With the hotfix deployed, we are resuming our esports action on January 8th. Our development team will keep a close eye on the live game and will continue to investigate potential issues like these in the future. If last season was any indication of what’s to come, Season IX will not disappoint. Let's take a moment to look back on Season VIII before turning our sights towards some new changes for Season IX!
Let's take a moment to look back on Season 8 before turning our sights towards some new changes for Season 9!
North America
With a first place finish in their region followed up by a loss in the Quarter Finals in Rio, Evil Geniuses insisted they would be making no roster changes. **Rogue, **who met a similar fate in the Quarter Finals after finishing second in NA, announced that newer member Supr would be departing from the roster with VertcL, formerly of Mouz/Rise Nation, stepping in as Rogue's 5th member.
The two teams whose playoff chances came up just short last season were Dark Zero (formerly SK Gaming) and Spacestation Gaming. Despite finding a new organization, hungry to make a name for themselves DZ opted to hold firm with their roster. As for Spacestation Gaming, the team's mid-season pickup of Bryan proved to be only temporary as they parted ways with the flex player, bringing in the newly available Bosco as his replacement.
Surging up the standings in the second half of the season, Rise Nation exited their partnership with mousesports before announcing a new banner to compete under for this season. There would be one notable absence on the team as VertcL would leave to play for Rogue. To replace VertcL, Rise Nation grabbed Ghxst from Elephant Gang, who will make his Pro League debut this year. Dreamhack Montreal winners Cloud9, whose spot at the 2019 Six Invitational was secured earlier this year would hold onto their roster, similar to other NA teams.
Toward the bottom of the standings Noble would hold off Elephant Gang in relegations, maintaining their spot in Pro League. They would part ways with their organization as well as Breezy shortly after the season ended. The team is currently looking for an org with newest member Bryan jumping in to the team. NA Pro league also welcomes Excelerate Gaming, the winners of the NA Challenger League playoffs. They take the spot held by Obey Alliance whose time in Pro League has come to an end.
NA Standings and roster moves:
- Evil Geniuses [N/A]
- Rogue [-supr, +VertcL]
- Dark Zero [Formerly SK Gaming // N/A]
- Spacestation Gaming [-Bryan, +Bosco]
- Rise Nation [Formerly Mousesports // -VertcL, +GhxsT]
- Cloud9 [-LaXInG, +LaXInG]
- Orgless [Formerly Noble GG // -Breezy, +Bryan]
- Excelerate Gaming [N/A]
Latin America
Topping the LATAM standings and finishing 2nd in the Season 8 Finals in their home country of Brazil, FaZe Clan will return with no changes to their roster. LATAM’s second place team last season, Immortals, have opted for something a bit different, dropping yuuk and D1OGO1 from their team and replacing them Bullet1, formerly of Team Liquid, and MKing, formerly of Bootkamp (now INTZ eSports Gaming). Not to be outdone, Team Liquid added some firepower to their lineup by adding fraggers Paluh and gohaN, the latter being the former IGL of FaZe who was benched mid-season by the team, after letting go of Bullet1 while moving psk1 to the bench. Ninjas in Pyjamas would get in on the action, moving pzd off of the team to pick up pino while INTZ e-Sports snagged Yuuk and DrunkKKzZZ to round out their roster.
Not only were roster shuffles on the books for LATAM but org shuffles, too. The team competing under Team One signalled that they were looking for new representation and found it in Black Dragons, an organization that all Rainbow 6 fans should know quite well. After spending some time with Bootkamp Gaming, the team competing for them would decid to seek an equally noteworthy org with INTZ e-Sports, whose return to Pro League will surely delight some fans.
After a hard fought battle for their Pro League spot, paiN Gaming would hang on, fending off Guidance Gaming in relegations. Meanwhile, ReD DevilS e-Sports would finish first in the LATAM Challenger League playoffs and grab the auto-relegation spot that the old Black Dragons found themselves in.
LATAM Standings and roster moves:
- FaZe Clan [N/A]
- Immortals [-yuuk –D1OGO1 +Bullet1 +MKing]
- Black Dragons [Formerly Team One // N/A]
- Team Liquid [-Bullet1 –psk1 +Paluh +gohaN]
- INTZ eSports Gaming [Formerly Bootkamp Gaming // -Paluh –Mking, +yuuk +DrunkKKzZZ]
- Ninjas in Pyjamas [-pzd, +pino]
- paiN Gaming [N/A]
- ReD DevilS e-Sports [N/A]
Europe
Europe has traditionally been one of the most stable regions for rosters in all of Pro League and Season 9 will be no different. G2 Esports and Mock-it Esports, the region’s representatives at last season’s finals in Rio, will hold onto their teams with no changes made. Following suit will be Team Secret, PENTA Sports, and Team Empire – the latter punching their ticket to Pro League after finishing 1st in EU Challenger League last season.
The biggest change for the region will come on behalf of the team formerly known as Millenium, now competing for LeStream Esport. The team announced earlier this year that they would be transitioning away from French as their primary language as they hoped to expand the talent pool from which they could recruit. In keeping with this LeStream dropped former captain/IGL Liven alongside Renshiro and replaced them with Alphama, formerly of Supremacy, and UUNO, the Finnish IGL of ENCE. Not wasting any time ENCE, back in Pro League after being relegated two seasons ago, grabbed SlebbeN from fellow Finnish team NYYRIKKI. Chaos made a change of their own shortly after Season 8 concluded, severing ties with sno0ken and replacing him with Vitoline.
EU bids adieu to two French teams whose time in Pro League comes to an end alongside Season 8: Supremacy and Team Vitality. Both organizations that are well known within the Pro League community will be absent from Season 9, with Supremacy being auto-relegated and replaced by Team Empire and Vitality falling at the hands of ENCE for the final Pro League spot. Please welcome
EU Standings and roster moves:
- G2 Esports [N/A]
- Mock-it Esports [+Cry1NNN]
- Team Secret [N/A]
- LeStream Esport [Formerly Millenium // –Liven –Renshiro, +Alphama +UUNO]
- PENTA Sports [-Panix, +blas]
- Chaos [-sno0ken, +Vitoline]
- ENCE [-UUNO, +SlebbeN]
- Team Empire [N/A]
We are incredibly excited to bring yet another season of Pro League to all of our fans! Last season presented us with many incredible matches and an absolutely exhilarating race to the finish to see who would claim the two playoff spots in each region. We expect this season to be equally competitive. Make sure to tune in **on Wednesday, **January 8th on our official Twitch channel for the first play day of the season, kicking off with Latin American Pro League.
