The ninth Rainbow Six Pro League season – and fourth for APAC - will see the first play days in Asia next week starting on January 16th, 2019.

If there’s anything we learned from the previous season, it’s that APAC is on the rise - with both FNATIC and Nora-Rengo qualifying for the semi-finals of the Season VIII Finals! A milestone for the whole region, becoming a force to be reckoned with at the highest competition level.
Teams like NORA-Rengo and Sengoku Gaming will be an extremely fearsome prospect for any opponent to face in Japan. Australia saw the rise of Athletico, giving a stiff challenge to the local juggernaut FNATIC. Southeast Asia and South Korea has not been left behind, with team like Mantis FPS, Xavier Esports and Aerowolf being regarded as a consistent threat.

Expect an enthralling and tighly contested competition in the four subregions.

Season Format

The format for APAC will run quite similarly to the previous season with a number of key updates.

Teams in each sub region will continue to face off in a round-robin format – however this time the matches will spread across both halves of the season (8 play days prior to the Six Invitational and 6 after). This is a notable change from the compressed format we saw last season where all regular season matches were played prior to the mid-season break.

Another important change is that there is no longer a playoff phase between the top 4 teams of each sub region – a result of play days carrying over to the second half of the season. Instead, the 8 Pro League teams from each sub region will fight for seeding throughout the regular season via the same point system as the previous season - 3 points will be awarded for a win, 1 point for a draw, and 0 for a loss. The top 2 seeded teams at the end of the season will qualify for the APAC LAN Finals in April of 2019. Both of the bottom 2 teams in each sub region will be automatically relegated to Challenger League.

As for the match format, APAC will follow the other Pro League regions. Teams will now play up to six rounds on each side, with up to twelve possible rounds being played during a match. The first team to win seven rounds wins the map. If a score of 6-6 occurs, a tie will be recorded.

Full schedules

Here are the revised schedules for the first half of the season:

Australia-New Zealand

Playday 1: Wednesday, January 16th, 2019

Playday 2: Thursday, January 17th, 2019

Playday 3: Friday, January 18th, 2019

Playday 4: Wednesday, January 23rd, 2019

Playday 5: Thursday, January 24th, 2019

Playday 6: Friday, January 25th, 2019

Playday 7: Wednesday, January 30th, 2019

Playday 8: Thursday, January 31st, 2019

Japan

Playday 1: Wednesday, January 16th, 2019

Playday 2: Thursday, January 17th, 2019

Playday 3: Friday, January 18th, 2019

Playday 4: Wednesday, January 23rd, 2019

Playday 5: Thursday, January 24th, 2019

Playday 6: Friday, January 25th, 2019

Playday 7: Wednesday, January 30th, 2019

Playday 8: Thursday, January 31st, 2019

South Korea

Playday 1: Wednesday, January 16th, 2019

Playday 2: Thursday, January 17th, 2019

Playday 3: Friday, January 18th, 2019

Playday 4: Wednesday, January 23rd, 2019

Playday 5: Thursday, January 24th, 2019

Playday 6: Tuesday, January 29th, 2019

Playday 7: Wednesday, January 30th, 2019

Playday 8: Thursday, January 31st, 2019

Southeast Asia

Playday 1: Wednesday, January 16th, 2019

Playday 2: Thursday, January 17th, 2019

Playday 3: Friday, January 18th, 2019

Playday 4: Wednesday, January 23rd, 2019

Playday 5: Thursday, January 24th, 2019

Playday 6: Friday, January 25th, 2019

Playday 7: Wednesday, January 30th, 2019

Playday 8: Thursday, January 31st, 2019

The Regions

Season IX comes with a mix of classic and fresh new teams for us to see either prevail or fall valiantly.

The Broadcasts

The official APAC Pro League broadcasts will be available on the following channels:

Australia & New Zealand:

• https://www.twitch.tv/Rainbow6ANZ

Japan:

• https://www.twitch.tv/Rainbow6JP

• https://www.youtube.com/Rainbow6JP

South Korea:

• https://www.twitch.tv/Rainbow6KR

Southeast Asia:

• https://www.twitch.tv/Rainbow6HK

• https://www.twitch.tv/Rainbow6TH

• https://www.twitch.tv/Rainbow6TW