Rainbow Six Siege is the latest in a long running franchise of games based on Tom Clancy’s books. The 10th book called Rainbow Six gave birth to the franchise in 1998. In 2015, after a shaky launch for Rainbow Six Siege, Ubisoft adopted a methodical strategy to make the game grow as an esport. After several years of investments and experiments, it is on the verge of becoming a major title in the esports industry.

Here is how Rainbow Six Siege rose from a modest beginning to a rapidly growing esport.

What are the Origins of Rainbow Six Siege ?

Rainbow Six Siege is the final release of a 17-games series. Its origins lead back to 1984 when American novelist Tom Clancy published his first military-espionage book, The Hunt for Red October. The book later became a major motion picture. It would be the first of many for Clancy’s books. Clancy also worked his way through video games by co-founding the studio Red Storm Entertainment in 1996 (it was was acquired by Ubisoft four years later). Three series have been developed and based loosely on Clancy’s books: Ghost Recon, Splinter Cell, and Rainbow Six. The latter was released two weeks before the book in 1998, and established the core of Rainbow Six Siege. It depicts a worldwide counter-terrorism unit called Rainbow training for missions through varied situations.

For Rainbow Six Siege, publisher Ubisoft adopted the “Game as a Service” (GaaS) model, providing content and support in the long term to foster an active community instead of developing further opuses. This model ultimately proved successful: after successive upgrades of the game and content additions, the game has garnered 40M players in this year.

How is Rainbow Six Siege Played ?

Rainbow Six Siege is the first game in the series to be exclusively focused on multiplayer. It is a tactical first-person shooter (FPS) where a team of five players must defend or attack a specific objective on a map in a limited amount of time to earn points. The attacking side can win by diffusing one of two bombs hidden somewhere on the map, or by eliminating all defending players. The defending side wins a round by eliminating all attackers, or destroying the device which defuses a bomb within seven seconds of it being activated by the attackers. A pick and ban phase is also added before the match begins, similar to League of Legends or Dota 2 , so that the teams can counter the opponent’s strategy. Before the launch of a match, players choose a varied number of maps (depending on the game length) and four operators – the characters with a unique set of skills and tools, to ban. Then, the maps of the match are chosen and it begins. Players choose their operator and their gear for each round, where they will consecutively switch between attacking and defending.

When the round begins, a preparation phase of 45 seconds starts, during which the defending team builds up defenses around the objectives by reinforcing walls or setting traps. On the opposing team, each attacker scouts the area with a drone to find the bomb locations and identify operators. Once completed, the action phase begins: if the attacking team doesn’t secure the objective within four minutes, the defending team wins. The gameplay is realistic, which means that the players can be killed in the blink of an eye. Additionally, there are no respawns and a round can become intense when players find themselves all alone against several opponents. Another important element is the environment; it can be destroyed (including the walls, floor, and roof), adding an additional layer of tactics and strategies to each match. These elements make Rainbow Six Siege hard to master, but they are just some of the reasons for its popularity among esports enthusiasts.

What is the Esports Strategy of Rainbow Six Siege ?

Only two months after the game’s release in January 2016, Ubisoft announced the first Pro League circuit. In summer 2018, the circuit changed to a more traditional league format. The competitive circuit is divided into two leagues: Pro and Challenger. The Pro League gathers eight teams and takes place in four regions – Europe, North America, Latin America, and Asia-Pacific. Matches are unique games (best of one) split into six successive attacks and defenses. The first team who scores seven points wins the match. One season is six months long, followed by offline Finals facing the two best teams of the four regions. On the other side, the worst ranked team is relegated in Challenger League and the second worst has to win a qualifier to keep its spot for the next season. Challenger League gathers the amateur scene and follows the Pro League format. It offers a chance for the first ranked team to join Pro League and the second best to grab the spot by beating the second worst Pro League team.

In Rainbow Six Siege, the equivalent of the World Championships is the Six Invitational, taking place every year in February. As a matter of fact, the breakout moment for the competitive scene of Rainbow Six Siege was undoubtedly the 2018 Six Invitational. The viewership trounced its records with 3.5M hours watched and an average of 71.2K concurrent viewers. Besides this tournament and the Pro League Finals, a last major was incorporated in the circuit: the Six Major, created to celebrate the community as well as being competitive. The first iteration took place in Paris in August 2018, with a $350K USD cash prize.

Despite owning the official Rainbow Six Siege leagues, Ubisoft lets third-party tournament organizers make their way into the game, like DreamHack who hosted three tournaments in 2018. In short, Ubisoft has steadily shaped its esports through significant improvements over the years such as more cash prizes and regions included.

Additionally, Ubisoft rewards the esports organizations investing in the game with a revenue-share pilot program, fleshed out in the first year of game competition, and further developed over the years. It enables several chosen teams to earn a share of revenue from the purchase of team-branded in-game content developed by Ubisoft. In November 2018, 11 Pro League selected teams got several exclusive items: weapon skins, charms (a pendant hanging off the player’s weapon), headgear and operator skins, to form a whole kit. They earn a 30% share of the sales. Besides the purchases of Pro League premium items that offer 21% equal share to these 11 teams, 9% is added to the Six Invitational prize pool.