Rainbow Six Siege Tournaments and Leagues

The game that shaped console-based first-person shooters has been weirdly absent from the world of competitive gaming, high stakes tournaments and esports. In the Rainbow Six franchise, there’s been nine games, another six expansions and some 18+ million sales. It wasn’t until 2015, however, with Rainbow Six Siege, that Ubisoft had a game that was suitable for competitive gaming on esports levels. Over the course of the games’ first three years, Ubisoft reached a milestone for 40 million registered Rainbow Six Siege players.

History of competitive Rainbow Six

As we already mentioned, for a game that’s been available in FPS multiplayer mode for so long, it’s strange that they entered the esports scene so late. It started during the development of Rainbow Six Siege. Two years before it was released they consulted ESL (Electronic Sports League). ESL provides feedback around the balancing of the game to make sure that it would be sustainable for competitive play on the level envisioned.

Together with ESL, Ubisoft decided that they would run an official league named Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Pro League. A worldwide tournament circuit for Windows and Xbox One. The first edition of the Rainbow Six Pro League was held at Intel Extreme Masters in 2016. Back then the league consisted of two divisions; North America and Europe. Two teams from each region qualified for the World Finals. Two different tournaments were held, one for PC and one for Xbox One. Each with a prize pool of $50,000.

The first Pro League didn’t pass without some pain, though. Already in the first round of the first match of the first offline finals, a bug happened. One of the most popular characters to play, Sledge, was unable to destroy certain parts of the terrain.

That same year Ubisoft and ESL hosted another two seasons of Rainbow Six Pro League. The format was the same, but the prize pool saw a small increase to $62,500. Things started growing the following year, the prize pools were increased to $167,000, and more regions were included in the Rainbow Six Pro League tournament circuit.

Rainbow Six Invitational Montreal

Six Invitational is the informal Rainbow Six World Championship of Rainbow Six Siege. This tournament marks the end of the competitive season. Every year it’s hosted in Montreal, Canada. The reason for this located is that Ubisoft is a Canadian company with its headquarters in Montreal.

The first Six Invitational was held in 2017 and had a prize pool of $100,000 ($200,000 total). At that point, the pro circuit was played on both PC and Xbox. So two Rainbow Six World Championships were held simultaneously for both platforms. With six participating teams in each tournament.

In 2018, the focus was solely on PC, and the prize pool had grown to $500,000 where sixteen teams competed.

The 2019 edition of Six Invitational saw a major increase in prize money; $2,000,000.

In 2020, before the Coronavirus closed the world down, the latest edition of Six Invitational took place. The prize pool had grown to $3,000,000. North American team Spacestation Gaming won and walked away with the title and $1,000,000.

Rainbow Six Pro League

By 2019 the Rainbow Six League had grown to include four regions; North America, Europe, Latin America and the Asia Pacific. The prize pools have grown to $290,000. Xbox is no longer played, only PC. Major esports organizations like Natus Vincere, FaZe Clan and Ninjas in Pyjamas, fnatic, Evil Geniuses and immortals participated. Season 9 finals of 2019 were held in Milan, Italy and Season 10 was held in Tokoname, Japan.

Unfortunately, the 2020 editions of Rainbow Pro League was cancelled due to Covid-19. The Season 11 finals were planned for São Paulo, Brazil with a prize pool exceeding $290,000.

Rainbow Six Tournaments FAQ

Will Rainbow Six Invitational 2021 be played?

There is no date set for Six Invitational 2021. It’s also unclear if it will be held offline or played in Montreal. Sixteen teams have qualified so far. It’s expected to take place in February as usual but due to Covid-19; closed borders, quarantine and risk of the contracting virus makes it unlikely that the LAN event will take place.

What is the largest ever Rainbow Six prize pool?

The largest-ever Rainbow Six prize pool was the 2019 Six Invitational. This tournament had a prize pool of $3,000,000.

Summary

While the next year of Rainbow Six is uncertain with LAN events being cancelled, we are sure that Ubisoft wants to continue its massive momentum within esports. Instead of hosting offline events, we are likely to see more Rainbow Six tournaments online. Six Invitational is usually played in February every year in Montreal. It remains to be seen if it will be played as usual or if we get an online tournament format. Either way, online or offline, we should be seeing Rainbow Six betting options for Six Invitational in 2021.