A prominent North American esports organisation Evil Geniuses announced their departure from Rainbow Six Siege competitive scene, shortly after it was unveiled they will not be participating in the Rainbow Six Siege Pro League.

The shock announcement of Evil Geniuses' exodus from the R6S competitive landscape comes shortly after it was revealed Luminosity Gaming won't be attending Rainbow Six Siege Pro League, and have also declared their departure from the scene, effectively meaning R6S lost two of the most exciting teams.

Evil Geniuses' announcement was a huge shock for both fans and their rivals alike, as no one expected their abrupt departure from the competitive R6S scene. The North American organisation cited "grand plans for world domination" are moving them into a different direction, which might suggest EG will put more focus on their League of Legends and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive projects, with some speculations suggesting EG will look to build a squad for the upcoming Riot Games' tactical FPS title VALORANT.

“Today we say farewell to Rainbow Six Siege as we exit the game,” read the announcement.

“We are extremely grateful to all of our players for their hard work and are proud of the success they brought to Evil Geniuses and their true embodiment of the #LIVEEVIL lifestyle.”

A Prominent Rainbow Six Siege insider, R6Leakers, claimed that EG's decision was ushered after by a standstill with Pro League organisers, who asked the team to relocate from their home headquarters in Seattle to Las Vegas for the upcoming season, which did not sit well with EG, who were not committed to relocation at this time.

"EG was not committed to relocating from their home base in Seattle to Las Vegas and LG was not committed to their Rainbow Six team," said R6Leakers.

Currently, Evil Geniuses are working on finding a new home for their now-former members in Nathan "nvK" Valenti, Austin "Yung" Trexler, Ammar "Necrox" Albanna, Morquis "Modigga" Hribar and Julio "Spades" Cesar, who are now out of job and left without an organisation to represent in the upcoming NAPL season.

"We want to reach out and thank you, from the bottom of our hearts, for being a part of the Pro League saga these past four years," read Rainbow Six Siege's announcement.

"We also want to thank all the organisations and teams who have been with us on this journey to grow the Pro League with your talent and dedication. Of all the amazing organisations who have competed, we want to extend a special thanks to Evil Geniuses, Luminosity and Reciprocity — and it's with a heavy heart for us to confirm they won't be joining us for the next chapter of Rainbow Six Esports."

Rainbow Six Siege also unveiled some big plans for the future, which will change the competitive R6S landscape forever. As revealed R6S is looking to partner up with some of the organisations, while they’re also planning on introducing designated transfer windows, which will provide additional stability of the league.

"We also want to clarify some details on our upcoming US Division. This will be one of the most significant investments into Rainbow Six Esports in North Amerca to date and we're currently in discussion to partner with teams that both support our community and, more importantly, can provide their players with the financial stability to perform at the top of their game."

"Going forward, these invited organisations will have the right to compete in the US Divisions and free to choose their starting roster at the beginning of the 2020 Season.

"During the season, there will be designated transfer windows and rules related to player rosters to provide an additional framework for our teams."

After the official announcement, Evil Geniuses' former captain nvK spoke out against Ubisoft, expressing his dissatisfaction with the direction they're taking R6S esports scene.

"This is in no way anyone’s fault but Ubi’s," nvK said in his Twitlonger post.

"Big organizations are the reason this game has so much success and why the e-sports scene has grown so much. They’re chasing the big organizations away and this is the most vague statement to try and clean up the mess they made."

He went on to state that they [EG] had many talks with organisations and from what he understood most of the other esports teams want nothing to do wit R6S due to the way Ubisoft have been running things. NvK stated that it's not only Ubisoft's system that is terrible, but he also spoke out about poor communication, which was already addressed by ex-Luminosity Gaming member Kian "Hyena" Mozayani, in his Twitlonger rant after it was revealed Luminosity will no longer compete in R6S scene.

Evil Geniuses began their journey into the R6S scene on November 10, 2017 when they acquired the roster of Continuum, which consisted of Troy "Canadian" Jaroslawski, Brandon "BC" Carrm, Necrox, nvK and Yung.

The newly formed team saw immediate success in their first year competing in R6S, by claiming a silver medal at Six Invitational 2018, to which they added runners-up finishes at Pro League Season 7 – North America, DreamHack Austin 2018, Six Major Paris 2018, as well as gold medals from OGA PIT Season 1 – North America and Pro League Season 8 – North America. EG continued with strong performances into 2019, where they picked up silver medal from Pro League Season 9 – Finals, a fourth-place finish at DreamHack Montreal 2019, and a bronze medal from Pro League Season 10 – North America. Unfortunately, they failed to see much success in their journeys through Six Invitational 2019, Six Major Raleigh 2019 and United States Nationals 2019, where they finished fifth-eight, ninth-.12th and fifth-eight respectively.

Most recently EG competed at Pro League Season 11 – North America, where they failed to make much noise, as they finished at the bottom of the standings with an underwhelming 2-3-9 record. During their venture through Pro League Season 11 – North America, EG picked up stalemates against Team Reciprocity, Tempo Storm and eUnited, but failed to defeat DarkZero Esports (2-7), Luminosity (3-7), Team SoloMid (4-7) and Spacestation Gaming (3-7).

Despite their less-than-inspiring results in recent months, EG's core is determined to stay together, meaning they will remain free agents as a bundle, which will give any esports organisation, which wishes to field a complete Rainbow Six Siege roster a chance to pick it up with one clean swoop.

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Luminosity Gaming's Rainbow Six Siege team has accused the game developer Ubisoft of preventing them from continuing to compete in the Pro League following LG's decision to exit the league.

The story first surfaced on Tuesday, April 14, when Kian "Hyena" Mozayani made a Twitter post, explaining the situation he and his team have found themselves in, while also claiming that Luminosity Gaming's Rainbow Six Siege team is apparently being held back from competing by Ubisoft. All this comes just before the rumoured LAN R6S league Ubisoft are currently working on launching.

"Roughly 3 weeks ago, we were told that LG would be releasing us since they could not come to an agreement with Ubisoft regarding the upcoming LAN league," said Hyena in his Twitlonger post.

"Over the course of these 3 weeks (during the season) we practised and played our matches not knowing if we would have a spot in pro league next season. Throughout this whole period, LG and Ubisoft re-entered negotiations without our knowledge (up until recently) and they fell through again."

Hyena went on to explain Ubisoft supposedly delayed their meetings multiple times, thus leaving LG's roster in the dark, not knowing whether they should pack up and leave their team house or stay for the competition. This led to quite a frustrating situation, as the team wanted to get answers as soon as possible, seeing how their home cities were being put on lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, meaning that there was a chance they could not return home.

Hyena continued by explaining that he tried contacting a number of people at Ubisotf, in a bid to get a response, but to no avail, as he was supposedly told that they were not able to help as they did not know whether Hyena and his teammates would be traded to another team before the league arrives, which effectively meant they could have their career put on hold.

During his rant, Hyena also took his time to call out Ubisoft Esports Director Robb Chiarini, who Hyena describes as "grossly unfit to be an esports director" while pointing out he is surprised Mr Chiarini kept his position after his less-than-inspiring work with the For Honor and Brawlhala esports scenes, which are both "dead".

"Having your name associated with two failed competitive scenes, one would assume that Ubisoft wouldn't give this clown an even bigger game to fuck up, but I am surprised by this company’s decisions every day! Both in game and out," added Hyena.

On a more positive note, Hyena called out Lisa Marie, the Esports Community Manager at Ubisoft, who as stated by the American R6S pro did a phenomenal job helping him and his team and did her "absolute best within the confines of her job description" while being the only Ubisoft's employee that cared about the situation and LG's team's future.

Hyena ended his rant by listing his team's accomplishments in a bid to get attention from other esports organisations who would sign the roster, which has now found itself stranded in Las Vegas and out of job.

Some of the accomplishments Luminosity Gaming achieved were a successful run through qualifiers for Pro League, where they ended up pocketing a fourth-place finish, a fourth-place finish at OGA PIT Season 3, fifth-eighth at United States Nationals 2019 and the appearance of the grand final at the invite qualifiers, where they lost a close best-of-five (Bo5) match against Spacestation Gaming, who ended winning the whole thing.

"Obviously placing 6th this season is less than ideal but given our mindset and lack of certainty regarding our spot going into the second split, I think we did alright. But last time I checked, placing 6th is out of the relegation zone and keeps you your pro league spot."

Hyena's rant sent the R6S community in a frenzy with masses of people showing their dissatisfaction with Ubisoft and namely their Esports Director Mr Chiarini. The two-time world champion Niclas "Pengu" Mouritzen added his two pennies and stated that "now is the time for LG/Ubisoft to come out clean and explain [the current situation] in full."

R6Leakers, a prominent and reliable source of Rainbow Six Siege esports rumours, roster moves and information spoke about the LG's situation, stating that LG refused to pay in to the next season due to the "performance relative to cost", while also adding that Evil Genuises' roster could be the next team to not be involved in the Pro League.

"Not mentioned in Hyena's earlier post is that both Luminosity and Evil Geniuses chose to not be in Pro League. Ubisoft planned on both being a part of the ten team pro league, with both Soniqs and Disrupt joining them," read R6Leakers post.

"Both organizations chose to not continue their partnership with R6 – rumoured to be EG due to relocation, LG due to performance relative to cost – Ubisoft could not revert their decision to go to a LAN league, leaving both of these rosters unable to sustain the cost without an org"

Ubisoft have yet to respond to Hyena's Twitlonger post nor did they make any official statements about the whole situation involving Luminosity Gaming, however, given all the backlash the game developer is getting, their hand may be forced to make an official statement to address the issue sometime soon.

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Giants Gaming Rainbow Six Siege roster has been acquired by Rogue earlier this Monday after the organization's North American roster disbanded. With that announcement, Rogue has confirmed their return to the R6S scene and are already competing in the European R6S Pro League Season 11, where they secured their first win on day one.

There were a lot of speculations whether it will happen or not and it seems like Rogue were waiting until the last moment to unveil they are returning to the Rainbow Six Siege scene with a new roster.

Rogue's new Rainbow Six Siege roster will consist of four ex-Giants Gaming members Théophile "Hicks" Dupont, Valentin "risze" Liradelfo, Maurice "AceeZ" Erkelenz, and Lukas "korey" Zwingmann, who will be joined by a former Natus Vincere player Jan "ripz" Hucke. Ripz will replace Léo "Alphama" Robine who left Giants Gaming in December to join with eUnited where he will compete in the North American League.

https://twitter.com/Rogue/status/1214192565672656898

In the official announcement, Rogue's founder and president Franklin Villarreal expressed his excitement for the new signings, stating he is happy his organization found such a talented and consistent roster.

"Rogue has always been a believer in R6S and we wanted to continue to show our commitment to the scene. After North American relegations there wasn't much time to make any decisions before things started being decided for us by outside forces. We worked quickly to secure the best possible future for Rogue in Rainbow Six and we have done it with this roster. I can't wait to see what they can achieve with our infrastructure and support," said Villarreal.

While an exceptional addition for Rogue, what makes the whole ordeal even more exciting is the fact that Rogue unveiled their signing just a couple of hours ahead of the start of European Pro League S11.

Looking back at Giant's roster performances in 2019, they finished second in Season 9 of Pro League Europe and made it to top eight in the season finals. The team also finished runner-up at Allied Minor and DreamHack Valencia 2019, fifth-eighth at Six Major Raleigh and second in season 10 of Pro League Europe.

Risze and co. concluded last season with a fifth-eighth place finish at S10 Pro League Finals after losing to Aerwolf in the quarterfinals.

The signing of Giant’s roster will mark the return of Rogue into the R6S scene after they dropped their North American roster, which suffered a painful relegation to the Challenger League last season.

Out of their old NA R6S roster, Oliver "Slashug" Spencer left for Luminosity Gaming, Tyler "Exl9pse" McMullin left for DarkZero Esports and Franklyn "VertcL" Cordero left for Team Reciprocity. The two remaining members Aaron "Shuttle" Dugger and Kevin "Easilyy" Skokowski both remained with the team until this Monday when they got released, to make room for the new arrivals.

"After North American relegations there wasn’t much time to make any decisions before things started being decided for us by outside forces,” said Villarreal.

“We worked quickly to secure the best possible future for Rogue in Rainbow Six and we have done it with this roster.”

The signing of Giants Gaming roster will mark a new era for Rogue and their Rainbow Six Siege venture, which started back in 2017, during Year 2, when they signed Vertical Gaming roster.

Later in 2018, Rogue finishes third-fourth at Six Invitational 2018, won the NA Pro League Season 7 and finished third-fourth in Season 7 Pro League Finals. Later down the line, Rogue also finished top-three in DreamHack Austin 2018, Six Major Paris 2018, DreamHack Montreal 2018 and won the United States Nationals 2018, which established them as one of the strongest NA teams in the scene.

Despite their dominant run in 2018, however, Rogue struggled to recapture their form in 2019. Their performances worsened throughout the year and while they did manage to win DreamHack Valencia 2019 in July, Rogue ultimately faced relegation, which sent the organization out of the Pro League and into the Challenger League.

Suffice to say, Rogue's ambition for 2020 is to recapture their success from 2018, and while they are now fielding a completely new roster, which competes in a different region, Rogue have all the right to look ahead with confidence, as they secured one of the most promising European rosters, which should will help Rogue relive their glory days.

Rogue already made their debut in the Pro League Season 11 – Europe this Monday, when they defeated Chaos Esports Club 7-5, and are now getting ready to clash with Natus Vincere later on Wednesday in the second playday of the season.

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After the recent Major completion in Raleigh, Ubisoft has announced that the new season of Rainbox 6 Siege will be coming, known as Ember Rise, and in it, there are a bunch of new changes including a trimmed map pool and a Champions rank.

People have often spoken about the competitive map pool rotation in R6 and it seems that Ubisoft is listening. The Year 4 Season 3 update with Ember Rise will see Fortress, Hereford Base and Theme Park all get the axe. Shockingly, as fun as the Hereford Base redesign was, the community was clear that it wasn’t a fan favorite.

Ubisoft has said that a Theme Park redesign is in the works, so it only makes sense that it’s going to be removed now. Hopefully they’ll do a better job on this than Hereford Base, since the Kafe rework was a fantastic change when it was made recently with the introduction of Phantom Sight. Kanal will also be back in the map pool with Ember Rise.

The new Champions rank will also be introduced with Operation Ember Rise, and it will be the new tier of competitive ranking that will sit above Diamond. If you were to map out MMR ratings from start to finish, Diamond appears to be up to 5000, with Champions beyond that. The rankings have gone from Copper to Gold, all having four different classes in each from I to IV. From there, players could move up to Platinum I to III, and finally into Diamond. The new Champion rank will sit above that.

In addition to new ranks and map pool rotations, Rainbow Six Siege will also be getting a battle pass which is scheduled to release alongside Ember Rise, and thankfully, will start off free.

Players will jump on board with a progression train that will allow them to unlock cosmetics, renown and operator lore. The battle pass will be rolled out in two phases, starting with the free pass. This pass will only last 7 days and will be launched alongside the new operation.

Alexander Karpazis, the Ubisoft Presentation Director said that he is really excited for the Rainbow Six battle pass.

"Our intentions behind it is to reward players more than ever playing our game, and also to provide a progression they can work through whenever they're playing”, he said.

The mini battle pass named “Call Me Harry” will be short and have 7 days in which to progress through the 7 tiers. As you play, you unlock tiers and rewards so the more you play, the more you earn. When you complete the first phase of the battle pass, you’ll get the unique Chibi.

Phase two will come with the season 4 update and will feature 2 tracks in progression, one for free, and one premium. You progress through both by earning points whether you choose to unlock the premium pass or not. No word yet on how much this will cost, but Ember Rise will be live on test servers on 19 August.

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This weekend saw the conclusion of the Six Major Raleigh 2019, the second major Rainbow Six tournament of 2019, with Team Empire emerging as the winner. Sixteen teams went head to head in a double elimination bracket between 12 and 14 August, which left the top two from each group going up against each other in the Playoffs.

Team Empire and G2 Esports had some really impressive runs from the group stages. They were placed in Groups A and B respectively, and both topped their group by a reasonable margin. Empire kicked off their group stages going up against Team SoloMid (TSM), and actually lost their first game on Kafe Dostoyevsky 5-7. Empire ended up rallying together through and closed the series off 2-1, winning games on Clubhouse and then Border.

Empire’s second match saw them take MIBR in a 2-0 clean sweep, beating them on Bank and Clubhouse. These two wins was enough to put Empire at the top of the group, which meant that TSM had to beat nR and MIBR to take the second spot in the group. Team Empire finished with a score of 33-17, an impressive round difference of +16.

G2 Esports didn’t want to be outdone though and showed that +18 is a far better map difference. G2 hurried their first game along beating CYCLOPS in their first match, winning 7-1 on Villa and 7-3 on Kafe. Following that, they took down Team Secret 7-3, 7-3 on Coastline and Clubhouse. Team Secret finished 2^nd in the group and progressed into the playoff stages.

Along with those four teams from Group A and B, Spacestation Gaming and Giants Gaming came through from Group C, and forZe and FaZe Clan came through from Group D to make up the full list of playoff teams. In the quarter final stages, forZe, G2 and Team Secret took down their opponents in 2-0 clean sweeps, while Empire had to battle away at FaZe Clan, managing to beat them 2-1.

Proving that everyone was there to play, Team Empire then had another closely contested semi-final, as they went up against Team Secret, beating them 2-1 too. G2 Esports progressed to the finals by taking down forZe 2-0.

As the best-of-five finals approached, Empire had a good start to their final match by winning 7-5 on Border. G2 then had a fantastic reply on Kafe, winning 8-6, taking the match into overtime. Empire’s determination shone through in the third map and allowed them to win on Clubhouse, beating G2 7-5, which then seemed to shatter the spirits of the team, allowing Empire to win the final 3-1, with the final map, Coastline, ending 7-3 in Empire’s favor.

Team Empire walked away as the winner of the Major, taking home a prize purse of $200,000, with second place, G2 Esports, grabbing $80,000 for themselves. If you have a look at the match history for the Russian outfit, Team Empire, it’s not really a surprise how they performed so well. They have been taking first place in many recent competitions including the Pro League Season 9 Finals, the Russian Major League and the ESL Euro Cup in 2018. They lost out to G2 Esports in the Six Invitational 2019 at the beginning of the year, where G2 took them down in a 3-0 clean sweep. So I guess you could say that the teams are now even.

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