Sweden Six Major, growth and the future: Chat Rainbow Six Siege e-sports with François-Xavier Dénièle – Rainbow Six: Siege
Six Sweden Major has just started earlier today and is gathering the best Rainbow Six: Siege teams from around the world to compete in the final major ahead of the next Six Invitational, which is scheduled to take place in Montreal, Canada in February 2022. insight into what it took to take a Siege Major to Gävle, a city just north of Stockholm in Sweden, we recently met François-Xavier Dénièle, sports director for Ubisoft EMEA, to talk about everything that is now and in the future for Siege- the competition scene.
Gamereactor: What led to the decision to choose Sweden as the host city for Sweden Six Major?
Dénièle: Since we started our e-sports activities at Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege 6 years ago, we’ve been heavily rooted in local scenes. The philosophy behind the six majors’ placements is to bring the events closer to our fans, to celebrate our various local Rainbow Six communities and give more visibility to our local ecosystems. By coming to Sweden for this event, and for the first time in the history of Rainbow Six Esports, we hope to be able to highlight Rainbow Six’s Swedish community as well as all fans of the game in the Nordics in general. In Gävle, we found a venue with its own unique identity and we built on the site and national storylines to create our event. It will be a new version of what our community has experienced so far, and we hope fans will like it as much as we enjoyed designing it.
Gamereactor: If you had to choose a team you think will win Sweden Six Major, who would it be and why?
Dénièle: The teams that are qualified for Sex Sweden Major are some of the strongest in the world today. At the last Six Major in Mexico, a Brazilian team won and I’m excited to see if the LATAM region will retain its title, or if another region will stand up to challenge them. If I have a bias, it’s always a prejudice for a great tournament story and an epic Grand Final. May the best team win!
Gamereactor: The Rainbow Six sports scene is bigger than it has ever been, but do you still see continued growth year after year?
Dénièle: Since we started our e-sports activities at Rainbow Six Siege, we have worked to develop a mature and virtuous environment. We have adapted our competitive format with regionalization, integrated key partners and invested in our broadcast and event experience to continuously grow and professionalize our e-sports scene. Year after year, we have been pleased to welcome Rainbow Six Esports top sports organizations, such as Fnatic, G2 Esports, T1 or Team Liquid, and through our robust revenue sharing program, R6 Share, we partner with the organizations involved in our leagues on a daily basis. basis for continuing to build a sustainable e-sports program for all parties involved.
As part of our desire to stay close to society, it is also important for us to constantly monitor the activities of our communities around the world to identify new opportunities. As an example, we have also recently developed e-sports programs for our fans in the MENA region, who have been craving for more competitive Siege.
If the challenges of recent years have taught us anything, it is to be agile and we are dedicated to continuing to iterate, fine-tune and consolidate our scenes and ultimately offer our fans, professional players and organizations the most competitive, sustainable and exciting e- sports ecosystem we can.
Gamereactor: With e-sports and competitive games as such a big part of Rainbow Six Siege’s identity, are you part of discussions with the development / balance team about upcoming game updates?
Dénièle: Both the game and the sports scene influence each other and the sports department works closely with the production team with the development. This is important because as soon as you change the game’s meta, it affects how professional players and teams tackle the game and each map. The way the game develops over time is very exciting and it can also go the other way around, where the sports side of Siege drives the game’s development in a certain direction. We see that professional teams use unique combinations of Operators for their strategies, which in turn can give the production team inspiration for new Operators sometimes. Although not exclusive, the esports scene is one of the channels that production teams watch when it comes to balancing and testing.
Gamereactor: What has the pandemic taught you about how e-sports works, and do you think the lessons you have learned from continuing to run Rainbow Six e-sports over the past 18 months will carry on and influence future events?
Dénièle: With the safety of our teams, players, fans and partners as our top priority, one of the most important lessons we have learned from this period has been how to combine the implementation of strict sanitary measures, with the creation of the best possible experience for both professional players and fans .
We have adapted the format of our competitions to keep them going in the middle of the pandemic, which gives the team an opportunity to continue playing, and today we are working hard to bring back international competitions in LAN, such as the latest Six Invitational and Six Mexico Major, with strict sanitary measures to ensure the safety of all participants. These events make us stronger and more flexible and will forever affect how we organize events. In parallel, we continue our efforts to help create a mature and virtuous environment for all professional teams involved in R6 Esports with our revenue-sharing program, R6 SHARE, which will continue to evolve with our esports scene.
Together with our partners, we had to show an unsurpassed level of agility, and we are proud of the incredible work and efforts of all the sports teams at Ubisoft. We continue to monitor the situation and adapt our events and formats accordingly, with the hope of welcoming fans back to live scenes in a safe way, when the situation allows.
Gamereactor: How’s the planning of Six Invitational 2022 going? Are you still about to host the Montreal tournament in February?
Dénièle: Right now we are focused on Six Sweden Major, which is the last international event where teams can earn Global Standings points that determine their ranking in the race towards a qualification for Six Invitational 2022. More information about Six Invitational will be shared soon.
Gamereactor: Rainbow Six Siege is Ubisoft’s premier sports scene, but have you considered, or rather considered expanding Ubisoft’s sports portfolio, perhaps with Riders Republic, or even Tom Clancy’s XDefiant or Ghost Recon Frontline when they are launched on the line?
We have several sports titles at Ubisoft, including Brawlhalla, Trackmania and Rainbow Six Siege, the latter being our flagship sports title, each with its own unique features and communities. Although we are really monitoring the development of the new titles in Ubisoft’s portfolio, we are currently focusing on developing and supporting our current sports scenes. We are convinced that all types of games that contain competitive gaming elements have the potential to flourish in e-sports, if the communities support them.
Thanks to François-Xavier Dénièle and Ubisoft for chatting with us. You can capture the action Six Swedish majors here, with the group games currently taking place.