Tournament organizer FACEIT and Rainbow Six Siege developer Ubisoft have announced a partnership to design and execute the overall esports strategy for the title in North America. The partnership includes FACEIT working with Ubisoft to develop data integration, media rights and event production, content, and a grassroots program to create a competitive ecosystem “to ensure its continued growth and sustainability.”
“Rainbow Six was top of the list of games we wanted to partner with for a number of reasons,” Co-Founder and CBO of FACEIT Michele Attisani told The Esports Observer. “First of all we really admire how Ubisoft gradually developed the game to build a sustainable esports ecosystem, having the game developers aligning their content strategy with the esports program while also ramping up investment in the esport organically as the game and audience grew. Ultimately they built one of the largest games in the world with 55M registered users and esports at his core.”
FACEIT, based in the United Kingdom, has run various events across the globe including a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major which took place in London in 2018. The new FLASHPOINT competition series is also produced, directed, and facilitated by FACEIT.
Ubisoft has tabbed FACEIT to leverage the company’s experience in running events, creating digital products, distributing media, and creating the format and structure of the ecosystem.
With that, FACEIT will manage all competitions including the new Rainbow Six North American League and its offline U.S. Division LAN program, all Rainbow Six Majors in North America, as well as the U.S. and Canada Division Challenger Leagues.
The U.S. Division LAN program will be played in Las Vegas with players onsite at a new studio and facilities.
As part of the ecosystem, FACEIT is looking to create a clear “path to pro” with eight challenger teams and players in each country playing for an opportunity to break into the North American League each year.
“Even after becoming a Tier 1 esport, Ubisoft showed the willingness to constantly learn, iterate to improve and challenge the status quo which is exactly our mindset,” Attisani said. “Last but not least, Rainbow Six was one of the most requested games on FACEIT with over 100,000 users already part of Rainbow Six communities on the FACEIT platform just by word of mouth with no promotion from us nor Ubisoft.”
The first North American League Finals will take place in December.
A new FACEIT Pro League (FPL) will be established for the Rainbow Six community. This will be the first time FACEIT has created an FPL in partnership with a video game publisher.
