The 2021 Six Invitational, Rainbow Six Siege’s biggest competitive event of the year, will take place on LAN, developers Ubisoft confirmed today. Rainbow Six, and all other esports, have been prohibited from hosting offline events for most of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Six Invitational will go on in February of next year with no live audience.
Rainbow Six teams have mainly been required to compete online since COVID-19 quarantine measures went into effect earlier this year. The last tier one international LAN event to take place this year was the 2020 Six Invitational, which went on in Montreal, Canada, in February. The 2021 Six Invitational is scheduled to take place over a year later, with international teams competing on LAN for the first time in months.
“We are thrilled to announce that the fifth edition of the Six Invitational will happen in late February 2021,” Ubisoft’s announcement says. The 2021 Six Invitational will take place in Europe, with 20 teams from across the four main competitive regions - North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia Pacific - in attendance. The event’s exact location has not been revealed.
“Strict sanitary safety measures” will be put in place to ensure the health and safety of all players, as well as team and event staff. In accordance with large gathering guidelines and to maintain additional safety, no live audience will be in attendance at the event.
The 2021 Six Invitational will feature 20 teams competing for a yet-undisclosed prize pool. Sixteen of those teams will qualify to the event based on their points ranking, while the other four will be determined through regional qualifiers. Twelve teams have already locked in their Six Invitational slots, including Cloud9, Team Liquid, and Team SoloMid.
Registration for the regional open qualifiers will open on December 2nd. The qualifiers themselves have not yet been scheduled. More information on the qualifier format and the main event will be released soon, Ubisoft states.
Details on how Ubisoft plans to maintain the health of competitors and staff have not been revealed. The company confirms that additional information regarding the Six Invitational’s health and safety practices will be released in the coming weeks. The 2021 Six Invitational will take place in late February of next year.
Source: Ubisoft
