Ubisoft announced that the Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Pro League Season 8 Finals has been the largest Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six esports event ever organized worldwide, gathering more than 8000 fans per day at the Jeunesse Arena in the Olympic Park, Rio de Janeiro on November 17-18. These Finals illustrated with strength the fast-paced growth of what is an only three-year old esport, as it did emerge from small confidential studios to fill up massive venues at an impressive rate.

The event also showcased the unique fondness of Brazilians for esports and especially Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six, in a country where the Grand Finale was also broadcasted live on the major local sport TV channel, SporTV.

These Pro League Season 8 Finals crowned favorites G2 Esports, but each match throughout the event did tell its own story. Quarter Finals have been particularly dramatic, with not only one but two Asia-Pacific region teams qualifying for an international event semi-final, a first. It took surprise victories from Nora-Rengo (Japan) against Rogue (NA), and especially from FNATIC (Australia) over NA top team Evil Geniuses, despite the absence of their star Etienne “Magnet” Rousseau, replaced with epic success by their usual coach, Jayden “Dizzle” Saunders.

Both Asia-Pacific teams were then defeated by the two top teams in their region: G2 Esports (Europe) and, playing home, FaZe Clan. Facing in an unprecedented Grand Finale, the local team could not satisfied their wild crowd of supporters and have been defeated by impressive G2 Esports 2-0 (6-4, 6-2). To find more details on the competition, please check our articles at http://www.rainbow6.com/esports.

All the Pro League Season 8 action can be relived on VOD via dedicated channels: http://youtube.com/Rainbow6SEA.

Rio’s esports panel unveiled new Teams Uniforms and announced a minimum One Million Dollars prize pool for the Six Invitational 2019

The Pro League Season 8 also hosted a panel filled with key announcements for Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six fans. The Pilot Program team uniforms have been unveiled, allowing fans to support their favorite teams thanks to this revenue-share initiative led by Ubisoft, following the same model as teams weapon skins and charms unveiled at the Six Major Paris. First skins to be available with the Wind Bastion update.

It has also been confirmed that the Six Invitational 2019 prize pool reached an unprecedented number of One Million Dollars, a figure still growing based on the Pilot Program scheme.

Find here a complete recap of the esports related announcement made during yesterday’s panel, live from Rio de Janeiro.

These Finals were also the first to introduce our new key partner, PayPal, as official payment platform partner. This key partnership, which illustrates the title’s esports expanded reach and importance, will extend from November 2018 through November 2019 across North America, EMEA, Asia Pacific and Latin America. Read more details in our dedicated blog post. PayPal joins a pool of prestigious key partners, including Lenovo Legion and HyperX, the gaming division of Kingston Technology Company, Inc. Our partnership with HyperX also just got renewed. Read more details here.

For more information about the Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Pro League please visit http://www.rainbow6.com/esports, and follow us at https://twitter.com/R6ProLeague.