As Blast Rainbow Six (R6) closes its 2024 esports season, fans and players alike look to the changes coming in 2025. New details are here, showing off a new calendar, new regional structure, and more fan content.
The esports calendar is being shaken up a bit for the 2025 competitive season, which was first discussed a few days ago. The first event of the season will be the May LAN Kick-off event in Brazil, which is being renamed Reload. After that, there will be two stages of regional leagues (one from June to July and the next from September to October). August will be a break month with the potential for a third-party event.
A November Major will conclude the season before the December Regional Finals and the Six Invitational Last Chance Qualifiers from December to January. From there, the Six Invitational will take place in February, and it was previously announced that it would take place in Boston.
Arguably the largest change is the restructuring of regions. 2025 will take the nine regions currently in Rainbow Six esports and combine them to make four distinct areas:
- EML (Europe, MENA, and Turkey)
- SAL (South America League): Brazil and South Latin America
- NAL (North America League): North America, Central America, Ecuador, and Columbia
- APL (Asia Pacific League): APAC North (Korea and Japan), Asia (SE and South Asia areas), and Oceania (Australia, New Zealand, Polynesia)
All of the regions will have two stages for regional leagues. There will be a group stage and playoffs, and the winners will go to the Regional Finals. Stage Two will take the top four and send them to the November Major. However, in APL, there will be a Major Qualifications tournament after the Stage Two playoffs to determine what teams go to the November Major.
The R6 Share program is being expanded in 2025 as well. 20 teams are partnering with R6 to bring content to fans. Additionally, an Affiliate Program is being launched for other teams in each region. This gives other teams a chance to benefit from revenue sharing.
To wrap things up, R6 is introducing a new qualification system for Six Invitational. The breakdown looks like this:
- Direct Qualification (9 teams)
- Major Winner (1 team)
- Regional Finals’ Winners (4 teams)
- SI Last Chance Qualifiers’ Winners (4 teams)
- SI Points Qualification (11 teams)
The points will be accumulated during the regional stages, finals, and the Major. This point-based system gives teams that are consistently playing well a chance to make it to SI.
