Update: It seems that only operators from the current season are banned, and all operators from other seasons with the exception of Nokk and Warden are allowed.
India is a very small market when it comes to esports (on the console and the PC), so an esports ecosystem for games other than CSGO and DOTA 2 is practically non-existent. This might be about to change, as Rainbow Six Siege is about to get a League of its own. An official announcement from ESL India mentions a new Rainbow Six Siege India Series.
https://www.facebook.com/ESLinIndia/photos/a.248120825387658/1194128680786863/?type=3&__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARDGrB5MfQOO6zVHMOAG58O6S-uPmfI7Ab3RHl4SpBucLwf_b1Y2htNH0jIl5IPk02mW5qUD5Xf9Qv9F1ZTfsHV7HVyiUrzvP7vTb0n6vpOyhxjiP87O0MwtgKlXYwsWhB4DwElBk_p-ptigoAQ4KVWzgk0xfNk7n6CJF-dVcybxpjrJGnliQ7D00ICuW7uqPd8YbYDQzvCxFHovwwqftQkXmB9HJM-UNdvCb6llseI4Zo2AJk71pTN5cu-E-Q9sDdOjCOVmJNFCLM3M6YQwBh_sXHNkMOD2oHRnrUUDXTxcX26gDvwBis6GPNmHqILcqKdKQLArVtYFdeV9z_StwqfR4w&__tn__=-R
The Rainbow Six community was quite vocal about the lack of tournaments, and for a while, it was quite true. Even the PC version of PUBG gets more support in the form of tournaments, and its a niche e-sport in itself, lacking the reach of CSGO and DOTA 2. This might be about to change, with the highest esports authority in the country taking a chance to see the audience for the small, but vocal community playing one of Ubisoft’s biggest esports title to date.
Two qualifiers will take place – one from 1st to 3rd November, another from 8th to 10th November. The top two teams from each qualifier will move on to the LAN finale (the date and location for which is yet undisclosed). All games in the qualifiers are to be played in the elimination format, with the semi-finals and finals being played in the Best-Of-Three format. Nokk and Warden are put on a temporary ban list for the tournament following official ESL rules. One peculiar rule mentions that only operators ‘which are available to all players’ can be used and not specific to any ‘Season Pass’ holders. It does raise doubts about whether the tournament would be played only using the base operators, or whether it will be using Year 1, Year 2 and Year 3 operators with all operators of Year 4 being banned from play. We’ll update the article as soon as we receive the required information.
Registrations are live here. Here’s to a season of Rainbow Six competitive action!