Ubisoft UK has today announced a new Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege esports league: the UK Ireland Nationals Second Division.
Ubisoft’s new programme aims to help up-and-coming esports teams progress to the main national league and beyond. This season will support 10 emerging teams.
Each of these four grassroots competitions will qualify one team directly into the UK Ireland Nationals Second Division: NSE, The NUEL, epic.LAN and GAME Digital (which operates Belong Arenas).
Two teams will be relegated from the first division of the UK Ireland Nationals in Summer 2020. For the remaining four team spots, players will be able to take part in open qualifiers for a chance to join the UK Ireland Second Division.
“We are really looking forward to the new program kicking off and giving aspiring professional esports teams a chance to qualify for the UK Ireland Nationals.”
Will Attwood, Ubisoft UK
Ubisoft will announce the winning teams from the partner tournaments in October.
The open qualifiers for the remaining four teams will then take place on October 17th and 18th. Then, on October 19th, Ubisoft will announce the final 10 teams taking part in the new UK Ireland Nationals Second Division.
The UK Ireland Nationals Second Division will kick off from November 5th. The teams will compete across a 5-week season, with two play days a week. These will take place on Thursdays and Saturdays, with 10 play days planned in total.
At the end of the season, the top four teams will enter a final bracket, with the winner of each match joining the UK Ireland Nationals Spring Season 2021. All the other teams will have the chance to qualify for the next season of UK Ireland Nationals Second Division, through their chosen route.
Will Attwood, Esports Marketing Manager at Ubisoft UK, said: “We are really looking forward to the new program kicking off and giving aspiring professional esports teams a chance to qualify for the UK Ireland Nationals. I wish all the teams good luck!”
Further reading: Rainbow 6 Siege interview with Ubisoft’s Will Attwood: ‘With the National Leagues now connected to the European and global scenes, the stakes are now so much higher for everyone’
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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.
