Today Ubisoft finally announced details surrounding the first stage of the 2022 Rainbow Six competitive season, including the league schedules and various rule changes in each region.
Rule Changes
Firstly, the map pool has seen Coastline replaced by Border, Skyscraper, and Theme Park. The former two were removed from the map pool and are being reintroduced after reworks, while the latter was removed from the pool for a year.
This also means the pool has increased to nine maps once more, as seen for most of the game's history.
In addition, the Sixth Pick mechanic has been replaced by Attacker Repick, which aims to cut down on some of the game's downtime. Thorn is also now available to be played in competitive matches.
North America
Starting with NA, the nine play days will span five weeks, starting on Mar. 29, with games on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The format will presumably stay the same as last year, with a best-of-one map round-robin league.
Europe
No details were given about the European region, with the article stating "details about the European League will be shared soon".
With the war in Ukraine affecting a number of team members and only nine organizations currently confirmed for the 2022 season so far, it is possible that Ubisoft's taking longer to cement plans for the league.
Latin America
Firstly, following the announcement that the official English-language stream for the Brazilian division has ceased, Ubisoft has announced that they are "looking into working with community streamers to cast the Brazil Division in English".
The league itself will take place over five weekends, with play days on Saturdays and Sundays as well as a lone Friday game on Apr. 7.
The Mexican and South American League tournaments will also take place on the weekend, likely leading to clashes between the tournament. This is as the Spanish-language BR6 and Portuguese-language Mexican and South American coverage has also been dropped, alongside the English streams.
Following these games, the LATAM Playoffs will take place from Apr. 23 to May 1.
Asia Pacific
Stage 1 in the APAC region will have a condensed schedule, as APAC North sees Wednesday and Friday play days while APAC South runs on Thursdays and Saturdays.
Six days of APAC Playoffs will then take place over three weeks on Wednesday and Thursdays.
Twitch Drops
Finally, Twitch Drops for the four leagues were announced with duplicate drops being no longer possible, and battle points also available from drops.
Viewers will receive a pack for every four hours watched, with a weekly cap of two packs per viewer.
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