Ubisoft has announced that its Six Major esports tournament for Rainbow Six Siege will be relocated from the United Arab Emirates, following a major outcry from fans who felt that the choice of location did not reflect the game’s diverse fan base.
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Yesterday (February 22), the official Rainbow Six Esports Twitter account shared a post confirming that it has “taken the decision to move the Six Major of August 2022 to another Rainbow Six Esports region.”
Ubisoft says the new Six Major location is “yet to be determined.”
The Six Major was originally meant to be hosted in Abu Dhabi, however the Rainbow Six Siege community protested the decision. This backlash was due to the United Arab Emirates’ strict anti-LGBTQ+ laws and record of human rights abuses.
— Rainbow Six Esports (@R6esports) February 22, 2022
When the United Arab Emirates was announced as the Six Major’s location, one petition – which garnered over 13,000 signatures – said the following:
“With the inclusion of LGBTQ+ members of Rainbow Six: Siege talent, we believe as a collective that this decision is short-sighted, dangerous and backwards to the developing ideology of esports, Rainbow Six: Siege and the community. Within SI 2022, there was an emphasis on the importance of Rainbow’s community, and this announcement is borderline insulting to our identity,” said the petition, before calling on Ubisoft to change the location.
On the choice to move the Six Major from Abu Dhabi, Rainbow Six Siege caster Parker ‘Interro’ Mackay said it was “absolutely the correct decision“.
In other Rainbow Six Siege news, Ubisoft has recently revealed what’s coming to the game through 2022. This includes a new defensive operator called Azami, who can patch up environmental damage with bulletproof cover.
The post ‘Rainbow Six Siege’ moves Six Major from the U.A.E. after days of backlash appeared first on NME.
