Rainbow 6 team admits to throwing match for better Major seed

Jacob Hale
Cyclops r6 match fixing

The coach of Rainbow 6 Siege team CYCLOPS athlete gaming has admitted to throwing a competitive match to secure a better seed for the upcoming Six Major, sending the R6 community into frenzy.

With the Six Major coming up in November, the world’s best Rainbow Six Siege teams are looking to secure their spots in the tournament to compete for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

This is especially important in the lead-up to the annual Six Invitational, which takes place each February and crowns the best team there is as world champions.

Now, though, over in the Asia-Pacific region, the coach of top team CYCLOPS athlete gaming has admitted to throwing one of their matches.

Rainbow 6 APAC CYCLOPS athlete gaming
The CAG team might be punished after their coach as good as admitted to throwing a pro match.

Though his original tweet has now been deleted, head coach Hibiki ‘XQQ’ Motoyama let it be known that he and his team of top Japanese talent played poorly in their match against QConfirm, with the seeding system the reason.

With the way seeding works in the APAC League, teams earn points based on where they finish in the final standings, and CYCLOPS were looking to lock in as high a seed as possible — and by doing so, they couldn’t let Cloud9 overtake QConfirm in the standings.

For that reason, it seems XQQ and his team opted to throw their match against QConfirm, preventing Cloud9 from finishing above them and earning more points, hence keeping Cyclops’ higher seed.

Although the points system seems excessively convoluted, with fans calling it into question thanks to it allowing these kinds of matches to be thrown, CYCLOPS had obviously done the math and figured that their spot was safest with a loss.

The coach later Tweeted: “worst day of my competitive career so far,” and intimated that it would be his last ever match.

Perhaps, were it not for XQQ admitting to it so brazenly, the team may have gotten away with it. However, the Operator picks and style of play definitely made some viewers raise their eyebrows.

Despite no punishment being formally handed out yet, or any suggestion from Ubisoft and league operators on how they might treat this situation, it’s not looking great for XQQ and co. We’ll be sure to update this article as and when there are new developments.

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About The Author

Jacob is Dexerto’s UK Editor and Call of Duty esports specialist. With a BA (Hons) in English Literature and Creative Writing, he previously worked as an Editor at Ginx TV. Jacob was nominated for Journalist of the Year at the 2023 Esports Awards. Contact: jacob.hale@dexerto.com.