Altiora Exits R6, NAL to Start with 9 Teams

The Altiora organisation has reversed plans to pick up a new American roster to compete in the upcoming LAN-based North American League (NAL) in Las Vegas due to an internal change in direction for the company. 

After joining R6 ahead of the 2020 season, Altiora became one of the standout new teams as they were crowned the Canadian Division champions over the favourites of Mirage and won the qualifier spot to the 2021 Six Invitational ahead of Disrupt Gaming and the suprsoniqs.

Following this, Ubisoft's announcement that the Canadian and American Divisions will be merged into one NAL tournament for the 2021 season led Altiora to announce plans to pick up a new team to compete in this tournament.

This meant leaving their Canadian roster behind due to difficulties in getting them to Las Vegas ahead of the league's start. 

This seemed to be going to plan, with Ubisoft announcing during last weekend's Future of Siege panel that they were working "very closely" with the Altiora organisation to have them join the Las Vegas event as the 10th team.

However, this plan came to an abrupt end as Altiora has opted to leave R6 Esports and not take up their NAL or SI spot. This means the NAL will kick off with just nine teams on March 24th rather than the planned 10. 

This is as in such short notice it is likely not possible to find an organization which is able to afford the player wages, and sort out accommodation in Vegas in a matter of weeks.

This marks the sixth time a top-flight NA organisation has left abruptly over the last year, following Evil Geniuses, Luminosity Gaming, Reciprocity, eUnited, and Tempo Storm.

In good news, however, this makes it much more likely that the old Canadian Altiora roster which won the Six Invitational qualifiers will infact be attending the event and possibly take up their offered Challenger League spot as suggested in the Ubisoft announcement.