BR6 Week 1 Key Takeaways: Lagonis and JULIO debut for Liquid and w7m, Black Dragons and Team oNe off to a perfect start

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Mixed results for Lagonis on debut with Team Liquid

Team Liquid were under the spotlight this weekend as Lorenzo “Lagonis” Volpi had his first weekend with his new team. Things started well on Saturday with a 7-5 victory against Ninjas in Pyjamas, but Liquid fell to Black Dragons on Sunday.

It was a fairly inconsistent weekend from Team Liquid, as a solid showing against Ninjas in Pyjamas by André “NESKWGA” Oliveira and Luccas “Paluh” Molina was followed by a performance to forget against Black Dragons, where NESKWGA could only grab six kills and registered a poor 1-3 K-D on entry.

Across both games, Lagonis averaged a SiegeGG Rating of 0.82, taking over Gabriel “AsK” Santos’ hard breaching and support role in the team. He has also completed three plants and was only surpassed by Guilherme “Bassetto” Bassetto in the BR6 in that regard.

Following the team’s defeat against Black Dragons, Lagonis revealed Liquid had only “10 days to train” and that “better performances can be expected over time.”

Perfect starts for Black Dragons and Team oNe

Black Dragons and Team oNe are the only two teams that won their first two matches of Stage 3 in regulation time. Black Dragons defeated TropiCaos and Team Liquid this weekend, while Team oNe took down 00 Nation and the former INTZ squad.

However, it’s not how a team starts but how they ends. Both teams had strong starts to the second stage, too, but eventually  fell out of the top four on the final weekend of action.

The weekend also had L0BINN debut for Team oNe after he was chosen as Lagonis’ replacement. The youngster averaged a SiegeGG Rating of 1.32 and is currently among the top five players in the competition. Primarily plahing Zofia and Castle and featuring a 4-3 entry record, it seems that he has adapted well to Brazil’s top-flight.

Meanwhile, Black Dragons’ Vitor “Peres” Peres is at the top of the BR6 charts, with the best SiegeGG Rating (1.46) and the best KOST (78 per cent). Alongside Felipe “nade” Sá, he was crucial in BD’s victory against Liquid on Theme Park.

W7m struggles in JULIO’s debut

Julio “JULIO” Giacomelli’s debut for w7m esports was watered down by FaZe Clan and FURIA Esports, though his team still came away with three out of six points. Going to overtime in both games, w7m lost to FaZe and won against FURIA in a stark contrast to their domestic domination in Stage 1 and 2.

While JULIO’s return to the server hasn’t been as good as he may have hoped, he was not poor either. It’s clear that this team needs time to get back to winning ways, as only a big upset would prevent it from not qualifying to the Six Invitational.

Key to that will be fixing Gustavo “HerdsZ” Herdina’s entry kill record. He is currently the worst in the competition with a 2-10 figure, something that has hampered w7m’s results.

FURIA only take two points instead of a potential six

FURIA Esports have started the third stage with the back foot, as they only managed to collect two points from two maximum overtime defeats against MIBR and w7m esports.

A key reason why seems to be Diogo “Fntzy” Lima’s negative numbers in entry area, as he is currently 1-6 with just a 3 per cent survival rate. The low survival rate is a Fntzy special and by design, but it must be paired with strong K-D and entry splits.

As of now, all players in FURIA except for Thiago “Handy” de Sá have negative SiegeGG Ratings, with Handy standing out positively after three clutches across the first weekend of action.

Still, despite the disappointing start, FURIA’a results could have been just the opposite. Against w7m, the team had an almost perfect start on Oregon with a 5-1 half. Meanwhile, against MIBR, the black panthers headed to the 12tg round with a 6-5 lead.

They're almost there -- all FURIA need are small tweaks.