Tomorrow, Tuesday, the big Six Invitational 2022 starts! The most important and largest Rainbow Six Siege e-sports tournament of the year begins. A total of 20 teams, divided into four groups, will be in the game. Due to the current Covid restrictions, the organizers had to move the competition to Sweden, Stockholm. Until January 14, the plan was still to hold the tournament in Quebec, Canada, this year.

In addition to the highly competitive and nerve-wracking e-sports competition, the community also awaits the presentation of plans for the seventh year Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege. Content related to the Six Invitational 2022 can also be seen on the channels of selected creators and streamers.

As in previous years, the 2022 Road to S.I. Battle Pass will offer exclusive rewards for the 2022 Six Invitational. A portion of all net proceeds from the Battle Pass will go directly into the competition’s prize pool, up to a cap of $3,000,000, Ubisoft explains. Any amount over the $3 million cap will be redistributed to support the Rainbow Six Esports Circuit for the 2022 – Season , it added.

Six Invitational 2022 schedule

Basically, the Six Invitational 2022 is divided into three phases. Tomorrow, Tuesday, February 8, 2022, the first of the three chapters will start: the group phase. This extends until Saturday, February 12. The playoffs will then continue from February 14 to 16 and from February 18 to 20. The grand final will finally take place on Sunday, February 20, 2022.

Since the games in the group stage and in the playoffs will be played partly at the same time, there will be two streams each from February 8 to 15, so you can follow every single game in the livestream. The first matches of the group phase will start at 10 am. However, there will not be a real “opening match”, because Soniqs will meet Team Empire and Ninjas in Pyjamas will meet Sandbox Gaming at the same time.

SI 2022: All groups at a glance

As mentioned briefly above, a total of 20 teams will participate in the 2022 Six Invitational. These are divided into groups A to D, where they will play out their placements in a single round in a best-of-3 format. Only the lowest-ranked team from each group will be eliminated. The top four teams in each group will advance to the playoffs.

For a 2:0 win in the best-of-3 there are three points, for a 2:1 win there are two more points. For a 1-2 loss, the losing team is awarded one more point. No points are awarded for a 0:2 defeat.

Group A

• Ninjas in Pyjamas (Latin America)
• Soniqs (North America)
• Team Empire (Europe)
• SANDBOX GAMING (Asia-Pacific)
• MNM Gaming (Europe)

Group B

• Team Liquid (Latin America)
• FaZe Clan (Latin America)
• Spacestation Gaming (North America)
• Rogue (Europe)
• Cyclops athlete gaming (Asia-Pacific)

Group C

• Team BDS (Europe)
• Elevate (Asia-Pacific)
• DarkZero Esports (North America)
• FURIA Esports (Latin America)
• Team SoloMid / TSM FTX (North America)

Group D

• Team oNe Esports (Latin America)
• Oxygen Esports (North America)
• Natus Vincere (Europe)
• DWG KIA (Asia-Pacific)
• MIBR (Latin America)

MNM Gaming, Cyclops Gaming, MIBR as well as TSM have made it to the group stage of SI 2022 via the regional qualifiers of the four participating regions. The other 16 teams are in via the overall global championship points ranking.

The first matchday at a glance

The first matchday at SI 2022 is already full of action. A total of eight duels await us, which you can see below, sorted by their start time:

• 10 a.m: Soniqs vs. Team Empire (Group A) – Stream B
• 10:00: Ninjas in Pyjamas vs. SANDBOX GAMING (Group A) – Stream A
• 1:00 pm: Oxygen Esports vs. Natus Vincere (Group D) – Stream B
• 1:00 pm: Team oNe Esports vs. DWG KIA (Group D) – Stream A
• 4:00 pm: Elevate vs. DarkZero Esports (Group C) – Stream B
• 4:00 pm: Team BDS vs. FURIA Esports (Group C) – Stream A
• 7pm: Team FaZe Clan vs. Spacestation Gaming (Group B) – Stream B
• 7pm: Team Liquid vs. Rogue (Group B) – Stream A

The group stage is followed by the playoffs, which are played in a double elimination bracket and also in best-of-3 matches. The winning team from each group qualifies directly for the Upper Bracket of the second playoff phase. The second-place teams from each group, however, are seeded for the Upper Bracket of the first playoff phase, where they will face a third-place team from another group (just not their own). The fourth-place teams will form the lower bracket opponents in the first playoff phase accordingly. Finally, the grand finals will be played in a best-of-5 format, with no map advantage.

Shock news: Many positive Covid tests

Shortly before the start of the tournament, Ubisoft reports a bitter news. Various players have tested positive for Corona before the start of the SI 2022 group stage and after arriving in Sweden. The affected players are e-sports players from Ninjas in Pyjamas, Elevate, Team Empire, Natus Vincere, Oxygen Esports and FURIA Esports.

Those affected are already in isolation to ensure the safety of all involved. Players will remain in isolation as long as security measures require and until a negative test result is available. For some of the affected teams, this result is expected before the start of the tournament, he said.

In case some players have not tested negative even during the first games of their teams, all arrangements are in place for them to train and even participate in the competition even from their hotel rooms, he added. However, all other players of their teams will play the duels at the venue.

SIX INVITATIONAL 2022 | OFFICIAL TRAILER | Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege

The most important streams at a glance

Six Invitational 2022 Twitch Drops

Last but not least, it should be noted that this year you can once again dust off drops for your own Rainbow Six Siege account for diligently watching the Six Invitational 2022 on Twitch. The so-called Esports Packs will be distributed as follows.

From February 8 to 12, you can get Esports Packs according to the following rules:

• Pack 1 after one hour watchtime
• Pack 2 after five hours watchtime
• Pack 3 after nine hours watchtime
• Pack 4 after 13 hours watchtime
• Pack 5 after 17 hours watchtime
• Pack 6 after 21 hours watchtime

From February 14 to 16, you can get up to two packs per day. The first of them after four hours, the second you get after eight hours watched. Also from February 18 to 20, of course, there will be more Rainbow Six Twitch Drops to SI 2022. On February 18 and 19, you can also get up to two packs per day (after three and seven hours of watch time).

On the day of the grand finale, you can get four additional packages to celebrate. During the SI 2022 Finale, you will be credited with these after two, four, seven, and eight hours. The complete item list of the SI 2022 Esports Packs can be found at here read about it.