectile and thk back on hitscan and really grinded it out. In the end, it paid off.”

Working in the Thai DPS has been easier than expected for Winter. Having worked alongside Korean and Pacific talent like Dreamer and Nyang last season, bringing in thk helped them fill out some depth in their squad, even if there’s a little language barrier.

“Incorporating thk has been really easy for us as he’s really given his all to learn English through lessons and convos with us all. He’s also really friendly and fits into our environment really well as he’s not afraid to have some banter.”

Doing what’s best for the team, instead of trying to flex his mechanical muscle, has also been the path Winter’s taken throughout his career. He doesn’t see himself as the player to pop off anymore, instead making sure that his teammates can get the spotlight, and ultimately do what gets the team the win.

“After gaining experience throughout my whole career, I’ve turned into more of a stepping stone for my teammates to carry,” he said. “I like doing the stuff that doesn’t get appreciated, and doesn’t get the big reactions from the casters and the fans, but rather what leads to those moments.

“I have spent the last three seasons being the IGL for my teams and I feel like that has given me further knowledge on how I analyse what’s going on in front of me. I can’t 1v6, I’m not as gifted as players such as ckm, Signed, and Jordation.

“I’ve developed into a more ‘What can I do for the team, not what the team can do for me’ player. I don’t get those big pop-off moments that go in montages and highlight reels, but it brings the team wins, and wins are what matters.”

After locking down the 50 points for making it to the grand final, they were hopeful to try and double it. However, they couldn’t contain the beast that is Ground Zero, with Winter noting that the now two-time Contenders bracket winners look unstoppable.

“GZG have been ahead of the pack these past two weeks,” he said, “however I think the bans have favoured them. They’ve had Adam on his signature D.Va pick, although beating them just comes down to who plays better on the day.”

Among the carnage though, the Drop Bears did find a weak spot in Ground Zero’s armour on Watchpoint: Gibraltar. A strong defense snowballed into a good offense, with SDB stealing away their perfect week in the second-last map.

ggs @GroundZeroOCE 3-1 loss, almost got to map 5. Was a really fun game and we have definitely improved since last week. Here is me getting a shatter so fat I fucking choked up. pic.twitter.com/GIH2yZczts

— Minny (@Minny_OW) March 16, 2020

They caught Ground Zero by surprise with Hanzo, Baptiste, and Sigma, three heroes that might not have seen play if it weren’t for the hero bans. With Winston out of the picture for Week 2, along with Lucio, dive comps have been a bit stunted, and bunker made a short brief rise.

Sydney Drop Bears’ flexibility allowed them to work around these bans, and played around Ground Zero’s Torbjorn strategy perfectly.

“Hero bans are decent for us as we have six really flexible players on our line-up,” said Winter. “It’s more about finding what works best for everyone and then seeing how that matches up against other teams.”

When the rematch eventually comes ?— which Winter is sure will happen ?— Sydney Drop Bears won’t be caught off-guard again. They’ve only got Ground Zero in their sights, and they’ll fight to try and reclaim their spot at the top.

“GZG are our only threat and we are not worried about anyone else.”

In the week’s other action, Mindfreak cemented their second straight 3-4th result with a loss to GZG in the semi, while NoWeaver only managed to rack up 35 points after making the grand final in Week 1.

Athletico were knocked out early in the bracket by Paradigm Shift, while Warriors fell short of their first top four berth once again. ScrimBux and X69GAMING rounded out the rest of the top eight, securing 20 points.

Overwatch Contenders Australia will return in May. Open Division will take place in the coming weeks, with eight spots in Trials up for grabs.

You can follow Winter and Drop Bears on Twitter

Produced by Josh Swift

Jessica “Jess” Bolden has done it all in Rainbow Six ?— player, coach, and now caster ?— and while she was only ever in Siege for a break from her criminology career, she’s back into the thick of it, and going along wherever it takes her.

Jess never intended on staying in Rainbow Six for long. While she played during the early days of the scene at a top level, she was busy wrapping up her Masters in Criminal Justice and looking at a career in criminology.

Siege, for her, was a chance to learn another language and work in Europe.

“I wanted to learn another language, and I took German as a result,” she said. “I took German in the last semester of my Masters degree on top of my thesis, and the university let me, and then taking the job with Penta kinda spurred on picking German rather than another language.

“I thought ‘yeah great, I’ll work with Penta, I’ll learn the language, live overseas for a while, come back, do my PhD,’ and it’ll just be the same.”

It wasn’t the same. Now, two years later, the criminologist-by-trade has done it all. From player, to coach, and now desk analyst at the Six Invitational ?— her first major casting event ?— Jess is still getting caught up in the rabbit hole of esports.

• Read more: Elevate re-enter Rainbow Six through ANZ, sign former Oddity roster

This time last year though, she was behind a desk of a different kind. She was coaching a new Penta roster at the event, mashing together her analytical skills from her ‘real-life’ profession and her burning passion for Siege.

However, that passion was slowly dwindling in the final days of the Penta roster. The team disappointingly missed out on a spot on main stage in 2019 to APAC’s Nora Rengo, before the team slowly slid down the rankings.

“There was a time in coaching where there was a distinct moment where I lost my passion, and I think that was forced upon me by some players [at Penta] who had already lost their passion,” she said.

Faced with the decision of coming home and returning back to criminology, leaving behind her life in Europe and her Siege career entirely, she instead stuck it out, rekindling her passion with a group of upstarts ready to set the world on fire.

Those upstarts were Italy’s Samsung Morning Stars. Coaching them was like a completely different game, and soon after, she realized why she went and learned German in university ?— even if it didn’t prove to be worth much on the other side of Europe.

“Those young players ?— anything that came out of my mouth was gold for them,” Jess said. “They wanted to take it, they wanted to do it, they didn’t care about how much I criticized them or how much positivity I gave them, they just wanted to be better.

“I took pretty much Tier 4, Tier 3 players up to close to Tier 2 in close to three months. We made PG Finals, and then unfortunately the whole visa issue happened and I went ‘I don’t ever want to go back to what happened at the end of Penta’ and I wanted to hold those really good feelings I had at the end of those three months.”

After being sent home back to Australia, Jess once again came to a crossroads. Does she keep digging further into the rabbit hole of Siege? Or does she take flight from the scene once and for all.

Her choice was made for her though. She was invited out to the Six Invitational as an analyst, where she could share her previous experiences with Penta and Samsung in a broadcast capacity.

“I think I’m predominantly charismatic and I’m pretty well-spoken when I put my mind to it, so I think it’s a really good opportunity to use my critical thinking skills, my high level analysis from coaching and just playing Siege for so long.

“I was a competitive player as well, so I’ve been in every area that you could really be in Siege, so I feel lucky to be able to speak about the game at a super critical level and being confident in doing so. It fits me because I can say what I want without the worry of hurting a player’s feelings.”

She also got to have a look back at the scene she was once a part of in APAC. While coaching in Europe made following along with the Aussies harder, seeing Fnatic, Wildcard, and Giants at the Six Invitational brought a smile to her face.

It gave her the same feeling she had when she got the chance to explore the world through Siege with Penta.

“The globalisation that I felt from Siege has been at ?— both at face value and at intricate levels ?— is incredible,” she said.

“I’ve flown around the world in eight months, I’ve been to all different continents, all different countries and cities, and I’ve learned culture that I would have never learned otherwise.”

However, her analytical side also took over. APAC has always been in a rough spot on the international stage, and the tides don’t look like changing just yet. While the region is always touted as underdogs at major international events, year on year, skeptics are proven right.

“I think APAC unfortunately ?— I always felt this after being a part of it as a competitive player and then from the outside looking in ?— is that everyone underestimates the capacity of APAC as whole. Not just ANZ, but the other regions as a whole. Unfortunately, statistically, they’re not wrong. On the numbers, on paper, they are the weaker region and they have been for a while.

“Fnatic has allowed us to skew the results in our favour a little bit further, but I also just feel that we don’t have the support staff and capability ?— the simple things that you’d need to be a high calibre team ?— is not provided in any other team aside from Fnatic at the moment, and that’s why they themselves have come so far.”

With the Six Invitational over, Jess has once again got to make that decision between her passion and her profession.

“I have two options essentially. I either dig as far as this rabbit hole will let me dig and it’ll probably pop me out at the other side of the world if I keep going at the rate I’m going, or I stop it completely, cover up the hole, and just remove myself from this scene 100% otherwise I won’t thrive in my area of my industry if I have one foot in each door.

“I have a visa meeting coming up, so I’ll move back to Italy for 12 months, it’s easy to travel there, everything’s accessible, stream from home.

“My partner lives in Italy as well so it’s easier for me and her, so if I get some good offers, and they sound like they’re coming up, then I might be stuck here for a lot longer than I planned ?— stuck in a good way.”

Passion won out again, and Jess wouldn’t have it any other way.

You can follow Jess on Twitter.

The Chiefs have kicked off the OPL season with a surprising 10-0 to shake up the power rankings, and MSI is now in their sights. While Chris “SeeEl” Lee is obviously chuffed, the coach says it’s got nothing to do with him, and everything to do with his “geniuses.”

The story of SeeEl doesn’t begin with his League accolades. It starts from when he was kicked out of home as a baby-faced 17-year-old fresh out of high school.

“I got kicked out of home when I was 17 and I didn’t have a good relationship with either of my parents,” he said. “Even though we were relatively well-off, I was basically homeless, so I went out and took whatever jobs I could get.

“I was a removalist, a cleaner, a waiter, a kitchen-hand — which is why I cut onions so well. I was going to uni full-time but I really wanted money so I was like ‘f**k it, I’ll ditch it and work full time.’ I was at uni, working three jobs, doing 90-100 weeks.”

While the 23-year-old coach of the Chiefs has no notable results to his name, and no competitive experience as a pro, he’s got the work ethic to prove that his players are the best in the region.

He’s transformed ?— what was on paper ?— a relatively unremarkable Chiefs roster on paper to one of the dominant forces of Oceanic League. If you asked him about it though, he’d tell you that it’s almost got nothing to do with him.

“On paper, we were the underdogs for a reason,” he said. “We have one veteran mid, but we have a fifth place AD carry, Croc had to take the entirety of 2018 off because of wrist issues, KoreaCK hasn’t played a stage game once, and Thien was a sixth-man.”

While SeeEl doesn’t have much coaching experience in the top flight, he’s been trying to instill into his roster of misfits the idea of not just playing for next week, but playing for next year. He’s got direction, he’s put in the effort, and he’s being a role model for the rest of his team.

“No one on the team is actually cocky. No one is arrogant enough to think that it’ll be a free run, and I drill it through them every day that ‘today is a fresh start,’ have that fresh mindset when you come to practice, and make sure to stay humble.

“I’m trying to instill a championship mentality into the entire team, as well as prepare them for stage games. Not just the best of ones, which I think a lot of games could have gone both ways, but best of threes and fives.”

Gosh dang, what a way to close the game.#IAMOPL #CHFWIN pic.twitter.com/cW4dXX5PeI

— The Chiefs (@ChiefsESC) February 29, 2020

SeeEl’s long term focus with the Chiefs has been noticeable with their performances throughout OPL 2020. They haven’t had some of the cleanest games early, but once late-game rolls around, they look unstoppable.

Having every role filled with mechanical prodigies, the next step isn’t just getting them through the OPL, but giving them the skills, and the work ethic, to try and make it internationally ?— either as a team, or as individuals.

“We need to take that mindset where we do what we can as players and as coaches to take a step forward and be willing to learn certain concepts about the game that’s 100% required for international that might not be the best for the upcoming week.

“I’ll teach them how to play the game instead of playing against certain teams, and I think that’s been instrumental to our success.”

However, working together a mixed roster has proven to be difficult. Croc and KoreaCK’s mother tongue isn’t English, so team communication has been a struggle. However, SeeEl has tried to make it work, thinking outside the box of what OCE teams would normally do.

“One of the reasons why we have so many Koreans in the house is to instill the Korean League environment. We have me, KoreaCK, Croc, and PADO ?—  so that the house atmosphere is different.

“When I speak, Croc and CK are in full respect mode. They’ll talk back when they think my feedback is wrong and I encourage that kind of environment. I want players to tell me I’m wrong, but we have that Korean atmosphere, so because of that, the others just naturally mold into that.”

“When I came to the Chiefs, I thought these guys would all be lazy gamers and they wouldn’t keep up with me, but they all work bloody hard and I’m pretty impressed.”

The Korean-style of League of Legends tutelage is a far cry from what most players, like Thien, Katsurii, and Claire would expect from Oceania. It took some time for the team to adjust to the work ethic SeeEl asked his players for.

“Claire got to where he was through pure talent,” he said. “He’s a genius. However, the [OCE] environment is awful. Players just want a chill environment, and no one can imagine the environment that I instill upon the players.

“Thien, Katsurii, and Claire had spouts of disrespect at one point, which is reasonable because they were like ‘who is SeeEl? What is this guy? He’s never had a pro split, he’s like Diamond 2 peak in League, he came ninth place in the OCS, who is this guy? Why do I have to listen to him?’

“At one point, they were like ‘I don’t have anything to learn from SeeEl.’ Look at us now.”

Counting my players out of rookies to watch…

Watch out for world class jungle and support plays.

— Chris Lee (SeeEl) (@coachseeel) January 30, 2020

With his band of geniuses on his side, the Chiefs don’t have their sights set on a perfect 21-0. In fact, they are ready to drop games to everyone in the OPL.

“I think Dire Wolves and Legacy are our biggest rivals, but it’s not that simple. Any of these teams can upset us ?— Order and Avant can beat us at any time, and I think against Gravitas we could have lost, and Mammoth had a pretty good draft against us but just executed it wrong.”

However, where SeeEl does see this team is on the MSI stage, wherever in the world that may be come May, and ready to show that his Chiefs roster aren’t the pushovers like teams gone by.

“This team isn’t meant to be where it is, but it isn’t here because I’m amazing as a coach ?— these players were swept under the rug and put on terrible rosters, or they were hidden gems. They’re all honestly geniuses, they all take feedback very well, they improve very efficiently, and quite honestly, these players will without a doubt go international.

“CvMax said this once: ‘a lot of coaching is just luck,’ and I was like: I have geniuses in Croc and Thien, the gigahard worker in Robert, and the older voices of CK and Claire who add a nice balance to the team, and now we’ve just gotta produce the results.”

The Chiefs will look to continue their undefeated streak against Mammoth and Dire Wolves in Week 6 of the OPL from 5pm on Saturday March 8.

You can follow SeeEl and The Chiefs on Twitter.

Photography courtesy of Riot Games

From North America, to Latin America, and now Australia, Elevate becomes the fifth international organisation to sign a Rainbow Six squad in the region, picking up the ex-Oddity Esports roster.

The North American organisation announced the move on March 5, just two weeks after ditching their Latin American roster.

“The opportunity to sign a top roster in the ANZ region and potentially APAC representative on the world stage was one that we could not pass up,” said Justin Tan and Brandon Hatfield, the owners of Elevate.

“With this roster, we hope to grow and help them reach the potential that we know that they are capable of,” they told Snowball Esports.

The new Elevate roster has already shown their potential in the Rainbow Six Pro League in Season 11. They currently sit in second on the standings with six maps to play, only one point behind ladder leaders Fnatic.

BOOM. IT’S A HUGE 3K FOR @Vast_R6! ?? #R6PL

?https://t.co/Fl2ghZOVAc pic.twitter.com/VfdEm0YjK0

— ESL Rainbow Six (@ESLRainbowSix) January 16, 2020

The roster has come tantalizingly close to spots at the APAC Pro League finals, and with this new organisational backing, they hope to finally break through on the world stage.

“With the team barely missing out on APAC Finals last season, we know that they are on track to make it this season and be one of the representatives for APAC in the Pro League finals,” said Tan and Hatfield.

“Although we are in a good spot, we are definitely not comfortable with where we are sitting so we still have a lot of work to do,” added team captain Isaiah “Vast” Patterson.

“We have to get more results and the backing that Elevate has provided us has been a huge motivational boost with addition of relieving some stress.”

The team has their sights set high though ?— just making it international isn’t enough. They want to cement themselves at the top of ANZ, APAC, and global Rainbow Six for the years to come.

• Read more: Magnet, Dizzle, and Fnatic going from APAC top dog to global underdog

“We want to be the best ANZ team however long it takes and we want to be at LAN events frequently,” Vast said.

While the team received offers locally, they decided Elevate was the best fit for their goals, and the North American organisation is looking to show their commitment to the scene from across the Atlantic.

We did receive quite a few offers from various orgs during this mid-season break, some offers were very similar,” said Vast. “The team gravitated towards Elevate after our initial conversations for a number of reasons.”

“Elevate is an international organization that is always looking to field the best talent in the games that we enter,” added Tan and Hatfield. “If there is an opportunity to support more ANZ esports, you can be assured that we will be looking into it.”

On top of the organizational support, Elevate has made a slight roster change during the transition to their new team. Jonathan “Gio” Lanciana has departed the squad, with Kanga’s Patrick “Worthy” Gleeson filling the vacancy.

Elevate’s roster is as follows:

• Raine “DgTl” Wright
• Luke “Redd” Cini
• Isaiah “Vast” Patterson
• Jake “GodLeg1on” Harris
• Patrick “Worthy” Gleeson

Elevate’s roster will play their first game under their new banner against Six Invtiational 2020 attendees Wildcard Gaming on March 19 at 7pm AEDT. You can catch the action live on the Rainbow Six Twitch channel.

Follow Elevate on Twitter.

Ground Zero have taken home the accolades in the first week of Contenders Australia 2020 after beating NoWeaver in the grand final 3-1, and according to Dale “Signed” Tang, the team is ready for whatever the future throws at them ?— hero pools and all.

The revitalized Ground Zero roster build on the success of the Order squad in 2019, with Signed and Adam “Adam” Soong heading up a roster brimming with talent. However, the off-season wasn’t all smooth sailing.

After Sam “Quatz” Dennis departed for Warriors, and Max “Unter” Unterwurzacher was shipped off to Europe with British Hurricane, London Spitfire’s academy team, Ground Zero were forced to rebuild days out from the start of the season.

However, with three-time champion main support Lachlan “Bertlog” Main coming out of retirement, and Riley “cuFFa” Brown making his Contenders debut, Signed says Ground Zero have future-proofed their team for 2020.

“cuFFa and Bertlog are great additions to the team,” he said after his team’s win on Monday. “Both have insane mechanics in their respective roles, and it’s coming together well. I think we have the most meta proof roster in the entire region now.”

They showed that off throughout their Week 1 run in Contenders Australia 2020. While they showed off some comfort picks, like Giorgio “Terry” Lahdo’s Ana (previously Tongue) and Adam’s D.Va, the team is getting ready to flex their muscles in future weeks with hero pools.

Ckm and Signed have a huge hero pool between themselves, and with the constantly adapting roster, teams will need to be well equipped with whatever is thrown at them.

“I feel like we have a completely meta-proof lineup,” said Signed. “Ckm can play all the traditional flex DPS heroes and a lot of hitscan, while I can cover almost all hitscan heroes while being able to play some flex too.

“Adam can play every off-tank to an insane level, and so can cuFFa relative to his role in main tank. Terry and Bertlog cover every single support in the game also.

“It’s all up to whether coaches can teach their players on time and create an environment in which the players can understand their role in the new meta and their limits also.”

Their finals opponents in NoWeaver were a surprise to most though. The up-and-coming roster took down Sydney Drop Bears 3-0 in the semifinal to book a spot against Ground Zero at the end of Week 1.

While they feature a bunch of talent who has previously been on the cusp of the top echelons of Australian Overwatch, like DPS Kurt “Naahmie” Pedersen and off-tank Thy “Mini” Le, together they’ve shown that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

“I thought NoWeaver was a very ‘scrimbucks’ team, but their performance in officials have shown otherwise,” said Signed. “Despite them having rather volatile results, overall their track record has shown them to be worthy of contending for the top two spot.

“NoWeaver might be our biggest rival currently because they have very legit and consistent players I feel,” he added. “They are running a full local roster which eliminates their ability to have communication issues unlike other teams.

“They have players with insane potential, and with proper coaching they will definitely be a threat.”

We’ve topped charts as we claim Paris ? against @NoweaverE in overtime!
Finishing off the first week of @owpathtopro with a grand final win, earning us 100pt towards the playoffs. GGWP!

[ #GZPZ || #WESTISBEST ] pic.twitter.com/9YBBPuxcHp

— Ground Zero (@GroundZeroOCE) March 2, 2020

Regardless of who their rivals are though, Ground Zero are only aiming for one thing ?— getting more wins, and making them as flawless as possible.

“Honestly if we just play our own game, we should be looking at another three consecutive dubs next week,” he said. “I trust that our trusty Italian coach Joynt can hook us up with the goods.”

NoWeaver took home 50 points after Week 1, while Mindfreak and Sydney Drop Bears secured their spot in Week 2 and 35 points after coming in 3-4th.

Warriors and Athletico were knocked back down to Trials after a disappointing showing saw the two returning orgs fail to edge into the top four safe zone.

Overwatch Contenders Australia will return for Week 2 on March 8 for Trials, while Contenders will restart on March 15.

You can follow Signed and Ground Zero Gaming on Twitter

Fnatic always manage to surprise the world when they make it to main stage every Six Invitational, but for Etienne “Magnet” Rousseau and Jayden “Dizzle” Saunders, anything less would be considered a failure.

It shouldn’t be a shock to anyone now. Fnatic have made it to the main stage at every Six Invitational ?— one of the only teams in the world to do so ?— every year climbing through a harder bracket than the year gone by.

Everyone thought they’d fall to Team Liquid in 2018. Pundits only gave them a 0.7% chance of making it through 2019’s group of death. Similar odds were on the line for 2020, especially given they were up against Raleigh Major winners Team Empire right off the bat, and had a finals run that included two-time world champions G2 Esports.

However, APAC top dogs pulled through to once again hit their benchmark of playing on main stage in the top six of the Six Invitational in 2020. Magnet and Dizzle have been there the whole way through ?— well, almost. Dizzle has been at all four, while Magnet missed out in 2017.

“You know, he queue dodges me in ranked,” said Dizzle, laughing at the prospect of even being considered better than Magnet. “He missed the first one on Xbox. It would have been nice to have him in hindsight, but wisdom and hindsight are only good after you need them.”

Wisdom and hindsight are only good after you need them. That’s something teams like Empire, FaZe, and G2 learned on their run through the Six Invitational 2020 ?— don’t sleep on Fnatic. Every year, the APAC squad manages to show even on game day in Montreal, even if it takes them a few tries to get there in the first place.

“People on a brief, high-level overview, will be like ‘well you’re APAC, of course you’ll get easy runs on the qualifier on the way to the Six Invitational,’ and for the first year on Xbox, the main stage was given to everyone,” said Dizzle.

“This year, we had Darkzero, Faze, Empire, so in terms we’ve made main stage, and what we’ve had to do to get there, it’s a pretty significant achievement to follow the journey and being like ?— coming out of the group, as an APAC team, for a couple of years in a row, it’s a really big achievement for these guys.”

“At the same time, people now expect us to make it onto main stage, but we shouldn’t be.”
Dizzle

The goal for Fnatic is never lower than being able to play in front of their fans in Montreal, however, on the stats alone, it should be almost impossible. They herald from the weakest, most isolated region in the world, and rarely get the same opportunities as the top dogs in North America and Europe. But somehow, they manage to pull out something magical.

“Technically an APAC team shouldn’t be doing all of this and getting to main stage every single time against these other strong regions and teams,” said Magnet.

“Looking at the analytics and the quantifiable data, we shouldn’t have the performances we do, but for ourselves that’s the base level of expectation of what we should be achieving,” added Dizzle.

“We’re not coming here to not make it out of groups, and while for some it might not seem overly ambitious to make it out of groups, considering the region we’re from, and the groups that we’re given, getting out of groups is often the first hurdle.”

They managed to overcome that hurdle after running it through the lower bracket to upset tournament favourites Team Empire to qualify for groups, before being matched up against defending world champions G2 Esports in their initial quarter final draw.

The daunting task of topping Pengu and company didn’t stop Fnatic though, as they swept through the reigning champions to book a semi finals berth against Team SoloMid. While they didn’t progress much further than that, bowing out to BDS Esport in 5-6th, it didn’t hit the team as hard as 2019’s loss against Nora Rengo.

“Obviously it really sucks to lose, especially given how well they played, but it’s more frustration at ourselves that we didn’t play at the same level as we did against Faze, Empire, G2,” said Magnet.

That doesn’t mean they had a losers mentality though. The perennial underdogs of the Six Invitational had a new fire in their belly with Tex “Tex” Thompson and Patrick “MentalistC” Fan in their line-up, and their ever-so-slightly-jaded view of playing on stage helped the team push forward.

“Even before the game [against BDS], Mentalist was like ‘guys, I’m going to sound really cheesy and cringe but I’m proud of what we’ve done so far in this tournament, and if we go out here aw well,’” laughed Magnet. “I think that sums it up.”

“We had the conversation a few times while getting seated and prepped for matches ?— we’re used to having everything on the line, we’ve come out of groups in elimination matches,” added Dizzle.

“We’re in that mindset that when teams come into matches against us, we’re happy to come out swinging and they’re very much like ‘oh shit guys, if we lose we’re going home.’ We have the same mindset of ‘if you guys lose to us, you’re going home.’

“I think we’re happy to play in those situations.”

The team’s newest recruits have done a good job meshing into a new structure in such a short time. The jump from your run-of-the-mill Pro League team to Fnatic is extraordinary, but they’ve shown the signs of improving that has the team hopeful of being not just underdogs, but contenders for future international events.

“Both Tex and Mentalist are very young players which for me is super promising,” said Dizzle. “They both have exceptionally good game sense for their age. They’re both very talented players. Their mentality ?— especially Tex ?— is really strong. His focus, his understanding of the theory of the game is really sound.

“Mentalist is an absolute prodigy from the APAC region, he’s been known in the region since he was like 15, so he was someone I was really excited to work with. He still have a bit of maturing to do as a person and a player, but you’ve already seen the foundation that he has, so I’m super excited to work with him even further.”

For a team with 2 new members I’m proud of the run we made through the legendary teams FaZe, Empire and G2

We made historic memories, gained valuable experience & played main stage but it isn’t enough

We have a young team full of potential

We can be better
We must be#forAPAC

— Jayden Saunders – Dizzle ? FNATIC (@DizzlewithaJ) February 14, 2020

In-game, for Magnet, it’s even better. He feels more freed up to do his own thing, rather than trying to micromanage a team from a leadership perspective. Given the current meta of Siege, this extra bit of free thinking allows him to truly focus on his own game and help Fnatic hit the next level.

“From an IGL standpoint, they just do so well on their own in-game that I can kind of sit back and focus on my own job more. In the past I’ve had to really micromanage the team, but Mentalist has been a real leader in the game and called things that make everyone’s job easier.”

While they “didn’t think [they] would gel as well as [they] have” before the Invitational, according to Dizzle, there’s still a long way to finally hit their peak.

“I think we were [playing] around 70-80% [at the Six Invitational],” said Dizzle. “The biggest thing is keeping the consistency, and that comes from the practice environment. Being that consistent comes from consistent practice and discipline ?— the one percenters ?— and that mostly comes with time.

“We played some average games against TSM and BDS and they played a very similar playstyle to each other, so we played very well for our group and our tournament, but we were a bit found out against different playstyles.”

However, as Fnatic heads back to play in Pro League, it’s going to become harder to keep the quality of practice up. Getting the three weeks in London before the Invitational was good, but trying to keep that same level up against local teams is more difficult.

“It’s a constant game of catch-up. As we go home, we’ve had decent results, they’re all going to make the changes and the preparation for the next step while we have to go back to our practice regime,” said Dizzle.

But, as the Six Invitational blends into history, there’s a very likely chance people will forget about Fnatic’s performance and start underrating them again. They’re not relying on being the underdogs always ?— and the best way to do that is to try and elevate APAC Siege to a new level.

“We want to lay the foundations for APAC to start investing and supporting itself to become a stronger region so that it’ll enable APAC to compete globally and allow us to become stronger through APAC instead of relying on bootcamping in other regions,” said Dizzle.

Magnet’s goals were set at a much more personal level: “I want to make it to every Major.”

And if Fnatic can keep up their Six Invitational form, making every major might be setting the bar a bit low.

Fnatic continue their Pro League Season 11 run against the former Mindfreak lineup at 9pm AEDT on March 23. You can catch the action on the Rainbow Six Twitch channel.

You can follow Dizzle, Magnet, and Fnatic on Twitter.

Header image credit: Peter Chau for Ubisoft

Jordy “Jordation” Frish is giving Overwatch one last crack in 2020 before he decides to hang up the mouse and keyboard for good, leading a revitalized Mindfreak roster to go one better than last year in Contenders Australia.

In September, Jordation was on the other side of Rod Laver Arena to Mindfreak. His Order line-up put on a dominant performance in front of thousands of fans to lift the Contenders Australia trophy for the second season in a row, demolishing the band of misfits 4-0.

However, as his off-season prospects of going overseas after cementing his fourth Contenders Australia title in five seasons didn’t eventuate, the then-flex support was at a crossroads. Either try again for one more year, or pack it all up and move on.

“I was looking at unis at Melbourne to enrol in and start in,” he said. “I messaged Joel on November 28 and asked if Mindfreak are trialling DPS and he said he’d get back to me. It was a few weeks later when he did and he asked me to trial so I got a spot from there.”

Back on his more comfortable role of DPS ?— the role where he won back-to-back seasons with Sydney Drop Bears at the start of 2018 ?— Jordation has found a new drive to keep him going in Overwatch: raising the next generation of talent with Mindfreak.

“The new team is going really well,” he said. “I like the role I get to play in the team. I like playing with less developed talent.

“I think everyone is more keen to learn because they don’t have the same sense of complacency that a lot of the established players have. No one comes into scrims with an ego. Everyone is very open to advice, the team is very keen to just do better and win.”

The new Mindfreak roster features some of the same players that hit the MEO stage just six months ago. Joshua “Bus” Bussell, Isaac “Ackyyy” Berry, and Samuel “Swilko” Wilkinson remain, while DPS prodigy Kai “Nanda” Hwee Gray and off-tank Rhys “SlipGyp” Howe round out their 2020 squad.

For Jordation, the new environment marks his departure from a long-standing Order core, and an even longer time with main tank Sam “Quatz” Dennis. The move, in his eyes, was a necessary one though, to keep pushing himself to improve.

“I’m enjoying being on Mindfreak a lot more. There’s more work involved, I have to be more switched on in scrims,” he said.

“I can’t just lay back and let Unter do all the shotcalling because Max was phenomenal in terms of in-game leadership and now I have to do a lot of that myself. I much prefer having to be switched on because I’ll improve a lot more without any level of complacency.”

With players like Unter jumping overseas or retiring (Song “Dreamer” Sang-lok is now in the Overwatch League, while over a dozen players from last year have retired), nurturing the next generation of talent in Australia has never been more important.

“Between myself and Bus, I think we’re very much so just guiding the team. They aren’t just new to the highest level of play, they are just quite young in general. Nanda is 16, Ackyyy is 17.”

However, from the highs of early 2019, which saw more local talent get thrown over to North America and beyond, it feels like the region has slid back in its shell, according to Jordation.

“I think Australian Overwatch has regressed into only being four competitive teams at the top, and then a huge divide to the teams below. With quite a few people retiring, there’s not as much talent as there was.”

Not only that, but the game is completely different heading into 2020. With a new format, role pools being added to freshen up the meta every week, and a map pool that could only be described as an ocean, the Mindfreak DPS is more excited than ever to show off his skill.

“I’m really excited for role pools, and obviously role lock is still in place and the meta is restricted in that regard,” he said. “I think that this is much better than hero bans because I imagine hero bans diverging into the same thing and a meta still forming that’ll still be stale.

“This will force diverse metas and to be the best, you’ll have to be the best at not just one comp or one hero, but the best all round.”

And if results are to go by, Mindfreak is in the best position to do that. They took home the Monkey Bubble Koala Trials Tournament in the pre-season, sweeping a formidable Ground Zero Gaming in the final to win the charity event.

The improvement is being felt week-on-week in scrims with their young talent, although there is a long way to go.

“This young talent and the attitudes of all of these players is pretty phenomenal in terms of learning and accepting feedback,” he said.

“There are just basic fundamentals that these guys currently lack, but they are willing to take on feedback and if they are told to do something, they’ll try and do it without talking back. If this is something the coach wants me to do, they’ll try it.”

Mystery Man ZendayaFan01 and his team is now locked in for 4th seed heading into contenders 2020. pic.twitter.com/2vftpoXEmr

— Jordy ????® (@Jordation) January 16, 2020

While these young players have a long way to go, this year will be Jordation’s last, possibly in esports entirely. Although he’s only been around for two years, the DPS is weighing up his future outside of esports, and unless some big offer comes knocking, he won’t be kicking on.

“[I imagine in 12 months that I’ll be] retired or playing in America or another region,” he said. “I don’t want to play another year in Australia unless there are some serious format changes that make it livable, but that’s unrealistic. I’m going to give it my all this year to try and make it internationally, but if not, I’ll be out.”

However, the itch will always live on. With Riot Games’ Project A on the horizon, Jordation might give in to one last crack once that rolls around later in 2020, or early 2021 ?— although he doesn’t fancy his chances.

“I’ll be too old by then to turn back and become a professional gamer,” he said. “I’ve got the plan to go in when the game is new and everyone’s bad, be good, and then quit before I get bad like 2016 Overwatch.”

With his mind set on the task in front of him with Mindfreak though, the ultimate goal is to make it back international at the Showdown, and hopefully do himself, and his region, one better by making it to the Gauntlet.

He’s never been more confident in a team than Mindfreak, and if people don’t respect that, they’ll pay the price.

“I hope people don’t sleep on Mindfreak again. People need to respect Mindfreak or they’ll get shit on.”

Mindfreak kick off their Contenders Australia Season 1 2020 campaign on March 1. You can catch the games on the Overwatch Contenders Twitch channel.

You can follow Mindfreak and Jordation on Twitter.