It has been an electric weekend thus far at the BLAST R6 Major in Manchester. From the tide turning against the superstar Brazilian squads to expectations of an underdog team being cast aside, it has been one of the most turbulent events in Rainbow Siege in recent months – in a good way. On the grand stage in Manchester, North America’s beastcoast has found a white-hot energy that has allowed the squad to win over the crowd – and storm through the bracket.

From wiping out FaZe Clan – the favourite to win the BLAST R6 Major – to decimating Team Liquid, beastcoast has been on a burner this weekend. The team now proudly sits in the grand final of a Rainbow Six Major for the first time – and is just one best-of-five fight away from securing the trophy.

I caught up with beastcoast’s Shaun ‘Gunnar’ Pottorff, the charismatic competitor who has won over the hearts and minds of UK-based Rainbow Six fans this weekend.

Ready and Willing

Going into the grand final, Gunnar remains as confident as possible – a sentiment aided by his recent success over FaZe Clan and Team Liquid. It’s not yet confirmed who out of BDS or DarkZero will be making their way into the grand final alongside beastcoast, but Gunnar is happy to tackle both teams:

‘It would be cool to beat BDS on EU soil. I’ve never beaten BDS so it would be a bittersweet thing. DZ, I’ve played a hundred million times… If I played them in a grand final, I’d be comfortable – I know how they play. But if I had the choice, I think I would just say BDS. They don’t know how we play, DZ does.‘

This is the first BLAST R6 Major to take place in the United Kingdom, and Manchester has served a fine purpose as the base of operations for the event. The crowd has been punchy, passionate, and bursting at the seams with energy – something that Gunnar and beastcoast have been soaking up. I asked him how he rated the UK crowd against other crowds:

‘It’s night and day – the other crowds, they don’t even exist, and if they did exist, they were Shaiiko fans and they booed us. This is the first time I’ve had a crowd on my side where I can literally hear it through the noise cancelling, they’re just screaming when we do something cool.’

That hype is pulling through to the stage in the form of Eric ‘Fettuccine’ Tong, beastcoast’s clutch coach who is bouncing around the stage and erupting at the team’s every victory. According to Gunnar, he’s a hugely important presence:

‘He’s something else. We always know that he has our back, he is always going to be happy for us. Round loss or not, he’s behind us and he’s hyping us up.’

To Be a Champion

Given that beastcoast hasn’t ever gotten this far at a Major and the team was assembled just two months ago, I was eager to learn what the culture is like behind the scenes for beastcoast:

‘Our team culture is probably one of the healthiest team cultures you would ever see in your life. Yes, there are times during scrims and on game day if we get frustrated with each other, we’ll go at it, but no one gets singled out. We’re a team, we win as a team, we lose as a team, and we learn as a team.’

And on the topic of winning the BLAST R6 Major and becoming a first-time champion:

‘It has been a dream of everyone’s – this is what every person lives for. When you’re playing Rainbow Six Siege as a pro, you want to win a Major. To now be in this position to win it, especially going through the bracket we did where nobody thought we were going to win the first game, it’s surreal. Our momentum is just at an all-time high, and I really do believe we can win this.’

Beastcoast will face either Team BDS or DarkZero in tomorrow’s grand final.

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