In a blog posted by Ubisoft today, the return of the Pro League was finally confirmed after bug-related delays.
Around two weeks ago, ESL and Ubisoft had pushed back the start date of the season, citing a technical issue in the latest patch. Previously, we have seen the effect of bugs, rehosts, and other game issues have effects on players and match results, causing Ubisoft and ESL to settle on a pushback of the start date.
Next, on June 14th, another Ubisoft statement confirmed that the Pro League would be pushed back yet again, though this time the delay was indefinite.
Read: "Esports Ready" -- an opinion piece on the Pro League delays
Now, though, the Pro League has a set date for its return. There will be multiple 'super weeks', weeks with more than one play day per region during the first half of the season. The play days over the next weeks will be as follows:
North America (NA):
- Playday #1: Monday, June 25th
- Playday #2: Monday, July 2nd
- Playday #3: Tuesday, July 3rd
- Playday #4: Monday, July 9th
- Playday #5: Monday, July 16th
- Playday #6: Monday, July 23rd
- Playday #7: Tuesday, July 24th
Latin America (LATAM):
- Playday #1: Tuesday, June 26th
- Playday #2: Wednesday, June 27th
- Playday #3: Wednesday, July 4th
- Playday #4: Tuesday, July 17th
- Playday #5: Wednesday, July 18th
- Playday #6: Wednesday, July 25th
- Playday #7: Monday, July 30th
Europe (EU):
- Playday #1: Thursday, June 28th
- Playday #2: Friday, June 29th
- Playday #3: Thursday, July 5th
- Playday #4: Thursday, July 19th
- Playday #5: Friday, July 20th
- Playday #6: Thursday, July 26th
- Playday #7: Friday, July 27th
Every NA, EU, and LATAM match can be viewed live at twitch.tv/Rainbow6 and you can catch our highlights later on our YouTube.
As for APAC, while specific details are yet to be released, the matches will be played on Wednesday and Thursday (at 19:00 GMT+6/8/9 for ANZ, SEA, and JP & KR respectively). You can catch the ANZ games on twitch.tv/Rainbow6ANZ, SEA games on twitch.tv/R6_ANZ, and JP games on YouTube.
Paris Major Qualifiers
The Paris Major qualifiers have seen changes for NA, EU, and LATAM as well. They will now be split into two stages as follows:
- Stage 1 (Jun 22 - Jul 2)
- All and any teams are able to sign up
- Ladder system with auto-selection of opponents
- Best-of-2
- Stage 2 (Jul 2 - Jul 6)
- Top 16 teams from the Pro League, Challenger League, and Stage 1's top teams involved
- Double-elimination
- Best-of-3
As for APAC, the system will have three stages per each of the four subregions:
- Stage 1 (Jun 24 - Jun 30)
- All teams outside the top 6 Pro League teams from Season 7 can sign up
- Swiss Cup format
- Triple-elimination
- Best-of-1
- Stage 2 (Jul 1)
- Top 6 Pro League teams from Season 7 join the top 2 teams from Stage 1
- Standard 8-team bracket
- Single-elimination
- Best-of-3
- Stage 3 (Date TBA)
- APAC LAN event with winners of Stage 2 from each subregion
The games for the Paris Major qualifiers will be broadcast on multiple community casters' Twitch channels, so tune in to the respective casters to catch the action live.