Image via Gamers Without Borders
According to an announcement from Gamers Without Borders, a charity tournament with the finals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The prize pool for the event is massive -- $1.5 million in charity donations for the online regional portions and $2 million doing directly to the players in the offline competition in Riyadh this summer.
The online portion begins today, May 28. The grand finals in Riyadh will be held from Aug. 4-7, before the August Major. Eight teams total will compete in Saudi Arabia, four invites, one from the local Saudi eLeague, and the three teams that qualify through the open qualifier. You can sign up online at the Gamers Without Borders website.
MENA and APAC do not have qualifiers for the event, only the winner of the Saudi eLeague will participate.
This isn't the first Gamers Without Borders event in R6. There have been many over the years, including online competitions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The event isn't without controversy. Three months ago, the August Major was announced -- and press were told it was going to be in "Europe or the Middle East". A subsequent blog post published after the announcement was made on the main Rainbow Six Siege stream, during a tribute to the late Michael "KiXSTAr" Stockley, claimed that the Major would be held in the UAE. The community outcry over the UAE's legal stances against LGBTQ+ people led Ubisoft to confirm that the event would have been held in Abu Dhabi, and then cancel it. This event is held in Saudi Arabia, a country with similarly repressive laws that they can act upon. While the outcry has certainly not been as large, this event has been similarly controversial for some.
The event begins today -- and the grand finals in Riyadh will commence Aug. 4.