After a breath-taking Six Invitational 2022 which concluded the Rainbow Six Esports Year 6 and saw TSM FTX crowned World Champions, players and fans now turn to the start of the 2022 Season.

Teams competing at the highest level across Asia-Pacific, Europe, North America and Latin-America will battle it out once again for regional dominion, for a spot at the next Six Major in May, and to score points in the Global Standings in hopes of qualifying for the Six Invitational 2023.

As we prepare to enter a new season, read on below for an update on the competitive calendar for Stage 1, the updates on the map pool and operator pool, the new attacker repick feature, and details on Twitch Drops for the Regional Leagues.

COMPETITIVE CALENDAR

Once again, the 2022 Season will be divided into 3 Stages, each concluded by a Six Major. Through their performance in the Regional Leagues during each stage, teams will have a chance to qualify for the corresponding Six Major, as well as score points in the Global Standings in the race towards a qualification to the Six Invitational 2023.

ASIA-PACIFIC LEAGUE

For the 2022 season, each Asia-Pacific League Division - North and South - will run for 6 weeks, with the first two weeks having 2 playdays, and the remaining 5 weeks having one playday per week, to the exception of Stage 1, that has been slightly altered to cater to the delay of the regional leagues' kick-off. (see Stage 1 calendars below)

• For the North Division, playdays will take place on Wednesdays. The first two weeks will have two playdays, on Wednesday and Friday.
• For the South Division, playdays will take place on Thursdays. The first two weeks will have two playdays, on Thursday and Saturday.

Each stage will conclude with the Asia-Pacific League Playoffs, which will run for 3 weeks and decide the 4 teams from the region to qualify for the Six Major at the end of the stage.

Stage 1 of the Asia-Pacific League will kick off on March 16 for the North Division and March 17 for South Division.

LATIN-AMERICAN LEAGUE

As for previous years, the Latin-American League will host 3 divisions with the Brazil Division, the Mexico Division, and the LATAM South Division. The Brazil Division will be streamed in Portuguese, and we are looking into working with community streamers to cast the Brazil Division in English. The Mexico Division and LATAM South Division will be streamed in Spanish.

The Brazil Division will run for 4 weeks, with playdays happening on Saturdays and Sundays, except for Week 4, which will have 3 playdays on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.  

The Mexico and Latam South Division will run for 3 weeks, with playdays happening on Saturdays and Sundays for Mexico and Thursday and Friday for the South Division.

Tune in for the start of Stage 1 of the LATAM South on March 23, Brazil and Mexico division on March 26.

NORTH AMERICAN LEAGUE

The North American League will have 9 playdays over 5 weeks of competition, with 2 playdays per week, on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, except for the final week, which will have only one playday on Wednesday.

Tune in for the start of Stage 1 of the North American league on March 29.

Stay tuned for detailed League updates in the coming days, including competitive formats, participating teams and where to watch.

EUROPEAN LEAGUE

The competition will kick off on March 28th and will have 9 playdays over 5 weeks of competition.

MAP POOL

For the 2022 season, the map pool will increase from 7 to 9 maps, with Coastline being replaced from the full list.

Please find below the complete map pool for Stage 1:

• BANK
• CHALET
• CLUBHOUSE
• KAFE
• OREGON
• VILLA
• BORDER - NEW
• SKYSCRAPER - NEW
• THEME PARK - NEW

OPERATOR POOL

Thorn is now playable in official matches.

ATTACKER REPICK

The 2022 season of Rainbow Six Esports will see the removal of the 6^th pick feature and its replacement by the Attacker repick feature introduced with Y7S1 of the game. Throughout the preparation phase of each round, Attackers will be able to repick their operators and loadouts as many times as they want.

TWITCH DROPS

Twitch Drops are back for the 2022 season! Tune in online on our channels and earn Twitch Drops for Stage 1 of the Regional Leagues. Duplicate drops are no longer possible, and Battlepoints will be available to help you complete each seasonal BattlePass.

Drops will be enabled on all official streams of the European, North American, Asia-Pacific (South and North Division), and Latin American leagues.

Here is the content for the Drops for this season

Time watched

Viewers will receive a pack for every 4 hours watched, with a weekly cap of 2 packs per viewer. Please note, that the watch time will not be carried on from one week to another.

Here are the details on how to redeem them

Register your account by heading over to https://drops-register.ubi.com and link your Twitch account to your Ubisoft account. You will then be prompted to opt into the drops feature. Please make sure that your account is linked before you tune in to the broadcast.

All drops will need to be claimed manually. You can track all the Drops progression on the Inventory page https://www.twitch.tv/drops/inventory. When the Drops condition is reached, you will need to click on the "Claim" button in the Inventory page to claim the reward and continue the progression towards the next reward. Please note that the "Claim" button will be available only 24 hours after the end of the campaign (the final playday of Stage 1). The delivery of claimed items will usually be done 48 hours after the end of the Stage.

More information: Twitch Drops are activated for all five platforms the game is currently available on: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. You do not currently need to own Rainbow Six Siege to be able to earn drops. If you have your Twitch account linked to your Ubisoft account, and your Ubisoft account has been linked with your console accounts or PC, then you will receive the items when you login for the first time after installing.

STAY IN TOUCH

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