Publisher Ubisoft has announced that its major Rainbow Six Siege esports event, the Six Invitational 2023, will take place in Montreal, Canada.
The offline event will have no audience on-site for its Group Stage and the first part of the playoffs. However, it will be open to the public for the second part of the playoffs and the Grand Final.
The Six Invitational will take place between February 7th-19th, at the Place Bell arena. Ubisoft will also reveal details regarding Rainbow Six Siege’s next season, which is expected to go live later in 2023, besides crowning this season’s World Champions. Specifically, the event will see the top 20 teams battle it out for the title.
By the end of the Six Jönköping Major in November 2022, fans should know the 16 teams qualified for the Six Invitational 2023 through the Global Standings. Four spots will still be up for grabs in December and January via the Six Invitational Qualifiers in Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America and North America.
Rainbow Six’s previous Invitational in January 2022 suffered a change of location — from Quebec to Stockholm — due to coronavirus-related event restrictions in the province. The Six Invitational 2022 featured a $3m (~£2.6m) prize pool and though Ubisoft hasn’t revealed the cash reward for its 2023 counterpart, it’s expected to fall within the same range.
The event currently features a small yet strong roster of commercial partners, including online payment processor PayPal, Acer’s gaming brand Predator and FPS training platform AimLab — which will also sponsor the aforementioned Six Jönköping Major.
Earlier this year, Ubisoft unveiled the Northern Premier League (NPL), a new Rainbow Six Siege multi-region esports competition, for UK, Ireland and Nordic teams.
The publisher has also confirmed it will expand to the mobile gaming market with the upcoming release of Rainbow Six Mobile.
