A beginner’s guide to the Rainbow Six Siege Esports scene

If you’re well versed in FPS games, you might know that Rainbow Six Siege is one of the most complex ones out there. What is there to watch and how do you find it? 

If you are craving some Rainbow Six esports there is no shortage of it. During the regional league seasons there are matches at the highest level of competition almost around the clock. With for instance Europe having two playdays a week in the first season of the European League, that is already a great place to start your viewing experience. 

The European scene is an incredibly competitive environment with a lot of teams at an equal level. They constantly have to improve themselves and try to read into their opponents to have a good shot at winning. This means that some teams actually swap roles during the season to try and swap their playstyle, possibly to throw off their opponents in the coming matches. This makes for an entertaining watch and an esports scene that’s constantly in motion.

Who to look out for in Europe

If you really want to witness a spectacle in the European League, one of the most interesting teams to watch is Team Vitality. Led by none other than Fabian ‘Fabian’ Hällsten, they often bring very aggressive or non-meta strategies. Sometimes they work wonders and sometimes they don’t, but you then see them trying to adapt on the fly.

BDS Esport is another great team to keep in mind, regarded as the best European team of 2020, they are seemingly always in control of the map. With a star fragger in the form of Stéphane ‘Shaiiko’ Lebleu, they have aggression on the map, but also a lot of late round prowess in the form of Olivier ‘Renshiro’ Vandroux. The deadly mix of these French players has been too much to bear for a lot of teams. 

The Rainbow around the world

The European League is of course not the only regional league which is worth checking out. The North America League used to be split between the US Division and the Canada Division, yet with recent changes coming from Ubisoft, these have been merged into one big league for the coming year. Teams from the NA region have been strong for years, doing well at the biggest event of the year in the form of the Six Invitational. A bit further south there’s plenty more action to come, with of course the LATAM region having loads of talent to make for a stacked American scene. With Brazil, Mexico and South America all having their own regional leagues it just shows how much good players are out there.

When we take a giant leap towards the West, we suddenly find ourselves around the APAC North, Oceania and South Asian regional Leagues. An interesting part of the scene as some of the biggest organisations in the world have teams here. Cloud9 and Fnatic both operate in the APAC North league. This region is a must watch if you want to see and interesting and different META than Europe and NA. Sometimes they take points from other regions, but it has happened that Europe and NA have seen things happen in this region only to put them to use in their own games later on.

Regional Finals and Majors

For the every Regional League, there is a Regional Final to be held. This usually occurs after a complete season draws to a close, which is either at the end of a calendar year or at the start of the next. Most regions have played out their finals for 2020 already.


These are not the only events teams can work towards as some of the big regions also have their respective Majors after every Stage of the season. For instance, Europe had a August and November Major to crown the champions of both stages of their first season of the European League. These Majors are played in a playoff bracket as a follow-up on what has been played in the Stage before, contrary to the Regional Finals, where the best teams of the entire season face each other.
Biggest Tournament in the Rainbow Six world

The biggest tournament in the world of Rainbow Six Siege is of course the Six Invitational. Teams from all over the world try to qualify for this tournament with the biggest prize pool of the year, and usually the biggest crowds as well. This event normally takes place in Montreal, Canada, yet due to the ongoing pandemic Ubisoft has decided to have it in Europe instead. This will be the first and possibly the only time the Six Invitational will not be held in Montreal.

This year there will be no audience but it will be the first major offline Rainbow Six event since the start of the pandemic, making it even more important than it usually is. The event will start in February, first having a group stage for the 20 teams attending, followed by a playoff bracket.

Going down the tiers

As you might have noticed, the European region has been highlighted quite frequently already, but it doesn’t stop here. As Europe consists of many different countries speaking a wide variety of languages, Ubisoft has a lot of different regional offices in those countries. This has enabled those regional offices to actually set up National Championships for those countries, which has been altered slightly to now bring forth qualifications for the Challenger League. This Challenger League gives teams a chance to qualify for the highest tier, like the European League, but also exists in different regions such as North America. The Challenger League usually is played in the same timeframe as a Stage in the main league of that region. 

This doesn’t mean there are no other national tournaments. As there is often just one season where teams can qualify for the Challenger League, most regional offices actually organise other events during the rest of the year. As an example: The Benelux region has the Benelux League where teams can qualify for the Challenger League, which is the biggest event of the year regionally, but they also have bi-weekly tournaments.

There is also the Benelux Cup which has a different structure to give teams more experience in different formats, but which doesn’t grant promotion to the Challenger League. Different countries have different formats and if you are interested to see what your region has to offer, the best method is to follow the regional Ubisoft account on social media. If they do have one it’s advised to follow the esports account as it is more catered to your interests.

With this regional qualification method, Ubisoft is creating more chances for regional teams to climb and develop along the way. They can more easily get to a higher level and find more challenges for themselves. This also means that people at home can see their local heroes grow or just try to follow a team from outside of their region make their dreams come true.

Collegiate tournaments

If all of the above wasn’t enough to quench your thirst for esports, there are also leagues and tournaments created especially for students. These often are region locked but do show players and possibly talent that exist out of the eco-system established by Ubisoft. The teams playing in these tournaments often take a lot from the high tier teams, but try to adapt in a way that suits more to their playstyle and level of play. Most of these events are listen on Liquipedia, as it is an easy way for these tournaments to get found by the masses. 

With so many operators and even vertical play to come in, it is quite interesting to see what the professionals do in their games.  To find upcoming matches, tournaments or just a general overview of what has passed recently, one of the easiest sites to use is that of Liquipedia. As always this is a site being built and upheld by community contributors who are always enthusiastically helping people to know what is up in the respective regions. They don’t post news articles on their website but do have useful timers and links to every match to be played as well as a good overview of the prize distribution or general team line-ups and background.

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Image credit: Ubisoft
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