Ubisoft announced details regarding the upcoming Asia Pacific / APAC League for Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Esports featuring two regional divisions: the North Division and the South Division, each of them following its own competitive structure.
12 total teams from Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia will be competing in a single online league. The six best teams from the North Division standings will progress to the APAC League Playoffs, with teams from both divisions gather to compete for top placings in the league. Their progress will be determined on match results at the end of each stage, with four tickets available to the Six Major.
For this first 2020 Season, the teams competing in the North Division are:
- Cloud9
- Cyclops Athlete Gaming
- FAV Gaming
- FNATIC
- Giants Gaming
- GUTS Gaming
- NORA Rengo
- Qconfirm
- SCARZ
- Talon Esports
- Xavier Esports
- 7th Heaven
From 23 June, the North Division matches will be broadcast in English on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10AM UTC onwards, on Twitch and Youtube.
With the 2020 Season, Ubisoft will take a first major step in revamping the viewing experience of its esports leagues and will inaugurate a brand-new and cutting-edge broadcast studio for the Asia-Pacific North Division matches, broadcast in English, as well as the European League and European Challenger League. While the matches will be happening online for the pro teams, the crew of talents will gather in France, in the Greater Paris area, to cast from this new studio. To name a few additions viewers can expect:
- Premium tools and material to assist the talents while they cast.
- A dedicated analyst area that will allow the crew to provide in-depth information.
- New types of content on top of the action-packed show the pro teams will put on during their matches, such as debates, editorial pieces, interactive content and more.
- Tech improvements backstage, that will ultimately create a more engaging stream for the viewers to watch.
The new studio will not be ready for the first playdays of the league, with talent, staff and partner health taking priority. Viewers will be seeing a light version of the studio as a temporary solution, with the fully-fledged one taking over once the situation permits. More information will be shared soon.
The Asia-Pacific South Division will be running in parallel, bringing two independent subregions: Oceania and for the first time in Rainbow Six Esports history, South Asia. Oceania will see 8 teams from Australia, New Zealand, Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia compete in the Oceanic Nationals, an online league. Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka will likewise be facing off in a series of open online tournaments, ending with a closed bracket playoff. The South Division Playoffs will begin when both South Division Nationals end to determine the two teams who will be joining the APAC League Playoffs to face the North Division teams.
At the end of each stage, the top four teams of the Asia-Pacific Playoffs will claim a spot in the upcoming Six Major. Each season, in December, the Asia-Pacific League will conclude with a special event, the Asia-Pacific League Finals, to determine which team truly is the Asia-Pacific Champion of the season.
Ubisoft is also unveiling a revamped path-to-pro, fueled by the national tournaments across the Asia-Pacific region. At the end of a season, teams winning Nationals in the North Division countries will have the possibility to compete in a Promotion/Relegation system for a chance to enter the following season of the North Division league. In the South Division, the Oceanic and South Asia Nationals will fuel the South Division Playoffs, offering teams from those subregions a chance to compete in the Asia-Pacific League Playoffs to claim a spot for the Six Major.
The launch of the new APAC League alongside updates to the National tournaments across the region, as part of the new regionalized ecosystem of Rainbow Six Esports worldwide, represent the biggest evolution for the competitive Rainbow Six Siege landscape in its four-year history. All Asia-Pacific programs forge a multi-tiered esports scene, allowing players from all levels and horizons to compete.
Look forward to this revamped APAC League for Rainbow Six Siege!