Ubisoft’s “Rainbow Six” title has enjoyed a rich history with numerous titles across various platforms. However, in December of 2015 Ubisoft released one of the most successful titles, Rainbow Six Siege (RB6 Siege). For the past couple years RB6 Siege has made quite a name for itself in the world of Esports. According to ESC the 2018 Rainbow Six Invitational, which occurred this past February, had 8,872,544 total views on Twitch.tv with an 113,988 concurrent viewer average. One of the great things I love about RB6 Siege Esports is that it always has a tournament going on. If you enjoy CS:GO then you should check out RB6 Siege, the production is always crisp with announcers that are knowledgeable about the game and the teams that are competing, as well as a great competitive atmosphere. Before RB6 Siege consumes your life with intense and heart pounding gameplay here are 5 interesting facts you should know.
1. Rainbow Six Siege Esports Yearly Schedule Changes
Before we dive into the gritty details of the pro teams that are out there and how to actually compete we will go over what a year of RB6 Siege looks like and the changes they are adding. For those of you who are familiar with RB6 Siege Esports; Siege is changing the amount of seasons in a year. The past 2 years have seen 3 Pro League Tournaments a year, with a RB6 Siege Major (Six Invitational). Right now, at the time of writing this article, RB6 Siege Pro League Season 7 is under way. Season 7 is the transitional season within year 3, with seasons 8 and 9 to follow. Starting after year 3 there will only be 2 Pro League seasons and there will now be 2 Majors (the Six Invitational and Six Paris Invitational). Seasons will run from June to November and December to May, with the Six Invitational (Montreal) dominating about a week in February and the Six Major Paris (yes in Paris) running in August. Here is a chart by Ubisoft to bring it all together if I lost some of you.
RB6 Siege Esports (Courtesy of Ubisoft)
2. Season Structure
When you first start watching Rainbow Six’s seasons you will notice that the pro league is separated into 4 different regions. European (EU), North American (NA), Latin America (LATAM), and the newest addition Asia Pacific (APAC). Within these regions there are two groups of 4 teams each (Group A and Group B, pretty simple). Throughout the course of the season teams will battle it out to be the top 2 teams in their region in order to move on to the Season Finals. With the season ongoing, most regions run a ladder system to earn points, while the APAC also does an online bracket and LAN qualifiers. The 16 teams, from the worldwide competitive scene, with the most points will qualify for the 2 Six Majors.
3. Only the Top Teams Stay in the Pro League
At the end of the season it is the 2 top teams that will get to fight on in the finals. While the bottom 2 teams will also get to extend their season. What I mean is the top 2 teams will obviously move on to the season finals, while the bottom 2 teams will fight to keep their spot in the Pro League. At the same time the pro teams are fighting through their season, amateur teams in the Challenger League are fighting to have a shot to become pros. Once the top 2 challenger teams and the bottom 2 pro teams are decided these four teams will meet in a Relegation. Here the teams will be placed in a single elimination bracket and the top 2 teams will either stay pros or become pros. Having this keeps the best competitive teams in the Pro League and adds fuel to the fire for amateur teams to go pro and perhaps fans can see a Cinderella story unfold.
Road to Pro League (Courtesy of Ubisoft)
4. Match Gameplay
Now down to the individual matches. There is only one game type played in RB6 Siege Esports….Bomb (as compared to Secure Area and Hostage in regular gameplay). For those unfamiliar with the game type here is a quick down and dirty. There are 2 teams with 5 operators each (5v5). One team, the defenders, has to defend 2 bomb sites from the attackers defusing them until the timer runs out. The other team, the attackers, have to defuse said bomb sites. One attack operator will have the defuser to use on one of the bomb sites. The round is over when either team kills all the operators on the enemy team or the attackers defuse the bomb, or the defenders destroy the defuser after its planted. Before the match begins both teams will take turns banning different maps to bring the total to 3 maps, since the match is a best of 3 (Best of 5 in the Grand Final). The team that wins 2 of the maps (or 3 for Grand Final) wins the match and will receive points for the maps that they won.
5. Pro Teams to Watch For
There are a lot of teams that are competing in the Siege Pro League, 56 to be exact for Season 7. Instead of listing every single team that is in a bracket and lose half our readers, we will talk about the top teams this season and a handful of teams that you may recognize from the world of Esports. PENTA and Evil Geniuses, are really the top 2 teams this season. They both are leading their respective regions and have dominated the playing field so far. PENTA has only lost 1 map in the 5 total they have played (against Millenium), and Evil Geniuses has yet to lose a map against the 2 teams they have faced. Other teams to look out for are Black Dragons, from LATAM, and eiNs, from Japan, both haven’t lost a map with 2 matches played. Last year’s invitational was won by the American gaming team Continuum, however in 2018 the world saw a great Grand Final between NA team Evil Geniuses and EU team PENTA and right now they are running the table with Season 7 Pro League. Here are some other popular Esports teams that you may recognize:
Rogue (won their first and only match so far)
FaZe Clan (won their first and only match so far)
Team Liquid (won their first and only match so far)
Vitality (lost their first and only match so far)
Counter Logic Gaming (lost their first and only match so far)
For a look at the full bracket you can check out ESL Gaming website and pick your favorite to win Season 7.
