Siege’s UK Ireland Nationals (UKIN) returns, offering a pathway to the Northern Premier League from Insomnia, Epic.LAN, NSE, NUEL, Gamerfest & open qualifiers

Ubisoft UK has today announced the next season of the UK Ireland Nationals (UKIN) in Rainbow Six Siege.

Coming in January 2023, the UKIN will now serve as the proving ground for up-and-coming UK and Irish teams to improve and earn a spot in the Northern Premier League (NPL).

The news was made during an announcement stream on the Rainbow Six Siege NPL channel today.

UKIN aims to ‘create an ecosystem that players of all skills can use to reach their full potential and create an easy defined path for Rainbow Six Esports in the UK and Ireland’.

For this season, Ubisoft UK has partnered with multiple grassroots tournaments across the UK and Ireland to create more player opportunities and highlight the strong competitive scene. For example, as well as the open qualifiers, teams will have a chance to qualify for UKIN via Insomnia69 and Epic.LAN 37, as well as Gamerfest Rainbow Six Siege Ireland Open and university tournaments NSE British University Esports Championship R6S Winter 2022 and NUEL Rainbow Six Siege University League: Winter 2022.

Following the open qualifiers, the UKIN tournament will take place from early January to February. For this, there will be a single round robin group stage supporting two playdays a week (seven group playdays and two playoff days).

The top team from this season will claim a relegation spot in the next Northern Premier League season with the runner-up earning a spot in the NPL relegation playoffs. In addition, the top four teams will receive a part of the £2,500 prize pool.

For the spring 2023 season, Ubisoft UK will be running two open qualifiers in December. Sign-ups are live right now – link to follow.

UKIN 2023 Season Dates

• Qualifier 1 – 3^rd + 4th December 2022
• Qualifier 2 – 17^th + 18^th December 2022
• Playday 1 – Tuesday 10^th January 2023
• Playday 2 – Wednesday 11^th January 2023
• Playday 3 – Tuesday 17^th January 2023
• Playday 4 – Wednesday 18^th January 2023
• Playday 5 – Tuesday 24^th January 2023
• Playday 6 – Wednesday 25^th January 2023
• Playday 7 – Tuesday 31^st January 2023
• Playoffs – Saturday and Sunday 4^th – 5^th February 2023

Related article: Rainbow Six Siege Northern Premier League playoffs teams confirmed

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.