Ubisoft and BLAST extend Rainbow Six esports deal through 2028/29

Three decisions about the future of Rainbow Six Siege esports arrived together on the last weekend of the Six Invitational 2026 in Paris. Ubisoft, the game's publisher, and BLAST, the tournament organizer that runs its circuit, announced that they have renewed their global partnership. With the renewal came the host countries of the next three world-level events and the entry of China as a fifth region of the competition.

The Esports Advocate reported the announcement on February 14, 2026: BLAST will run the game's global esports ecosystem for three more years, through the end of the 2028-2029 competitive season. Financial terms were not disclosed. Esports Insider, which covered it on February 16, noted that BLAST made the news public on its own account that weekend, ahead of the Six Invitational grand final.

The first agreement between the two companies was signed in 2023. Under it, BLAST runs the game's global esports ecosystem on the publisher's behalf, and the international tournaments carry its name: the two Majors of each season are BLAST R6 Majors. The renewal gives that arrangement a term that covers the next three seasons.

Announcement by BLAST and Ubisoft as reported by The Esports Advocate on February 14, 2026 and Esports Insider on February 16, 2026.

Three more seasons with the same operator

A publisher can run its esports itself or entrust it to a specialist. Ubisoft chose the second road in 2023 and has now confirmed it. According to The Esports Advocate, the renewed partnership covers three years and ends with the 2028-2029 season, the cycle of competition that closes each February with the Six Invitational, the game's world championship.

Esports Insider listed where the first three years took the circuit: Montreal, Manchester, Sao Paulo, Copenhagen and Munich, among other cities. The most recent of those stops, the Munich Major of November 2025, was the first Rainbow Six esports event held in the German city, with 16 teams qualified through their regional leagues and a prize pool of US$750,000, according to the announcement The Esports Advocate reported in May 2025. It ran from November 8 to 16, 2025, in two phases, and only its last three days, from November 14 to 16, were open to spectators.

Robbie Douek, the chief executive of BLAST, is the only executive quoted in the two reports. He said the two companies had worked side by side for three years to raise Rainbow Six esports on a global scale, and called the renewal a natural next step. Neither report carries a statement from Ubisoft on the terms.

Salt Lake City, Japan and Brazil

The second part of the announcement is a map. The 2026/27 season has two Majors, the large international tournaments held in May and in November, and a Six Invitational to finish.

The first Major is played in Salt Lake City, Utah, from May 8 to 17, 2026. The second goes to Japan from November 6 to 15, 2026, in a city still to be named. The Six Invitational 2027 goes to Brazil in February 2027, and there too the city has not been announced.

Paris, host of the edition that has just ended, is the home city of the publisher. Esports Insider recalled that the 2024 Six Invitational sold out its venue and drew more than half a million concurrent viewers on the day of the finals, meaning people watching at the same moment. The edition that has just ended was played in Paris from February 2 to 15, 2026, at the Adidas Arena, with the 20 best teams of the season. The Esports Advocate noted when Paris was chosen that the city's previous Six Invitational, in 2021, had been played without spectators because of pandemic restrictions.

How the 2026 season is built around those events

The hosts fit into a calendar that Ubisoft published in December 2025. The publisher then promised structural updates across every tier of competition and a steady flow of events through the year, according to The Esports Advocate's report of December 17, 2025.

The season starts below the top level, with a Challenger Series in a unified format in February and March. The top level begins in April with a new Season Kickoff, where teams can earn the first Six Invitational Points of the year. Those points, often shortened to SI Points, are awarded for placements in events across the calendar and decide who qualifies for the world championship.

Two Regional League stages follow, one in June and July, one in September and October, played in every region. The two Majors sit on either side of them, in May and in November.

One event in that calendar does not belong to BLAST. The Esports World Cup, the multi-game tournament organized by the Esports World Cup Foundation, becomes a formal part of the Rainbow Six circuit in 2026. "Beginning in 2026, we are formally integrating EWC into the R6 esports circuit as a Mid-Season competition," Ubisoft wrote in its December announcement, as quoted by The Esports Advocate.

The publisher explained the choice by the weight the event has taken, calling it a major fixture of the global esports industry. The event does not hand out SI Points across all placements. Its reward is different: besides its share of the prize pool, the winning team becomes the first of the season to qualify directly for the Six Invitational.

China becomes the fifth region

The third part of the announcement changes the shape of the circuit itself. Rainbow Six esports expands to five global regions in the 2026/27 season, with the official launch of the CNL, or CN League, for China.

The CNL is a professional league of ten teams. According to The Esports Advocate, it joins the Global Standings system, and according to Esports Insider its teams receive qualification slots for the global events. In practice, Chinese teams enter the same race for the Majors and the Six Invitational as the teams of the four regions that already existed.

Money follows on a delay. The CNL enters R6 SHARE, the program through which Ubisoft shares revenue with the teams of its circuit, in 2026, and becomes eligible for revenue sharing beginning in 2027, The Esports Advocate reported. The reports give no amounts and do not say how the program's revenue is divided.

How Chinese teams got here in eighteen months

The fifth region was built quickly. The game received its approval for release in China in August 2024, according to The Esports Advocate. In September 2025, eight Chinese organizations announced Rainbow Six Siege divisions on the same day: 4AM, ASE, Wolves Esports, TEC, KingZone, TYLOO, MQ and All Gamers. The outlet described that line-up as the start of China's Rainbow Six esports scene.

Their first competition was the Genesis Vanguard Championship, an event hosted by Tencent and Ubisoft from September to December 2025 with ¥430,000 in prize money, which the outlet put at US$60,500. Its reward shows how narrow the door was at that point: the top two teams earned places in the Asia-Pacific Last Chance Qualifier for the Six Invitational 2026, and only the winner of that qualifier could reach the main event in Paris.

Tencent's part in that first tournament came six months after a larger agreement between the two companies. In March 2025, Ubisoft announced a new subsidiary holding its Rainbow Six, Assassin's Creed and Far Cry franchises, in which Tencent agreed to invest €1.16 billion for a 25% minority stake, Esports Insider reported at the time. Tencent already owned about 10% of Ubisoft. The subsidiary is headquartered in France and brings together studios in Montreal, Quebec, Sherbrooke, Saguenay, Barcelona and Sofia.

What is confirmed and what is still open

The dates of the two Majors are fixed, and the first of them is less than three months away: the Season Kickoff comes in April, then Salt Lake City from May 8. The arenas have not been named for any of the three events, and Japan and Brazil are announced as countries only.

Several parts of the new structure have no published detail yet in the reports. The number of places each region receives at the Majors and the Six Invitational, the CNL's own calendar, and the terms on which its ten teams will share revenue from 2027 are among them. The contract itself is the firmest element: whoever qualifies and wherever they play, the international events of Rainbow Six Siege are run by the same organizer until the season that ends in 2029.

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