Welcome To Shaiiko's Fun House

(Picture Credit: Dartfrog)

By Arran "Halo" Brown

The Six Invitational is in the books and while North America's Spacestation Gaming came out on top, it once again allowed the best players in the world to showcase their abilities. The likes of Spacestation Gaming's Rampy and TSM's Beaulo for North America, Ninjas in Pyjamas’ Julio and Pino of Latin America, Fnatic's Magnet for the Pacific and of course UUNO and Katoraketti from Europe's G2,  all put on an incredible display of fragging prowess and have been doing this at the scenes top level for a while. There was, however, one player in particular who finally showed the high levels of potential many first saw in him three years ago and gave a performance that I believe will continue well into the 2020 season. That player is BDS Esports’ Stephane "Shaiiko" Lebleu and he showed at the Six Invitational why this year will be his funhouse.

Shaiiko first entered the professional scene with the hype of being a prodigy from fans of the French community with Aera Esports, helping them reach the finals of the 2017 Coupe de France. The team were then signed by beGenious Esport Club and gained qualification to year 2, season 2 of the European Pro League, managing to stay up by placing in the top two of the proceeding relegation tournament. Shaiiko and beGenious continued to produce impressive results winning the 2017 Summer Challenge minor 2-1 over Team Vitality and finally qualified for the 6Cup after winning qualifier #1. Things looked good for the Shaiiko and beGenious, however, turned quickly on October 11th  2017. During a Pro League game against Penta Esports, Shaiiko was found to have used macros to gain an advantage and was given a 2-year competitive ban. As a result, beGenious were disqualified from Year 2, Season 3 and Shaiiko was eventually released by the team.

Shaiiko's ban ended early after a year and a half on April 24th 2019 and he was very quickly signed as a part of BDS Esports’ first entrance into Rainbow 6 at the end of May 2019. It took him a little while to get back into the swing of things with BDS after a disappointing 17th place in the Six Major Open Qualifiers and then a 5th-6th place finish in the qualifiers themselves but BDS and Shaiiko eventually got rolling. 

After placing 4th in the European Challenger League Open Qualifiers #1, he had and BDS Esports managed to win in Open Qualifiers #2. At Dreamhack Montreal he started to open it up a bit more. BDS placed in the top 2 for the BYOC computer tournament and then in the professional tournament he helped lead BDS to a 3rd place finish off the back of a 1.26 rating with a K/D of +41. Next, he took the European teams of Challenger League Season 10 to task, with a monster 1.41 rating with a K/D of +72 on BDS's way to winning the league outright.

OGA Pit came around and BDS and Shaiiko were contained by some of the best teams in the world, finishing 5th/6th with a rating of 1.03 and a K/D of 2. The result caused BDS to evaluate their roster and the introduction of former Team Secret flex support Bryan "Elemzje" Tebessi proved to be a key addition. The two have formed a strong partnership quickly in Season 11 of the European Pro League, which has allowed Elemzje the chance to shine in both the Pro League (with a 1.01 Mid Season rating), the Six Invitational (with a 1.21 Group stage rating), and a playoff rating of 1.13 rating, to become a legitimate secondary fragger for the team. The two have allowed each other not only great support but space to cause opposition teams headaches on both sides. 

The duo with RaFaLe, Renshiro and RWXD used the Pro League to find their form quickly and during the Six Invitational Shaiiko was at his best while BDS finished as the top European team and 4th overall. Shaiiko, with the help of Elemzje and Renshiro, finally reached the performance level fans had wanted almost three years to see on the big stage. He made Clubhouse his playground and consistently recorded impressive numbers with a SiegeGG rating of 1.23, +25 K/D in the Group D. He stepped up his performance in the playoffs, with a rating of 1.21, 188 total kills and a K/D of +50. Shaiiko has the highest rating in the entire playoffs and was only passed by Muzi on kills, having played one less game.

Although Shaiiko and BDS Esports likely felt they could have made it to the finals and have a goal set already for the 2021 Six Invitational, one thing has been confirmed over the last few weeks - Shaiiko has arrived, and not only is he gunning for the title of best player, but he missed going to make you play the game his and BDS's up-tempo style. Making professional Siege his funhouse, other teams nightmares.

(You can find more Rainbow 6 Seige related content on Twitter @haloofthoughts)