New Siege competitive format by BLAST to have tweaked Invitational qualification method, new Major format

Ubisoft shed further light on the extensive reorganization of the competitive Rainbow Six landscape through a blog post today. As revealed on Dec. 12, the new format will feature a total of nine regions split into five regions.

The 2023 season is set to start in the week of Mar. 6.

Read more: All you need to know about the future of Rainbow Six Siege in Year 8

With the new system, only NA and EU will be intact as regions with no changes. Meanwhile, Brazil has been freed from being pigeon-holed into the LATAM region and will no longer feature a tournament like the Copa Elite Six. Instead, it will be its own region and not a LATAM sub-region.

Furthermore, the NAL will seemingly be moving to an online format, as was presumably discussed in a Jul. 20 meeting and has been unofficially confirmed by NAL caster Niclas "Pengu" Mouritzen on Twitter.

Majors will feature new qualification methods, while the Six Invitational will no longer feature the option for qualifier teams.

Jump to:

• New competitive calendar
• New Major format
• Path to Major qualification
• Path to Six Invitational qualification

New competitive calendar

The new competitive calendar will see a reduction in Majors to just two per year, as shared on Dec. 12.

The events currently scheduled for the 2023 season are:

• May 2023: Copenhagen Major
• Nov. 2023: USA Major
• Feb. 2024: Six Invitational (Brazil)

New Major format

Each region from will send a certain amount of teams to the first and second phases of the newly-formatted Majors.

Majors will now run for two weeks and will feature three phases, with prize pools increased to US$750,000 from the current US$500,000.

Phases 1 and 2 will feature a different number of teams from each region, with BLAST stating that the number of teams each region sends to Majors can be adjusted in the future according to the strength of each region.

Phase 1

Phase 1 will feature a total of 16 teams from each of the nine region, of which eight teams will progress to Phase 2. Seven regions will send two teams each, while two regions will send one team each.

Two teams each:

• NA
• EU
• Brazil
• Japan
• Korea
• Hispanic LATAM
• Asia

One team each:

• Oceania
• MENA

Phase 2

Phase 2 will feature a total of 16 teams, like current Majors, with eight teams from Phase 1 joining eight teams that directly qualify to Phase 2.

NA, EU, and Brazil will send the top two teams from their respective leagues directly to Phase 2. Teams from Korea and Japan will send one team each directly to Phase 2, as well.

Phase 3

Phase 3 will effectively be the same as the playoff stage of current Majors, with eight teams starting in a what will likely be a single-elimination bracket.

Path to Major qualification

Each region will feature a different path to Major qualification, with different number of teams in each top-level league as well.

NA

EU

Brazil

Japan

Korea

Hispanic LATAM

Asia

Oceania

MENA

Path to Six Invitational qualification

The Global Standings for SI Points will continue on in the new format, but SI Points will now be awarded to all 20 teams that will head to the Six Invitational. As such, there will be no qualifier teams at the Six Invitational 2024.

Each teams will be given points in their attempts to qualify to the Major, including the regular leagues and the Major last-chance qualifiers (LCQs).

Teams will also score points with their performances at the Major.

The points will be awarded differently per region as follows:

NA, EU & Brazil

Japan and Korea

Hispanic LATAM

Asia

Oceania and MENA

Meanwhile, Majors will award points in the following manner:

The 2023 season will kick off in the week of Mar. 6, with the in-game season Y8S1 Operation Commanding Force coming out on Mar. 7.