Team SoloMid’s Flawless Match: The ‘20-second meta’ at its limits

Rainbow Six: Siege’s April 2nd playday was filled with some phenomenal games, with many coming down to the wire and tying at 6-6, but there is a single game that steals the show in terms of prowess: Team SoloMid (TSM) versus Tempo Storm.

In this recent matchup on Kafe Dostoyevsky, TSM hammers Tempo Storm into the ground at a final round sweep of 7-0, with TSM having the tall task of being the attacking team first. 

With a team as aggressive as TSM going on the attacking side first, it is unsurprising to see why they did so well as to sweep Tempo Storm off the board, but that isn’t what is being discussed here. After the second round of the match, TSM’s attacking strategy took a shift. They began taking their time, taking great care in droning each other out thoroughly and finding the location of the defenders with pinpoint accuracy before coordinating a push forward. 

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Now in Siege’s current climate, one might notice an issue with this approach. More often than not, taking time to drone in Siege tends to leave little time for the actual execution of a push towards the objective site, leaving the final push for the last 20 seconds. This is known as the “20 Second Meta”, and it has been spoken about in-depth in a recent AMA with Pro League caster Milosh. 

Twenty Seconds to Victory

Coming into the third round of the match, TSM began slowing their attacks down significantly. They were meticulously picking apart Tempo’s utility, a tactic not usually indicative of their style of play, and then the timer reached 20 seconds left.

All at once despite seemingly not taking enough players of Tempo Storm out of the game, they converge on the objective, plant, and make quick work of the remaining defenders. They continued to do this like clockwork nearly every round on attack. As caster Kixstar said after a masterful clutch from TSM’s Matthew “Achieved” Solomon, “Impossible to win positions turn into undefeatable ones.” 

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With enough practice, TSM has the capacity to take the competitive scene by storm* with this approach. Many teams are struggling on attack with the amount of utility they have to burn through, but TSM has found the sweet spot, as they are making sure the stars are perfectly aligned before they make that last second push. They’re doing exactly what this meta needs. 

(*Pun for Tempo Storm absolutely intended)

Season 1.2’s Effect

The Year 5 Season 1.2 patch is out and the meta has changed again. We covered the patch notes in a previous article, so feel free to go read through that for more information. The TSM vs. Tempo game illustrates well just how much of an impact these changes will have once they go live. 

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Take a look at the aforementioned player, Matthew “Achieved” Solomon. Solomon is widely considered to be one of the best Buck players in North America, and he uses his frag grenades with expertise. When attacking the third-floor bar objective, he clears out Reading Room on the floor below and expertly times his grenade throws towards the ceiling in order to catch players from below and to avoid getting his grenades captured by Jäger and Wamai. 

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To see the further impact of this patch, one only needs to look at all the players utilizing Gridlock and Mozzie’s Super Shorty shotgun throughout the match. The secondary shotgun, when used on Gridlock, allows her to make small rotations that the Buck would usually make. When used on Mozzie, it allows that defender to make the rotation and C4 holes without forcing another operator to bring a primary shotgun.

Taking this utility from Mozzie will drastically impact his performance all across Pro League and the competitive scene as a whole. We can only keep looking forward to see what will come next for TSM, and for the future of Siege as a whole.