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Note: This idea has nothing to do with BLAST. The concept's goal is to present an alternative to how international spots are awarded across the different professional leagues in Rainbow Six Siege.
At the Six Invitational 2023, BLAST’s takeover surprised the community with the creation of professional competitions in LATAM and MENA, as well as the separation of APAC into South Korea, Japan, South Asia, and Oceania. As a result, the Six Major format was changed drastically, going from 16 to 24 teams.
Although the decision improved the visibility of certain Rainbow Six Siege communities and allowed smaller rosters to break it internationally, many players and fans complained about the distribution of international spots.
We decided to explore an alternative as we tried to balance visibility with meritocracy. We called this alternative SiegeGG Regional Ranking.
SiegeGG Regional Ranking - Introduction
The SiegeGG Regional Ranking is a coefficient that comes out from each region’s appearances over the last ten international competitions, including the Six Major and the Six Invitational.
Although the intention is to consider the last ten competitions played, we’re bringing this concept after only taking into account nine competitions. This is due to the lack of international playtime between Feb. 2020 and May. 2021. Therefore, the initial grid includes every international competition from the Six Mexico Major to the BLAST R6 Major Copenhagen.
Our goal is to order the regions from the first to the last and use these standings to award regions with more or less international representation.
SiegeGG Regional Ranking - Why?
With the number of teams going to the Six Major increasing from 16 to 24, BLAST gave the opportunity to squads from Mexico and MENA to join the professional esports circuit. At the same time, they divided APAC into individual competitions as leagues in Japan, South Korea, Oceania, and South Asia were created.
Although the change was exciting and eventually created new storylines, we saw how Brazil, North America, and Europe kept with four international spots only. Meanwhile, APAC's number of international spots went from four to nine. Here's where the problems began.
We understand that the number of spots was increased as more regions meant more teams. But, are nine spots fair?
For instance, nine of the 24 teams in Copenhagen came from the APAC region. Eventually, seven of those nine lineups ended up finishing among the worst eight sides in the tournament. Moreover, no APAC roster could obtain a win against an international opposition until Phase 2, when DPlus defeated Team Falcons. It was the Koreans’ only win in Denmark. In total, the region formerly known as APAC was only able to get three wins against international sides out of a possible 18 – a 16.6% win rate.
At the same time, the Brazilian region, whose teams have been present in seven of the last nine international grand finals, only has four spots.
The SiegeGG Regional Ranking's objective is to balance meritocracy with exposure. We understand that regions must be represented but, at the same time, we believe is important to reward the best Rainbow Six Siege regions.
Given the circumstances, we decided to create what we believe is a fair system to distribute international spots while still giving regions the opportunity to compete internationally.
SiegeGG Regional Ranking - How?
The SiegeGG Regional Ranking gives us a precise idea of what regions have performed the best.
To calculate a tournament's regional coefficient, we follow the next steps:
- We calculate every team's coefficient.
- We add the coefficients of every team from that region to get a regional coefficient.
- We divide the coefficient by the number of teams that represented the region in the competition. The final number is the region's coefficient for that specific tournament.
By ordering the coefficients, we can order the regions from first to ninth. Then, we give each region a number of international spots based on their average international performance.
As we only take into account the latest ten competitions played, this means that the order of the regions can change in the future. For example, South Korea's 8 points at the Six Mexico Major will be substituted by the region's points in Atlanta. Then, it's likely that the region falls a bit behind South Asia.
The regional order would be checked after the conclusion of every Six Invitational. Then, the international spots for the upcoming season would be distributed according to the new results.
For instance, a region with only one international spot could get a second if the teams do well in the competitions played throughout the year. The same could be said about a region with two or three spots.
Following this method, the leagues get international representation based on how the region does outside the continent.
SiegeGG Regional Ranking - How is it calculated?
For a better view of the coefficients, you can go here.
We have given each team a number of points having in mind the number of match wins, map wins, upper bracket runs, lower bracket runs, and grand final appearances, among other factors.
The variety of formats made it difficult to calculate each coefficient. However, we think we have adapted it well to the needs of the teams and the professional calendar.
Here we will explain how we calculated it for each international competition:
Six Majors from Aug. 2021 to Nov. 2022
For Six Majors played from Aug. 2021 to Nov. 2022, we decided to follow a very easy route.
Every team that made the Six Major is awarded 2 points. Every map win is an extra point, while the top three teams of every group get from 0.5 to 2 extra points.
From then, qualifying for the playoffs awards teams 1 point. Every map win adds 0.5 to the team’s tally (two maps equal 1 point, the same as a group stage match win). Every team that reaches the semifinals gets an extra point as a bonus.
Finally, teams that reach the grand final get two extra points, and a point for every map win.
Once we have every team’s coefficient, we divide them by region. After doing that, we divide each region’s coefficient by the number of teams the region sent to the competition.
While APAC wasn’t divided into Japan, South Korea, South Asia, and Oceania back then, we decided to adapt it to the current system – used since BLAST’s arrival.
Here’s an example:
In purple, each region's regional coefficient. In blue, each region's regional coefficient after dividing purple by the number of teams sent by each region.
The Six Berlin Major is the best example to understand the system.
Although Rogue won the Six Major, Europe wasn’t the best region in the competition. How’s that?
FaZe Clan and w7m esports’ great performances during the group stage and the fact that two of the best teams in the competition were from Brazil put the region at the top of the standings. Meanwhile, Rogue's championship was followed by G2, Wolves, and MNM Gaming early exits.
Although XSET represented North America in the semifinals, the region was poor overall. Astralis and Soniqs finished at the bottom of their group standings, while Oxygen Esports couldn’t make it through the group stage either.
At the same time, while only having two teams in the competition, South Asia sent one roster to the quarterfinals in Elevate. That’s why despite NA having more points (23 vs. 11.5) both regions ended up with the same coefficient as NA is divided by four representatives and South Korea is divided by two.
BLAST R6 Major Copenhagen
The change of format brought with BLAST meant we had to change the system for this one.
Here, teams get 1 point for reaching Phase 1. Then, every upper bracket map win is 1 extra point, while every lower bracket map win is 0.5 points. This decision was taken after seeing that teams in the lower bracket could get up to 4 points, while upper-bracket winners could only get two.
For instance, w7m esports, who won their Phase 1 group, got 1 point for making it to Phase 1, 2 for winning their matches, and 1 as a bonus for winning their group stage. That’s four points, the same number given to a team that qualifies straight to Phase 2. Teams from Phase 1 don’t get that bonus.
In Phase 2, teams get 1 point for every BO1 win, 0.5 points for every map win in a BO3 series, and a points bonus determined by their final Phase 2 position.
For instance, FaZe Clan, who qualified straight to Phase 2, started with 4 points, earned 3 points for going 3-0, and earned 2 points for finishing among the best two teams in the Swiss league.
Finally, Phase 3 gets simpler, with teams getting an extra point for reaching the quarterfinals and 2 extra points for reaching the semifinals. Finally, teams get 2 extra points for reaching the grand final and one point for every map win.
Six Invitational 2021
The Six Invitational 2021 was the toughest tournament to calculate due to the uniqueness of the format and the number of teams who couldn’t attend.
As the two disqualified teams were located in Group B, we saw that teams from Group A had more victories than the teams in Group B. To make things even, we decided to award wins in Group A and Group B with 0.5 and 0.6 points.
The best four teams of each group were awarded with 1 point, while the rest of the teams that made it through the group stage were given 0.5 extra.
The eight teams that started from the upper bracket have been given an extra two points, while every map win in the upper bracket was 1 point. Teams that qualified for the semifinals have been awarded 1 extra point.
During the creation of the coefficient, we realized that Team Liquid and TSM’s lower bracket runs were a problem, so we decided to “nerf” lower bracket map wins – from 1 point to 0.75.
Teams in the lower bracket who got to the lower bracket third round have gotten an extra 0.5, as another 0.5 has been given to teams that made it to the lower bracket semifinals.
Six Invitational 2022 and 2023
Both the Six Invitational 2022 and the Six Invitational 2023 follow the same system.
Teams get 4 points for qualifying for the event. Then, every group stage match win is 0.5 points. Every group stage winner gets 1 point, second and third places get 0.75, while the fourth-placed roster gets 0.5.
Teams who move to the upper bracket quarterfinals are awarded 2 extra points, and teams who move to the upper bracket round one are awarded 1 extra point. Every upper bracket map win is 1 point and teams get an extra point for reaching the upper bracket semifinals.
Meanwhile, teams who go to the lower bracket get 1 point. Every map win is 0.75 points, while two 0.5 bonuses are awarded to those who get to the lower bracket round three and the lower bracket semifinals.
SiegeGG Regional Ranking - Final Result
After calculating every team's performance through the last nine international events, the regional standings look like this:
The results are clear: During the last two years, Brazil has been the best region in Rainbow Six Siege. With this formula, Brazil's teams averaged 10 points per tournament, with the only exception being the Six Charlotte Major, where w7m esports, Team oNe, and FURIA Esports had to compete from Mexico.
Surprisingly enough, North America is ahead of Europe, but not by much. The positions could be swapped after the Six Invitational 2024.
South Asia is the fourth region, despite DPlus' brilliant performances for South Korea in 2021 and 2022. Elevate and Dire Wolves have been South Asia's main teams, but FURY may lead the region in Atlanta.
Japan is the weakest Asian region, despite CYCLOPS athlete gaming's consistency. It makes sense, though, as the team has never been able to move to the playoffs stage.
Oceania, MENA, and LATAM's numbers are lower as they haven't been present in all of the nine competitions contemplated. However, looking at the performances in Copenhagen, it's likely that Oceania will end up at the bottom of the standings.
After looking at the final results, we awarded each region with a specific number of international spots for the Six Major. Here's our structure:
- 100 Points or more: 5 spots
- 99-75 Points: 4 spots + 1 playoff spot
- 74-50 Points: 3 spots
- 49-25 Points: 2 spots
- 24-1 Points: 1 spot + playoff spot
If we followed this system, the international spots would be awarded as follows:
- Brazil: 5 spots
- North America: 4 spots + 1 playoff
- Europe: 4 spots + 1 playoff spot
- South Asia: 2 spots
- South Korea: 2 spots
- Japan: 2 spots
- MENA: 1 spot + 1 playoff spot
- LATAM: 1 spot + 1 playoff spot
- Oceania: 1 spot
We think that Brazil's consistency throughout the last two years deserves an extra international spot. At the same time, we haven't forgotten about North America and Europe. We tried to award them with an extra spot while maintaining the region's right to send teams to international competitions.
Keeping that in mind, North America's fifth-placed team would play against LATAM's second-placed team. Meanwhile, Europe's fifth-placed team would play against MENA's second-placed team.
With this system, we would reward MENA with the chance to send an extra team to the Major. At the same time, Europe would have the chance to send a fifth roster. Plain and simple, both regions win.
Meanwhile, LATAM, who are very likely to send zero teams to the Six Invitational 2024, would technically lose one spot as they would have to fight against a North American roster to send two rosters.
South Asia's current number of teams sent to the Major would remain the same, while South Korea and Japan would lose one.
Regarding Oceania's situation, we decided to place the region at the bottom of the standings as they average 2.8 points per tournament, which is 0.2 lower than LATAM. However, we understand that LATAM has only participated in one competition, while Oceania has participated in five. The results in Atlanta and the Six Invitational 2024 could be crucial.
As we mentioned earlier, the points would be recalculated by the end of the season and the regions would be able to gain more international representation in the future if they performed well enough.