The Run to the Invitational - Siege Around the World

These five tournaments taking place across the next few weeks will see a mix of Pro League teams and never-before-seen minor teams competing for prize pools between $1,750 to $9,000 giving those players lower down the competitive spectrum a shot at glory before the biggest Siege event ever kicks off next week with the Six Invitational 2019.

Siege Summer Series

This three-week-long tournament concludes next weekend with the semi-finals and final of this A$5,000 ANZ tournament, one of the biggest of its kind in the APAC sub-region.

While the $3.6k/€3.2k prizepool might not indicate a large tournament, the 16 teams which qualified for the event included seven out of eight of the sub-region’s Pro League teams with only Fnatic too busy to participate given that they are preparing for the Six Invitational. After the first two rounds, we are now left with these four teams ready to compete for the Siege Summer Series title:

0RGL3SS: EmoRin, Derpeh, Ethan, JoeyG, Diesel, Fluxx and syliX (their two coaches)

Dark Sided: JackDaddy, speca, Cutie, Shak and ItBeStyle

Mindfreak: Warden, Cursedwings, Shadeydays, Jcz, Spruce and uyen (their coach)

Off the Grid Esports: Ryann, Sphinx, Wayneman, Thumbnail and Dealy

Two of the main points of interest will be centred around the new members in two of the Pro League teams and how they fit into the roster; in the last week Mindfreak acquired both Jcz and Spruce to replace the outgoing players of Kngz and Crescent while 0RGL3SS welcomed Diesel onto their lineup as syliX was moved to a coaching position. These changes could have a major impact on ANZ Pro League when it restarts after the Six Invitational and so this will be a great chance to see them in action early on.

Another big story is that of Off the Grid Esports, a fairly unknown roster who not only qualified for this tournament but made it to the semi-finals ahead of two Pro League teams, Avant Gaming and Gentlemen in Underwear. They’ll now be hoping to take advantage of 0RGL3SS’ recent roster change to defeat them also and make it into the Grand Finals. Even if their journey ends here, however, all four of these rosters automatically qualify for the Oceanic Cup in March alongside Fnatic. The Oceanic Cup 2019 is another ANZ tournament similar to the SSS but with a LAN final, only eight teams and a larger unconfirmed prizepool meaning making it just this far is quite a result for the OtG roster.

 

Cyber Sports League Community Cup 2019

Containing five Saudi Arabian, one Iraqi, one Egyptian and one Moroccan team, the CSL Community Cup is the very first Ubisoft-supported league in the MENA (Middle East and North African) region to date. The qualifiers for this tournament began last November to find these eight teams who will compete for a cut of the $9,000 prize pool in the completely online tournament.

As they aren't included in any major tournaments by Ubisoft, similar to China, India and the rest of Africa, tournaments like this are crucial to the growth of the competitive community in the MENA “sub-region”. The online finals were originally scheduled for next week, however, in order to avoid a clash with the Six Invitational, it has been delayed till February 22nd. To find out more about this tournament check out the official information page, the sub-region’s R6 Twitter account or the CLS Twitter account.

 

Building Champions Cup

Ran by the Trust Gaming organisation, this tournament invites a number of European national teams to compete in what is effectively a showmatch this upcoming weekend in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Invited to this tournament includes the three top teams in Poland, Invicta Gaming, Invizy Esport and PACT (who also finished joint third in the Challenger League last season), the Challenger League team and three times Italian champions of EnD Gaming, the ex-Benelux champions of Trust Gaming and further representatives from Spain, Finland and the UK.

While the stakes are very low in this tournament, it will be a good chance to see how the lower levels of European competitive Siege have fared over the last few months and with the tournament accompanied by the wonderful cast of Stijn "Hap" Hapers and Thiadrik "Toldersma" Oldersma, the Benelux League regulars, it should be a thoroughly enjoyable tournament to watch.

 

Drone Cup 2018

As its name suggests this tournament was initially scheduled for last year however when it was announced that the Pro League would be delayed till after Christmas, this Spanish national tournament followed in suit and pushed its schedule back two months till to this week. From Wednesday to Saturday the top three teams from the ESL Spanish Masters 2018 (one team withdrew) will face off against four challengers for a €5,000 prize pool.

This tournament will be an excellent chance to see the new Movistar Riders lineup in action as only two members of the Spanish Masters winning lineup remains. One of the outgoing members, p0lo, has now also rejoined his old teammates in Giants Gaming, a roster which now consists of four players from the ex-Pro League team of gBots -- a team that had been a staple of European Pro League up until they had been relegated by the notorious beGenius roster and had subsequently disbanded. Will Movistar remain the top team in the country with this new look or will the increasingly reformed gBots roster of Giants Gaming regain some former glory? Find out by tuning into the rainbow6es Twitch account from Wednesday at 4 PM CET with the finals scheduled for Saturday at 5 PM:

 

epic26

Finally, while this British LAN tournament taking place in Kettering may not be that exciting with only £1,750 on the line, this event offers attendees a chance to mould the ESL Premiership British National tournament with a Ubisoft Q&A session, and a chance to “shape how the #ESLPrem looks in 2019”. While taking place at the same event as epic26, anyone who wishes to attend can find free tickets and more information below.

The actual tournament takes place from this Friday to Sunday and will star the Challenger League hopefuls and ESL Premiership finalists of MnM Gaming UK with their newly reinforced roster of neLo, Prox, CTZN, Fonkers and Doki. The tournament can be found on the rainbowsix_uk Twitch account cast by some of Britain’s top talent.

These five tournaments designed to grow their own individual sub-regions should provide everyone with some high-quality gameplay as we wait for the Six Invitational and the Pro League to kick off in the coming weeks. For more details on upcoming tournaments, whether big or small, keep an eye out here at SiegeGG.