The Rainbow Six Siege Canada Nationals are back for Year 2, with Ubisoft announcing a partnership with Enthusiast Gaming to bring their second year of competition to the Great White North. Teams will compete for a spot at this year’s EGLX, Canada’s largest video game expo.
Presented by Ubisoft Canada and powered by Enthusiast Gaming, the Rainbow Six Canada Nationals will kick off in June 2019. This year’s competition will consist of two stages, with the live LAN finals taking place on October 20 in Toronto at the Enthusiast Gaming Live Expo, otherwise known as EGLX. The top four Canadian teams that make it through the group stage will earn their chance to compete for a $15,000 CAD prize pool in October.
As someone who worked to put on smaller-scale Canadian gaming tournaments in the capital city of Ottawa back in 2015, it’s extremely exciting to see how far that competitive gaming has come in Canada. Often in the past we saw Canadian professionals make their way across the United States, and sometimes to Europe, just to have an opportunity to compete at a national or international level, because Canada didn’t have such an offering.
It speaks highly to the work that’s been done by the team at Enthusiast Gaming since their inception in 2014. What separates this competition from many others though is that this is one of the purely Canadian tournaments. Every team is made up exclusively of Canadian players, which gives us Canucks an opportunity to show international competitors how to maple up.
The tournament will begin with the first two-day Open Qualifier, where each team will compete for their chance to participate in the elimination rounds of the Canadian league. Once league play begins, each team will face off over eight weeks, ending with the top four teams securing their spot at the finals. This year will also see the return of last year’s champions, Team Canada, who will earn a buy into the Stage 1 elimination round. If you want to delve deeper into the tournament format and rules, check out the official Rainbow Six Canada Nationals page.
The Breakdown
Stage 1 Open Qualifiers will take place on June 29 and 30 and then again on July 6 and 7, followed by the Stage 1 elimination league play broadcast live each weekend in July. Stage 2 Open Qualifiers will start on September 7. At the end of each stage, the two top-ranked teams will have secured their place at the live Grand Finals in Toronto.
Adam Climan, the eSports and communications manager at Ubisoft Canada, spoke excitably about what was in store for the second year of the Canadian Nationals.
“We are very excited to bring back the Rainbow Six Canada Nationals for Year 2. Partnering with Enthusiast Gaming, this year promises to be a year of stellar matches, great times and exciting moments for players and fans alike! We cannot wait to see how this year will unfold!”
Additional details regarding spectator opportunities for the Grand Finals will be revealed closer to the event in October and fans are encouraged to follow Ubisoft Canada on social media for real-time updates with #R6CN.
If you’ve read this article and found yourself thinking “Hey, I’m a Canadian Rainbow Six Siege player with a stellar team that would love an opportunity to showcase my skills in a tournament” we’ve got some great news for you! Registrations are still open and exclusively Canadian Siege players can register their team for the Canada Nationals today, and find more information about the tournament at r6canadanationals.com.
