According to an announcement from the official Rainbow Six Esports Twitter account, the LATAM SI 2022 Closed Qualifiers have been put "on hold" following various "broken safety measures."
Teams were supposed to play on stage between Jan. 15 and 16 for a spot at the Six Invitational 2022, which will be played in February from Stockholm.
Various players reported the situation on Twitter, with Christopher "SkMzY" Espinosa's videos showing how "20 players" were driven in the same van just a few minutes after getting their COVID-19 tests done.
There, Atheris' player and coach Francisco "Royz" Guillén tested positive for COVID-19. The team's intention was to play on stage except for Royz, who would play isolated in a booth. However, that alternative was not accepted and Atheris Esports was disqualified from the tournament.
A bit later Atheris' players began reporting how safety measures were deployed.
Victor "Bersa" Hugo also posted a screenshot of an email sent to the teams, showing the process to follow.
It clearly states that in the case of a positive test, "ESL needs to find a way to have them both play from their rooms as they did for Sweden Major."
Initially, it was believed that Atheris had two positive cases, but after another test, only Royz's came back as positive.
After an almost two-hour delay, the first game of the qualifiers kicked off. However, three rounds later, the tournament organizers decided to momentarily stop the event.
Hours later, R6esports tweeted out an update. Ubisoft is now exploring "all options" to "proceed with the scheduled matches in a safe environment for all while maintaining the integrity of the competition" following "reports that not all safety measures were being followed."
This article will be updated once we have more information.
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