Rainbow Six Siege: Six Invitational 2023

Alex_Clark

In the last decade, video games have become more than trivial entertainment. They have evolved into competitive esports with high stakes, high competition, and even higher rewards. One game that has risen to prominence in the esports world is Rainbow Six. Rainbow Six has been the main focus of tournaments for two decades now and its popularity has not waned one bit. The most famous Rainbow Six tournament is the Six Invitational.

What is the Six Invitational?

The Six Invitational is a Rainbow Six professional tournament hosted by Ubisoft that has occurred annually since 2017. In the Six Invitational, top professional esports teams play Rainbow Six Siege against one another to win a huge cash purse and win the title of the best team of the year. The Six Invitational is the pinnacle of the Rainbow Six esports season and marks the finale in a series of tournaments. The event brings together the top teams from around the world all the way to Montreal, Canada. This year’s Six Invitational will be held at Place Bell. The tournament will run from February 7th, 2023 until the Grand Final on February 19th, 2023. Acer’s Predator line is one of the main sponsors of this tournament.

Fans and gamers have eagerly awaited this tournament since last year. Due to the pandemic, previous Six Invitational tournaments were disrupted and this year’s tournament offers spectators a chance to see their first seamless Six Invitational in a few years.

What are Rainbow Six and Rainbow Six Siege?

Rainbow Six is a Tom Clancy video game series that follows an elite international counter-terrorist unit across exotic locations and dangerous missions. Its popularity stems from its multiplayer, co-op, and online capabilities. These popular gameplay features have propelled the game to the highest peaks of esports popularity.

What is Rainbow Six Siege? One offshoot of the Rainbow Six series is Rainbow Six Siege, the game being played during the Six Invitational. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege is a popular online tactical shooter video game. This series is more of a realistic and strategic tactical shooter that relies on planning and execution among a five-person team. It has become a popular esports game that draws millions of views.

What’s the format of the 2023 Six Invitational?

The Six Invitational is broken down into a quarterfinal, a semi-final, and a grand final. The quarterfinal is then played best out of three and once a team has been beaten twice, they're eliminated. The semi-final is played best out of five but once a team is beaten once, they're knocked out of the tournament. The final two teams face off in the grand final. Much like the semi-final, this is played best out of five rounds to determine the winner of the Six Invitational.

This style of tournament has been a popular and exciting showcase for Rainbow Six esports and proves as an influential follow-up to the Six Majors. The Six Majors, held previously in the year, showcases sixteen teams battling one another toward victory. The Six Majors tournament features a live audience and has been previously hosted all over the world in places like Berlin, Germany and Charlotte, North Carolina. The Six Majors, much like the Six Invitational, is sponsored by Acer’s Predator brand, which provides premium laptops for analysts and esports-ready PCs and monitors for pro players competing at both tournaments.

Who is competing?

Prior to the quarterfinals, there will be four additional teams fighting it out for a place in the limelight. These four additional teams are the winners of the regional tournaments including the Asia Pacific qualifier, European qualifier, North American qualifier, and Latin American qualifier. These four winners will join the competition who have cemented their place in the Six Invitational brackets. The sixteen teams include: 

• Astralis 
• W7m esports 
• Oxygen esports 
• XSET 
• DarkZero esports 
• Rogue 
• Wolves esports 
• G2 esports 
• Team BDS 
• FaZe Clan  
• MNM Gaming 
• Team Liquid 
• Heroic 
• Elevate 
• CYCLOPS Athlete Gaming 
• Soniqs

What is the Six invitational schedule? 

The group stages of the Six Invitational will be held from February 7th to February 11th. Part 1 of the Playoffs will be held from February 13th to 15th. These two parts of the playoffs will not be open to the public. The second part of the Playoffs and the Grand Final to determine this year’s champion team will be held from February 17th to 19th. This portion of the tournament is open to the public. The participating teams will be battling it out for a large prize pool, that is unfortunately yet to be determined. Whatever the ultimate amount ends up being, first place gets 33% of the total prize pool and second place gets 15%.

Interested in watching?

To watch the 2023 Six Invitational, check out Twitch for more information on their streams of the event. If you’d like to join fans and esports professionals in Montreal, Canada to see the Six Invitational in person, check out Ubisoft’s ticketing information here.

*The opinions reflected in this article are the sole opinions of the author and do not reflect any official positions or claims by Acer Inc.

About Alex Clark: Alex is a contributing writer for Acer. Alex is a Texas-based writer and B2B email marketing strategist specializing in helping technology brands connect to their customers. He has lived all over Asia and has consulted with business clients in numerous industries to grow their brands.