The Rainbow Six Siege Six Invitational has barely ended, but the Siege esports community is talking about a separate announcement that will impact talent and fans of the game.
Ubisoft has announced that its Season 2022 roadmap of international events for Siege will include a major in August in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a country where LGBTQ+ people are criminalised with serious life-threatening consequences.
UK Siege caster Geo spoke out about the issue on Twitter, responding to questions about it and standing up for LGBTQ+ talent in Siege, including the likes of UK caster Fluke and Australian caster JessGoat.
So what happens to all of our LGBT talent (and players)? Do we leave them at home? Take the risk? Ask Fluke to present as male and Jess to delete photos of she and her girlfriend?
I'd love to hear an elaboration about this because currently this seems extremely concerning. https://t.co/KorDrL1q4a
Fluke, a UK Siege caster who has spoken out on receiving transphobic abuse in the past, responded to Ubisoft’s announcement with the following tweet:
pic.twitter.com/lqoHZhjxG1
Earlier this month, Fluke was nominated for ‘Best LGBTQ Contribution to Esports’ award at the 2022 Gayming Awards, which takes place in London on April 25th 2022.
Australian caster JessGoat, meanwhile, who has been open about her sexual orientation as a lesbian, has currently asked not to be tagged on socials today as she focuses on the Six Invitational.
A petition has also been set up to stop the UAE Siege Major from taking place:
Ubisoft: Stop the UAE Rainbow Six: Siege Major in 2022 – Sign the Petition. https://t.co/89Re6hBizS pic.twitter.com/b6LBV4E8Zf
Others have questioned Ubisoft for making Siege diverse as a game, with openly gay characters like Flores, only to make decisions like these.
Many in the Siege esports community commented on the above posts and elsewhere on social media, with several rallying around Siege talent and publicly supporting them.
The UAE Major will be a Stage 2 Major, while Ubisoft is also planning a Stage 1 Major in the US in May, and a Stage 3 Major in Asia towards the end of the year, in November 2022.
The news comes one month after ESL and FaceIT were acquired by Savvy Gaming Group (SGG), which is 100% owned by Saudi Arabian government. This drew similar criticism from pockets of the esports community for Saudi’s human rights record.
Ubisoft also said it has “hopes of welcoming back fans on-site for each and every [international event], following strict sanitary measures”.
“We are designing those events to cater to a live audience while monitoring closely the evolution of the pandemic to take the appropriate actions, should the situation require it, to continue ensuring the health and safety of our players, fans, staff, and partners,” Ubisoft added in this blog post on the Rainbow Six esports year 7 roadmap.
For upcoming Six Invitational events, these will leave Montreal from 2024. For next year, Ubisoft is “still looking at different options, with all cards on the table” for 2023.
Ubisoft also announced that the Rainbow Six World Cup has been delayed to 2023. This was initially due to take place in 2021, but was delayed to 2022 due to the pandemic and has now been delayed again.
“We truly wish to make the Rainbow Six World Cup a unique event for the entire Siege Family to gather and enjoy, and for local communities to share their love, pride and unconditional support for the team that will represent their country or region on the worldwide stage,” Ubisoft said. “As the situation around the pandemic remains uncertain, we have decided to postpone the Rainbow Six World Cup to 2023.”
In other 2022 Rainbow Six esports news, TSM won the Six Invitational today, beating Team Empire 3-1 in the final. UK teams and talent exited the 2022 Six Invitational playoffs a few days ago.
WORLD CHAMPIONS OF THE #SixInvitational 2022
??? @TSM ?? pic.twitter.com/UutpVLPyAC
Season 2022 will get underway on March 9th, with the launch of Stage 1 of the regional leagues in Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America and North America.
During the Six Invitational broadcast, Ubisoft and members of the team and community paid tribute to caster Michael ‘KiXSTAr’ Stockley who passed away in October 2021.
KiXSTAr’s parents were featured on the broadcast:
Thank you, Michael. For everything. pic.twitter.com/AO9Y3mCWNB
On behalf of the entire Rainbow Six community, we would like to thank you for this moving moment. pic.twitter.com/l7iu2F5Vz4
There is a longer clip paying tribute to KiXSTAr here, and Ubisoft also paid a separate tribute to KiXSTAr by adding a plaque on the Presidential Plane map in-game.
Elsewhere, Ubisoft announced that with the game’s Year 7 Season 2 release, three additional observer slots will be added to custom online games, meaning that a total of four dedicated observer slots will be available.
The camera will also be able to be detached, showing an operator’s point of view during a match to put it anywhere on the map, providing new angles for viewers.
Furthermore, Ubisoft is also looking to make replays accessible during an entire game season, and adding a feature that will allow players to select and report suspicious players while watching a replay.
The news and reaction comes after Ubisoft revealed Rainbow Six Siege’s Year 7 Season 1 (Y7S1) details. Operation Demon Veil will introduce a new map set in Ireland, a perma Team Deathmatch mode and new Japanese operator Azami, among other additional features.
Dom is an award-winning writer who graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV as well as Riot Games and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Association up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and as an esports consultant helping brands and businesses better understand the industry.
You can follow Esports News UK on Twitter, Facebook, Discord and YouTube, and get the latest updates from the Esports News UK RSS feed.
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