Sports
‘Gamers8 is perfect – and when you feel good, you can’t be bad when playing’: Team BDS claim consecutive Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six® Siege wins in Riyadh
- After winning last year too, French side delight in securing $750,000 from $2 million prize pool at four-day tournament for the hugely popular online tactical shooter game
- Gamers8: The Land of Heroes, the biggest gaming and esports festival worldwide, features 15 elite esports tournaments from 12 top titles. The festival at Boulevard Riyadh City, which runs until the end of August, is complemented by live concerts and major fun-filled family attractions
Team BDS celebrated back-to-back Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six® Siege triumphs at Gamers8 on Sunday night – and declared the feeling of their double success at the biggest esports and gaming event worldwide as “amazing”.
Organized by the Saudi Esports Federation, four days of epic action at Boulevard Riyadh City in the hugely popular tactical shooter video game concluded with the French side winning $750,000 from the whopping $2 million prize pool.
Team BDS won 3-0 against American outfit M80 in the Rainbow Six final at Gamers8: The Land of Heroes after beating Saudi Arabian superstars Team Falcons 2-0 in the semi-final. M80 reached the final with a 2-1 win over w7m esports, but it was Team BDS, featuring Renshiro, Shaiiko, Elemzje, BriD, LikEfac, Catwo, and Stooflex, who claimed the honors and glory for the second year running.Elemzje, the in-game leader for Team BDS, said: “Winning again at Gamers8 feels great. Riyadh is an amazing city and Saudi Arabia is an amazing country. We proved we still have what it takes to win tournaments like this one against the best teams in the world.”
Elemzje added: “The organisation at Gamers8 is perfect. We have never complained. We just feel comfortable being here – and when you feel good, you can’t be bad when you’re playing. That’s what happened two years in a row.”
Just like last year, Team BDS’s Shaiikko claimed the MVP award. Shaiikko said: “It feels good to win it again.”
While victorious, Team BDS were hugely complimentary of the competition’s standard. Saudi Arabia’s homegrown heroes Team Falcons lost out to Team BDS in the final last year and went down to the same opposition at the semi-final stage this time about. Big things, however, are predicted of them in the future.
LikEfac said: “Team Falcons are a really good team, they counter-strategize well and are very aggressive.” Stooflex added: “They need more experience but are a really good team.”
Eight-week long Gamers8: The Land of Heroes has a prize pool of $45 million – triple that of Gamers8 last year. The biggest gaming and esports festival worldwide features 15 elite esports tournaments from 12 top titles. These are complemented by live concerts from top global, regional, and local artists, as well as numerous fun-filled activities and attractions for all the family.
The festival concludes with the Next World Forum, a gaming and esports forum held at the Four Seasons Hotel Riyadh at Kingdom Center on August 30-31, that brings together sector leaders and experts from around the world.