Rainbow Six Siege’s US nationals are kicking off next week!

The second season of the US Nationals in Rainbow Six is back, much anticipated by both fans and players alike. It is set to kick off in just over a week – on April 6^th to be precise. The premier esports program for Rainbow Six in the US, it serves as a platform for the best players of the country.

© Ubisoft

This second season’s prize pool has been increased from last season too – now an impressive $156.000 make up the overall winnings. The team that takes the title gets to call themselves Team USA 2019 – but first they have to make it through the qualifiers, tournaments and stages leading up to the finals in December. The first stage and qualifiers are taking place in April – Saturdays are open qualifier days, and they will see tournaments that any US team can enter and compete in. Each of the Conferences as they’re called will see the top ten placing teams coming back a week later to play in a live broadcast showcase until only one team remains – that team gets to move on to the next stage.

Unsurprisingly, the US will be split halfway, into Eastern and Western regions. With two broadcasting days per week, the Eastern Conferences will compete on Thursdays while the Western ones compete on Tuesdays. The R6USN finals in December will be made up of the teams that successfully make their way through the stages. The top four teams of either region will play in a semi-final and final round prior to moving on to the ‘final’ finals.

With three qualifier stages plus a wildcard qualifier later in the year, teams have a total of four chances to qualify and then compete for the title of Team USA 2019. A total of eight teams will face off in the final competition, three from each of the two region’s three stages and one wildcard team from each region.

© Ubisoft

Given the nature of the competition, it’s no surprise that fans are gearing up to go already – open qualifiers mean that any team can compete as long as they sign up and attend the tournaments, and there are plenty of dedicated teams and players that would love to either go pro or at least net themselves some decent pocket money. If you are waiting for the Wildcard qualifier, you’ll be waiting quite a bit though – it will take place in October, and fans are expecting it to shake things up quite a bit.

All in all, for a game that flew well under the radar for quite some time after release, Siege is one of the best esports comeback stories we’ve seen so far – it managed to snap back from relative obscurity and amassed a good-sized following that is still growing – Ubisoft is actually doing quite a good job of supporting the game throughout its slow start and eventual improvement to a developed esport.

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