Esports tournament organiser BLAST has revealed that the first Rainbow Six Major for its 2024 season will take place in the United Kingdom.
The event will be held in Manchester, England at the B.E.C Arena on May 16th – 26th. This is the first time a Rainbow Six Major will take place in the United Kingdom.
According to a release, the Major features a $750,000 (~£589,000) prize pool with 20 teams taking part in the tournament. The amount of teams at Majors has reduced for its 2024 season, with 24 teams originally competing in the large-scale events in 2023.
Phase One and Two of the tournament will not be open to the public, however, Phase Three will feature a live audience.
Despite this being the first Major of Rainbow Six Siege’s 2024 season, the game still has its world championships, the Six Invitational, to take place prior. This year’s Six Invitational is occurring in February at São Paulo, Brazil’s Ginásio do Ibirapuera.
Rainbow Six joins a long list of esports titles that will be hosting major tournaments in the UK this year. Alongside the Major, Dota 2’s ESL One Birmingham, League of Legends’ 2024 World Finals and the PUBG Mobile Global Championship (PMGC) 2024, among others, are taking place in the UK.
This is the second Rainbow Six Siege esports season under prominent esports tournament operator BLAST. Alongside its operation of Ubisoft’s esports ecosystem, the company produces and hosts esports events for the likes of Epic Games’ FNCS (Fortnite) and RLCS (Rocket League) as well as its own semi-franchised Counter-Strike league, BLAST Premier.
Earlier this week, Rainbow Six also announced changes that would be coming to its competitive season in 2024. Notably, this included updating its Global Point System through which teams qualify for the Six Invitational. The change was made to put more of an emphasis on a team’s results at Majors.
