Due to the ongoing pandemic and the associated travel restrictions and lockouts, Rainbow Six has not seen an international event since the Six Invitational 2020, which hosted Spacestation Gaming with the title.
Now, a year later, the top 20 teams will reunite in the most anticipated tournament to date.
With full details on the tournament’s format, location and date now being unveiled, this is what’s happening next month at the 2021 Six Invitational.
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A total of 20 teams will be present; the top 16 with six invitation points and four regional winners.
Top 16:
BDS Esport – Shaiiko, Renshiro, RaFaLe, Elemzje, BriD en eaglmees (analyst)
TSM – Behaal, Merc, Beaulo, Geometrics, Chala, Pojoman (coach) and Daeda (analyst)
Giants Gaming – Lunarmetal, Ysaera, HysteRiX, SpeakEasy, jrdn, Histoire (replacement) and GiG (coach)
Cloud9 – EnvyTaylor, Static, Nova, Harp3r, SyAIL, RechoTZ (head coach) and OniChan (assistant coach)
Ninjas in Pajamas – Kamikaze, Psycho, julio, Muzi en pino- DarkZero Esports – Mint, HotanCold, Hyper, Skys, Ecl9pse, BC (Coach) and Grant (Analyst)
- Team Liquid – Nesk, xS3xyCake, psk1, Paluh, HSnamuringa and Silence (coach)
- Spatial game – Thinkingnade, Rampy, Bosco, Fultz, Canadian, Lycan (head coach), Sov (assistant coach) and EkuL (analyst)
- Team of the eSports – reduction, Faallz, LuKid, Rappz, FelipoX, Budega (coach) and Vivas (analyst)
Wildcard Games – EmoRin, Diesel, Gio, Pat, Vincere, Fluxx and syliX (two coaches)
Virtus.pro – wTg, Rask, Shockwave, p4sh4, m1loN, Toda (coach) and Andreezy (analyst)- Team Empire – ShepparD, JoyStiCK, Scyther, Dan, Always, and RayzerGM (coach)
- FaZe Clan – Astro, yoona, ion, live, KDS, and Ramalho (coach)
- Oxygen sport – FoxA, LaXInG, VertcL, Slashug, B1ologic, HOP3Z (coach) and Savior (coach)
G2 Esports – Pengu, Kantoraketti, UUNO, CTZN, Virtue, Shas (coach) and Sua (analyst)- MIBR – Cyb3r, soulz1, Bullet1, MKing, cameram4n and Guille (coach)
Regional Qualifying Winners:
CYCLOPS ATHLETE PLAYS – Anitun, SuzuC, gatorada, BlackRay, Ayagator and Fuji3 (coach)
Mkers – Lollo, Gemini, Scatto, Aqui, Sasha and Torok (coach)
Altiora – Spiritz, Sonar, Euphoria, Eskaa, P3NGU1N and Okward1HP (coach)- FURIA Esports – Bersa, LENDA, h1ghs, Novys, Miracle, Twister (coach), and TchubZ (coach)
Together, these total six LATAM teams, five EU and NA teams, and just four APAC teams.
Format
These 20 teams will be divided into two groups of ten in the following way:
- Group A: BDS, C9, Liquid, DZ, oNe, Empire, FaZe, G2, CAG and FURIA
- Group B: TSM, Giants, NiP, SSG, Wildcard, Vp, OxG, MIBR, Altiora and Mkers
This division is done using seeds determined by the SI points, which means that no sowing performance is required as seen in previous years.
In particular, this means that four out of ten teams in Group A are Latin American, while four out of five North American teams are in Group B.
In the group stage, each team will play once every other team in their group in a Best-of-One (Bo1) round robin format, much like the APAC North and European League (EUL) formats.
After the initial group stage, the top eight teams will advance to the top tier of the play-offs, while the next eight teams will go directly to the bottom bracket and the bottom four will be eliminated.
These playoffs will all be Best-of-Three (Bo3) with a Best-of-Five (Bo5) Grand Final.
This creates an approximately 111 match event, including 90 Bo1s and one Bo5, designed to maximize the number of matches for the first international event in a year.
Date and location
The tournament takes place over 9 weeks from 9 to 21 February, with the following schedule:
- February 9-14 – Group stage
- February 17-21 – Plays
All of these games take place in Paris, France, where the main European and APAC studio is located.
To make this happen, the players will undergo a seven-day quarantine before the event, present a negative PCR test before flying to France and maintain a strict separation between teams. This is to create a bubble environment where players are tested regularly, almost always wear masks and leave the bubble within 48 hours after it has been eliminated.
To keep the safety levels high, the event was therefore arranged with the help of the French government to stop the spread of COVID-19 across the teams during the event.
It is also noteworthy that only six people per team are allowed to travel to the event for obvious reasons, which means that many co-coaches, analysts and managers are unable to attend.
Show competition
There will also be a $ 50,000 showmatch for charity, with the following teams:
Big Brain Maestro Mains – MacieJay, FastAnne, Kitty, CoconutBruh and CrossArchon
Al mik asnet – BikiniBodhi, Snedger, Jericho, NarcholepticNugget and Sasslyn
The ESL logo on the above graphics is particularly noteworthy about this game, implying that they will be involved in the game. Since the Pro League ended last year, ESL has only hosted the APAC region’s competitions, while FACEIT has managed NA and EU, making it a strange choice.
Price pool
The Six Invitational prize pool is again a maximum of $ 3 million this year, with sales of the recent battle pass contributing to the prize pool. If it reaches the expected price of $ 3 million, it will lead to the following breakdown of the price pool:
- 1st place: $ 1,000,000
- 2nd place: $ 450 000
- 3rd place: $ 240 000
- 4th place: $ 170,100
- 5th – 6th places: $ 135,000
- 7th – 8th places: $ 102 600
- 9th – 12th places: $ 75,000
- 13th – 16th places: $ 60,000
- 17th – 20th places: $ 30,000
Finally, viewers have the chance to get 13 exclusive charms, a number of R6 Esports suits and a VIP Tachanka bundle by watching the streams during the two weeks:
- 4 charms – Watch any activated R6 stream for three hours between 21-23, 24-26, 27-29 and 30-31 January for a unique charm for each period
- 4 charms – Look at any composite R6 stream for four hours between 1-2, 3-4, 5-6 and 7-8 for a unique charm for each period
- 1 Sports package – Every eight hours compound R6 streams watched between 6-8, 9 and 14 and 17 to 20 February, as well as every two and a half hours watched on the 21st.
- 4 SI charm – Watch the SI21 tournament for a unique charm on 17, 18, 19 and 20 February
- SI VIP charm and bundle – An exclusive SI charm and Tachanka bundle will also randomly fall on the 21st
As explicitly stated in the announcement blog, viewers do not have to enter anything in the chat to be eligible for the charm.
Set three weeks for the start of the action as the fifth annual World Cup takes place, and we finally see how the four regions stack up after a long year.