Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic around the world, the August-held Six Major in North America has been moved online, with regional tournaments once again replacing the international event. The move comes in an attempt to protect players, staff, and attendees from contracting the disease as it continues to spread unchecked.
Today Ubisoft released a blog post detailing their plans for replacement and outlining the formats of each region's "Six August 2020 Major", which will be played out online and serve to distribute points for the Six Invitational 2021. Each region will have a $125,000 prize pool distributed amongst its participating teams, as well as a total of 2,165 points towards qualification towards the Six Invitational.
North America
The North American Six August 2020 Major will be played out from August 14-16. It will be an online tournament featuring the top three teams from Stage One of the US Division, and a fourth team chosen from a qualifier comprised of the fourth, fifth, and sixth-ranked teams from the US Division and the top Canada Division team.
SSG lifting the trophy at the last major, the 2020 Six Invitational.
Europe
The European Six August 2020 Major will be played out from August 20-23. The event will feature the top-four teams from Stage One of the European League.
Both the European and North American prize pools of the Major will be split as follows:
- 1st place: $62,500
- 2nd place: $31,250
- 3rd place: $18,750
- 4th place: $12,500
Latin America
The Latin American Six August 2020 Major will be played out from August 7-9. Due to its separation into three divisions, three separate tournaments will be held. Brazil, Mexico, and LATAM South will have four, two, and one team each to earn prize money and SI Points.
The prize pool of the Major will be split as follows:
Brazil Division Online Event:
- 1st place: $50,000
- 2nd place: $25,000
- 3rd place: $15,000
- 4th place: $10,000
Mexico Division Online Event:
- 1st place: $10,000
- 2nd place: $7,000
South Division Team:
- 1st place: $8,000
LATAM's top team, NiP, at the last major event, the 2020 Six Invitational.
Asia Pacific
The Asia-Pacific Six August 2020 Major will be played out from August 3-9. APAC will be played out in a method similar to Latin America, with separate tournaments for APAC North, Oceania, and South Asia. APAC North will have a six-team tournament, Oceania three, and South Asia four.
Finally, these prize pools of the Major will be split as below:
North Division Online Event:
- 1st place: $25,600
- 2nd place: $16,800
- 3rd place: $12,800
- 4th place: $10,400
- 5th place: $8,000
- 6th place: $6,400
Oceania Online Event:
- 1st place: $15,000
- 2nd place: $9,000
- 3rd place: $6,000
South Asia Online Event:
- 1st place: $7,500
- 2nd place: $3,750
- 3rd place: $2,250
- 4th place: $1,500
The Giants Gaming team at the Six Invitational 2020.
Six Invitational Point Allocation
For Stage One, the Major point totals will be distributed between the teams in the EUL and NAL as such:
- 1st - 510
- 2nd - 390
- 3rd - 330
- 4th - 275
- 5th - 225
- 6th - 180
- 7th - 140
- 8th - 115
For LATAM and APAC, on the other hand, the placements are slightly different due to the inability for the sub-regions to play each other while maintaining a decent internet connection. This means that while the above point totals are the same, the sub-regional placements correspond to the following standings in the wider region:
- 1st - Brazil Division 1st & APAC North 1st
- 2nd - Brazil Division 2nd & APAC North 2nd
- 3rd - Brazil Division 3rd & Oceania 1st
- 4th - Brazil Division 4th & South Asia 1st
- 5th - Mexico Division 1st & APAC North 3rd
- 6th - Brazil Division 5th & APAC North 4th
- 7th - Mexico Division 2nd & APAC North 5th
- 8th - LATAM South Division 1st & APAC North 6th
The Future
This now marks the second tier-one Rainbow Six event cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic after the Season 11 Finals planned for last month in São Paulo.
Following this event, the next big tournament planned is the November Major, set to be in Europe as the first top-tier tournament in the region in 18 months. As well as this, Stage Two also has regional Finals in November and December which, at the moment, are still planned to be held as live LAN events, open to spectators.
Keep up to date with all further announcements here at SiegeGG.