Ubisoft, in partnership with ESL UK, has announced the continuation of the ESL Premiership for Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege.
The first season will begin this month with another in spring 2019. Teams must have 3/5 players as residences of either the United Kingdom or Ireland and will play through two rounds of open qualifiers with emerging teams divided into groups to play each other every Wednesday in October and November. Top teams from each group will play in the grand finals in December in Leicester for a piece of the $13,585 (£10,500) prize pool.
Rob Black, Chief Operating Officer of ESL UK said: “We’ve got some incredibly talented players in the UK and watching them hone their skills in the Premiership is always really exciting. In the long term, ESL wants to help Ubisoft build a platform in the UK to slingshot players & teams into the top levels of global competition – and this is just the next step.”
The competition will also be moving from Xbox One to PC.
Chris Place, Group Marketing Manager at Ubisoft UK said: “We’re proud to be partnering with ESL UK for a second year of the Rainbow Six Premiership. With the move to PC and the addition of a second season this time around, we’re setting the stage for some really exciting local competition this year. We can’t wait to see UK/IRE talent grow, develop and hopefully increase the amount of UK involvement in the Challenger and Pro League competitions.”
Ubisoft and ESL UK hosted the first season of the Rainbow Six Siege Premiership earlier this year, as the first time the two have partnered for an online esports league.
On the professional league side of things, Ubisoft announced last month it will be supporting pro teams with in-game branded items and a 30% revenue share.
Esports Insider says: While Rainbow Six Siege has been in esports for quite some time now it’s refreshing to see the support come out for competition in various regions. Ubisoft is obviously putting more time and effort into the ecosystem of the game and nothing helps it better than more competitions!