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Jerseys. Banners. In-game skins. What better way can fans support their favorite teams other than repping their team’s logos. Fans adore the ability to showcase their favorite teams both on their person and in the game. With that said, earlier during the Six Major Paris, Ubisoft have revealed new in-game team weapon skins and charms for ten top teams of the Rainbow Six Siege Pro League. While this has been announced earlier, Ubisoft has finally revealed concrete details on their “Rainbow Six Pilot Program”.

Eleven teams will have their logos and colors cemented in the game. These are the eleven teams, currently part of the Pilot Program:

  • Team Liquid
  • Evil Geniuses
  • FaZe Clan
  • FNATIC
  • SK Gaming
  • Ninjas in Pyjamas
  • Rogue
  • Immortals
  • Mousesports
  • Vitality

Power of the People

Not only as a method to provide fans with more integration with the esports scene, the Pilot Program functions as a revenue-generating avenue. As explained by Ubisoft, 30% of the revenue generated from purchases of the incoming team skins and team charms will be shared with the subsequent teams. However, 21% of revenue from Pro League related skins and charms will be split amongst the ten teams with 9% going into the total prize pool for next year’s Six Invitational.

#WhereIsPenta?

Interestingly enough, top European team G2 Esports does not appear as part of the announcement. PENTA Sports was previously announced as part of the program in June. This could simply be due to the recent organization change the team went through. Only recently, the PENTA Sports roster has been acquired by G2 Esports. The organization may currently be in talks with Ubisoft about claiming the Pilot Program spot.

Left in the Dust

One of the biggest criticisms of the program so far is the fact that the skins are gun specific. In a game where there are over 80 different firearms, some skins may not see as much use as others. Players have already pointed out that the skin for Team Liquid is specific to the FMG-9, a gun that does not see much use in-game. This could hurt the revenue that individual teams can receive, as people may not see the point of purchasing skins for a weapon they don’t use. Fans are hoping that Ubisoft will release universal weapon skins instead of specific guns skins. At the very least, we can hope the Ubisoft will continue to release new weapon team skins in the future.

Esports Ready

Despite the criticisms, the Pilot Program is already designed to improve the Siege esports scene. Simply introducing a form of crowdfunding will massively help Ubisoft in funding larger and more grandiose events. It appears the Ubisoft is hybridizing revenue generating systems from other esports such as crowdfunding through the Dota 2 compendium and weapon skins from CS:GO and various console esports.

The esports scene of the game is poised for more growth with the remaining Pro League Season 8 continuing this fall with finals taking place in Rio De Janeiro on November 17. As well, the third annual Six Invitational will be returning next year in February, once again, held in Montreal.

The new skins and charms will be available soon in Rainbow Six Siege’s upcoming update: Operation Grim Sky.