Console Creatures spoke with Adam Climan, Ubisoft’s esports communications manager about the company’s Rainbow Six Siege Collegiate Leauge. And we now think we know everything to know about how the league will work.
Back at the start of the week, we told you all about Ubisoft’s latest initiative to help players excel at performing at the top of their game — an possibly even in the pros!
Luke: Adam, first of all, we saw Rainbow Six Siege get a few moments of the spotlight in Ubisoft’s first-ever “Forward” event recently. And it showed off the community and fans of the game. Now that the message has had some time to sink in, describe how it felt to see that?
Adam Climan: It gives us vigour. I wouldn’t say it restores vigour because we’ve had so much of that since we kicked off the program and the NA League. But it was nice to see it at “Forward.”
Luke: So let’s get to why we are talking today: the Rainbow Six Siege Collegiate League. It’s yet another stage of R6S’ path to the pros, only now you are starting early. Collegiate esports is something still very new, so tell me about what Ubisoft wants to do with it?
Adam Climan: We wanted to break into esports at the college level because it’s such a passionate community that we see at these schools. And we always want to build and foster community and passion. We’re doing that this year with the North American League. And we want to complement that with a couple of leagues at the college level. This league is actually going to be the first of its calibre in the world for Rainbow Six. And so we really just want to foster competition at every level.
Luke: There’s a sort of passion and pride behind college esports and just sports in general for that matter. How are you hoping that will translate for R6S?
Adam Climan: Well, you’re right that there’s a lot of passion at the school level. And we’ve actually been talking to schools about how we build on that and how we make this happen because R6S is a community game, right? And we really want to open it up to the community and work with them to make this work. But it’s all about the passion at the end of the day, right? For us, it’s about fostering and providing that with FACEIT and the schools.
Luke: I’m glad that you brought FACEIT up, and I want to talk about that in a moment. I just want to ask about how you plan on making this fair? Some schools and students are better off than others. Some students have more time than others.
Adam Climan: Obviously, we want things to be fair. That’s one of the main pillars of our leagues. And so we’ve actually been working with FACEIT to ensure that we make these tournaments and these leagues fair. Equality is a huge part of this for us. And so we are going to need our partners and our community. We want the community to give us feedback. We want them to tell us what works and what doesn’t.
Luke: FACEIT has come up again, and I guess rightly so. You’ve chosen them to be partners. Why did you decide to go with their platform as opposed to just building your own?
Adam Climan: Great question! FACEIT has been powering our new NA Leauge since we started it. And they’ve been doing just such a great job of being the home for R6S in North America going. But I also want to highlight our other partner in this, if I can? Corsair is helping us with this new league, and they are providing the 30-thousand dollar grand prize, as well as a bunch of extra prizes that students will be able to win. And we really know that we can’t do this alone, so to have partners like FACEIT and Corsair just helps us make this work.
Luke: Let’s talk about how this works. It’s still early days, even though you can sign up right now, but what are the details? There seems to be a lot of those!
Adam Climan: You are right! There are a lot of details that you can find on the FACEIT site. But the way it is going to work is that schools can register a team to play on the site, but it is also open to any student of a post-secondary institution in North America. They can go on the site and join a team that’s there. We are going to have a standard tournament in October, you know, if things with COVID permit. But we also have what we are calling our Rec Leauge, where players who maybe can’t play on those competitive teams or who just want to refine their skills our build their community can play. And Corsair is being great about making sure that there will also be some pretty sweet prizes to win in that league. involvement is critical for us. We Are really proud to be presenting a collegiate league, but we are just as proud to provide the recreational one as well because it will keep our players playing. Even if you feel down, you shouldn’t feel out because there’s a robust collegiate league coming.
Luke: Great! Anything else you want to add?
Adam Climan: I guess just that I am really excited for October, but more so for January. Good luck, guys — go sign up!
