RGL Season 21’s regular season is over and is now entering the playoffs! Though this was a bit of a smaller season, there was a lot of strong competition and exciting performances from players newer to the Invite scene. This season’s double-elimination bracket will feature the top-four teams beginning on Tuesday, November 17th, leading up to Grand Final on Friday, November 20th. Playoff matches will be played as a best-of-three maps, and Grand Final will be best-of-five, with pick/ban advantage.
Like A G6
- Pocket Scout: chris
- Flank Scout: kobe1920
- Roamer: SOOOOOAPYMEiSTER
- Pocket: b4nny
- Demoman: logan
- Medic: hhhwrd
Like A G6 came into this season as the undeniable favorites. They enter playoffs as first seed after a near-perfect regular season, with two very close early matches and a loss against GlobalClan Xiao in the last game of the regular season. The veteran core of chris, kobe1920, logan, and SOOOOOAPYMEiSTER reunited last season and clinched a convincing victory on LAN after going separate ways in Seasons 18 and 19. Going into Season 21, G6 replaced loafe on Pocket with b4nny. This season marks a second RGL season without froyotech and b4nny’s return after an unprecedented break in Season 20, his first after forty-five consecutive Invite seasons. A mid-season roster swap from LOLGUY to hhhwrd on Medic could have caused some shake-ups to the team dynamic, but they seemed to recover well for the last few matches of the season. Even though G6 come in as the first seed, GCX seemed to get stronger throughout the regular season and could definitely challenge for the Season 21 title.
TEAMFORTRESS.TV: It was announced recently that G6 will be attending poLANd.tf 2027. How have you all been using this season to prepare?
chris: big motivator for playing the season def has been to just use it as a way to stay warm and improve with LAN in mind
TFTV: How has the team adjusted to roster changes from last season, especially b4nny and hhhwrd instead of loafe and LOLGUY?
chris: howard's hella talented and i think hes a good fit and fun to play games with, with b4nny its def ab trying to figure out the playstyle differences and trying to acclimate there
TFTV: Will G6 be making any changes heading into playoffs and a potential GCX rematch?
chris: playstyle adjustments, ya some changes will happen
GlobalClan Xiao
- Pocket Scout: moose
- Flank Scout: minaaj
- Roamer: bomo
- Pocket: cin
- Demoman: habib
- Medic: hubida
GlobalClan Xiao come into the playoffs as the second seed, only losing matches to G6. While this roster iteration is new, GCX played together in Season 20 with a core of moose, bomo, and hubida. The Scout duo moose and minaaj played together in Season 19 and with hubida in the RGL mini-season in early 2026. New members include Invite veteran habib coming to replace Season 20’s dingo on Demoman and cin replacing sighguy on Pocket. This is cin’s first invite season since Season 11 with froyotech, and moose, minaaj, and cin will be looking to secure their first Invite win after previous podium placements. While GCX comes in at second seed, their close record against G6, including a late-season win, seems to indicate that these teams are more closely matched than initially expected.
TFTV: What was the reasoning behind this iteration of the team, and how have you been building synergy throughout the season?
moose: My primary core would, imo, actually have been my wG miniseason core featuring minaaj, hubida, myself + botmode as a sub. I knew the idea coming back to invite this season was to reunite with minaaj who I've been playing with for two years at this point with a goal of rebuilding that wG roster under the GCX name (since witness is no longer sponsoring teams). The team originally featured DWW, a very promising player who I've been mentoring for a year but unfortunately due to personal(reasonable) reasons was unable to continue playing on the team. Cin, who's made her return to high invite, mentored/taught me since my first season in Open. Habib rounding out the roster was a last minute pickup after DWW departed and we were delighted to bring on someone with such championship pedigree.
Our team, like every other team who's goals and aspirations are to be the best, has gone through extreme highs and lows. My role as TL has always been to manage and captain the ship inside and out to ensure that at the minimum, we're barely floating and heading in the right direction. Habib has been a great 2nd voice in our comms: helping us stay together with his surprising amount of whimsy.
TFTV: GCX had some very competitive games against G6 in the regular season. What adjustments or improvements will you be hoping to make in advance of your playoffs matchups?
moose: Our adjustments and improvements will come with time. We are a completely new roster (effectively) and individual adjustments and adaptations are key to success especially when the matches begin mattering. We will continue to make steps towards that goal of being great.
TFTV: Will GCX be attending poLANd.tf 2027?
moose: : )
The Mafia
- Pocket Scout: nehcro
- Flank Scout: bumba
- Roamer: Alexandros
- Pocket: Pinaepple
- Demoman: deimos
- Medic: dinko
The Mafia are coming into Season 21 after a dark horse run on LAN in Season 20, where the team upset GlobalClan Ice to the podium after narrowly qualifying for playoffs by round-win percentage. The core of nehcro, Alexandros, deimos, and dinko return, while bumba and Pinaepple step in to replace deadlyseed and throne, respectively. Working with some fairly new players—this is bumba’s first season in Invite and Pinaepple’s second—the roster has seen success over DuoQueue, despite one match loss, and GlobalClan Ice, the fifth-place team this season. The team has also seen some close scrims against GCX during the later half of the season. While this roster may have a long shot to win, they have a great chance to repeat their Season 20 podium performance.
TFTV: Going into this season, you had to say goodbye to deadlyseed and throne, and added some new faces to The Mafia’s roster with bumba and Pinaepple. How have they fit into your team dynamic?
nehcro: We did unfortunately lose deadlyseed and throne and we love those guys but bumba and pineapple have been great additions. They've got great DM, they're contributing to the comms, and they're overall chill guys to be in a call with. So they've fit in very well and we're all happy with how our roster looks.
TFTV: The Mafia made their first podium placement last season, which was also everyone’s first time on the podium except for dinko. What are you hoping to accomplish in this season’s playoffs?
nehcro: After seeing the robotnik cheating ban we here at The Mafia consider dinko's s19 podium placement stolen valor, and we plan to delete his medal from his inventory next time we go to lan. That said, this season we want to get another legitimate top 3 finish and make things competitive and entertaining for the fans.
TFTV: Will The Mafia be attending poLANd.tf 2027?
nehcro: I would've loved to play at poLANd with my guys but not everyone can make it out there this year so maybe 2028
DuoQueue
- Pocket Scout: raphaim
- Flank Scout: Khaleel
- Roamer: sody
- Pocket: shaman
- Demoman: aiden
- Medic: windows
DuoQueue come into the playoffs as the fourth seed, and given the relative inexperience of their roster, have really exceeded expectations. The team name originates from the three pairs that played together last season coming into this season, including raphaim and former main roster aZn’s Advanced third-place finish on Invictus XI. Khaleel and aiden make their Invite debuts after an Advanced second-place finish on garm6. Soldier duo shaman and sody are in their second season of Invite after last season’s Labwork, narrowly missing LAN playoffs by round-win percentage to The Mafia. windows takes over from aZn for the last two weeks of the season and playoffs. While this roster is bottom seed for playoffs, they have had several close matches, including a regular season win against The Mafia and strong scrim results against other playoff teams, meaning that nothing is guaranteed in this season’s playoffs run.
TFTV: What have been the biggest challenges in stepping up to invite this season?
raphaim: I think the biggest challenge has been adjusting to how much more consistently teams punish mistakes at this level. In lower divisions you can get away with things whether that's individual mistakes, poor positioning, or just making bad decisions. In Invite, even small mistakes can snowball into losing an entire round.
We've also had to work on becoming more structured as a team. We have players who are individually talented, but getting six people on the same page and making decisions together is a different challenge. A lot of this season has been about figuring out how to play off each other rather than relying on individual plays to bail us out.
TFTV: How have the Season 20 duos contributed to your team synergy? Has the departure of aZn changed the team dynamic?
raphaim: Any time you have players who already had experience playing together, a great foundation is being set. That level of familiarity and trust makes communication and coordination more natural. At the same time I think one of our challenges has been making sure we're playing as a TEAM rather than separate groups of players.
As far as aZn leaving, losing your Medic is naturally going to change the dynamic of a team. Medic is such a central role in how a team communicates, makes decisions, and approaches fights. We've had to make some adjustments, but I think it's also been an opportunity for us to reevaluate how we want to play and improve our overall structure.
TFTV: Will DuoQueue be attending poLANd.tf 2027?
raphaim: Nothing is set in stone but It would be a great opportunity. Unfortunately, I think there are some financial constraints that making figuring out the logitstics impossible.
Schedule
Primary Stream (RGL)
Tuesday, 17th November:
- Upper Bracket Semifinals - GlobalClan Xiao vs. The Mafia: 22:30 EST | 19:30 PST
Wednesday, 18th November:
- Upper Bracket Final: 22:30 EST | 19:30 PST
Thursday, 19th November:
- Lower Bracket Final: 22:30 EST | 19:30 PST
Friday, 20th November:
- Grand Final: 22:30 EST | 19:30 PST
Secondary Stream (Fireside Casts)
Tuesday, 17th November:
- Upper Bracket Semifinals - Like A G6 vs. DuoQueue: 22:30 EST | 19:30 PST
Wednesday, 18th November:
- Lower Bracket Semifinal: 22:30 EST | 19:30 PST
Special thanks to lacy avenue for formatting help :)