Rainbow Six Siege will be getting its own ESL UK & Ireland Premiership tournament, with the first season planned to run from January 2018.
The announcement was made amidst the first UK Invitational finals at EGX 2017 on the weekend, where winners Team Enyx scooped the grand prize of £2,500.
We are very excited for 2018 as #RainbowSix joins us for the #ESLPrem! pic.twitter.com/3N7EazY8c0
— ESL UK (@ESLUK) September 23, 2017
The UK’s greatest Rainbow Six Siege players on Xbox One will be joining League of Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Hearthstone on the ESL UK & Ireland Premiership circuit.
Rainbow Six Siege fills the gap that Overwatch left behind; ESL UK quietly scrapped its Overwatch Premiership at the start of this year.
The inaugural Rainbow Six Prem season will consist of the best teams from the ongoing UK Go4 Cups, a weekly grassroots esports tournament that sees aspiring professional players pit their talents against each other for a prize pool of £100 per week.
The announcement comes after some slight hints were made to us by Ubisoft directors in our Rainbow Six Siege esports interview, conducted during the Pro League Finals at Gamescom back in August.
The ESL UK Premiership first began in spring 2015, and since then has seen steady growth and a core, growing fanbase tuning in.
Esports News UK first began covering the UK Prem in late 2015 during season 2 of the League of Legends competition.
Earlier this year, ESL UK repositioned the Premiership to include Irish teams and players, and made tweaks to its prize pools.
It then moved its Prem finals to EGX at the Birmingham NEC.
As announced on stage during the UK Invitational, @ESLUK welcomes @Rainbow6Game to the #ESLPrem as of 2018, we cannot wait to get started! pic.twitter.com/xcVHSOYgWg
— ESL United Kingdom (@ESLUK) September 22, 2017
Further reading: Packet loss problems plague Prem playoffs
Image source: http://en.pro.eslgaming.com/r6/proleague/pc/news/the-esl-premiership-spring-season/
