The sixth British national PC league has just been announced with a new organiser, the largest prize pool to date, and a spot in the new Challenger League up for grabs. Check out all the confirmed information below:
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Qualifiers
The qualifiers for this tournament will kick-off in almost two weeks time on the 20-21st of June, with an initial Swiss open bracket followed by a best-of-three map elimination bracket. Following this, subsequent seasons will see teams qualify for the main league via second division and a promotion system, as we've seen set up in a number of other nationals throughout Europe.
The sign-up link is available at the tournament's website here.
The ex-British national champions of Team Secret at the Paris Major.
Format
The league itself will see an identical format to the last ESL Premiership season, which sees eight teams play in a round-robin group stage over the course of seven Thursday between July 2nd and August 27th. Following this, at the end of these games, the teams placed in third and sixth face off and the teams in fourth and fifth face off, with the winners of each game meeting the first and second-placed teams in the Finals.
These presumably-online Finals will take place on September 5th and 6th, where the winners will be crowned as the British national champions, win a spot in next season's Challenger League tournament, and take home the biggest share of the massive £25,000 (~$31,000) prize pool.
This prize pool is the third-largest of any ongoing tournament at the moment, behind just the GSA League and the Six Masters, which include a total of 10 Pro-tier teams between them. With no British teams in the Pro or Challenger League at the moment, this is a massive opportunity for tier-three players to earn significant winnings even if they fall short of the title.
The Future of the Region
With ESL leaving Europe and all of its national leagues behind, the old ESL Premiership British national tournament had to be replaced, with Ubisoft UK deciding to partner with the new company of "Promod Esports" as their new delivery partner.
Promod Esports includes a number of staff members of the old ESL UK branch, meaning they are already well accustomed to the UK R6 scene. The CEO of Promod, Rob Black, had this to say:
As well as this, SiegeGG spoke to the Marketing Esports Manager at Ubisoft UK, Will Attwood, about the new season and the changes to the tournament:
Hi Will! Could you share a little about yourself and your role with the Ubisoft UK esports team?
What do you think of the UK Rainbow Six teams so far, with CR4ZY, Team Secret, and Natus Vincere all having made a name for themselves in the UK and beyond?
What is your honest assessment of the development of the UK scene so far?
What exciting new things are in store for the UK scene, starting with the UK Ireland Nationals?
How will the UK tie into the broader esports outlook for Europe and beyond?
Is there anything else you would like to add, possibly entice the grassroots participation from the UK even further?
The ESL Premiership trophy. (Photo: ESL)
Finally, the Marketing Director at Ubisoft UK, Mark Slaughter, had this to say about the new season:
Prior Seasons and Victors
Excluding the Premiership season on the Xbox, there have been five prior British national tournaments won by a total of three teams:
- ESL Premiership Winter 2018 - Team Secret
- meepeY, Lacky, LeonGids, sTiZze, Elemzje, and Helbee (coach)
- ESL Premiership Spring 2019 - MnM Gaming
- neLo, CTZN, Doki, Kendrew, Saves, and GiG (coach)
- ESL Premiership Summer 2019 - Natus Vincere
- neLo, CTZN, Doki, Kendrew, Saves, and GiG (coach)
- ESL Premiership Winter 2019 - Natus Vincere
- neLo, CTZN, Pie, Kendrew, Saves, GiG (coach), and jahk (coach)
- ESL Premiership Spring 2020 - CR4ZY
- pacbull, dats, M4DMAN, Jonka, Nathan, and rcuth (coach)
Na'Vi winning the last ESL Premiership LAN. (Photo: ESL)
This, therefore, means that the current Natus Vincere roster is the three-times champion of the tournament, but, after losing their British core-lineup and with the organisation being Ukrainian based, it is unlikely they'll be able to play in the new league unless they find a British substitute to replace Panix, Saves, or neLo.
With Na'Vi possibly unable to play and Team Secret disbanded, this makes the ex-CR4ZY roster which finished the last Challenger League season in sixth-placed the favourites to retain their title.
Since last season they have left their organisation, dropped their coach, and replaced M4DMAN and pacbul with the ex-Secret player of Fonkers and the ex-Na'Vi stand-in of Blurr to create a rather formidable lineup. With the season only just being announced, other challengers are not yet known, but it is rather likely that the MnM Gaming organisation will be competing in the league with a new lineup of their own.
Fonkers at the Raleigh Major while with Team Secret.
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Be sure to catch all the action when the league kicks off and keep an eye out here at SiegeGG for weekly coverage of the tournament.