ESL UK and Ubisoft increase prize pool for Rainbow Six Premiership as Team Secret step away

The ESL Rainbow Six Premiership is returning to the Bowlers Exhibition Centre in Manchester with nearly double its previous prize pool.

The UK and Ireland tournament kicks off on October 16th with more support from the game’s developer, Ubisoft, who have announced a £20,000 prize pool for the Winter Season.

This makes the ESL Premiership the biggest Rainbow Six esports tournament outside of Premier and Major competitions.

As a result of this, the talent participating in the ESL Premiership have the opportunity to grow and be noticed by international organisations, like in the case of the former MnM roster, who have now been picked up by world-renowned Navi. 

The news comes as Team Secret (pictured) step away to pursue international competitions. This leaves Natus Vincere, the current champions, to defend their title, and an open spot in the top flight for the next generation of UK and Ireland talent. Fierce Esports’ new roster will compete alongside ESSENCE, ‘Soon to be named’ and ‘Looking for org’, with the final three teams set to qualify on September 24th.

The ESL Premiership Winter Season 2019 will begin on October 16th with its first two playdays, and will continue for three weeks, with two playdays a week. After this, there will be one playday for a week, before the Play-Offs on November 13th.

Closing out this season will be the live finals back in Manchester in the Bowlers Exhibition Centre on November 23rd.

The ESL Prem RB6 2019 Spring Season Final took place in Bowlers Exhibition Centre, and the Winter Final will be returning to Manchester for an encore. Tickets for the live finals will be live from September 24th from 10am. 

The Summer Season Final took place in Leicester, the original home of the ESL Premiership, but instead of the ESL Studio One, it took place in De Montfort University’s The Venue.

Fans of the title were able to acquire Rainbow Six Siege merchandise including T-shirts from the developers, team merchandise from the finalists and other international favourites, and pins of Operators provided by The Koyo Store.

Viewers can tune in to twitch.tv/rainbowsix_uk  at 7pm UK time on Wednesday and Thursday evenings, commencing October 16th, and every Wednesday and Thursday after.

Dom Sacco

Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He 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 and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.