What’s the Deal? Is CCS Dead?
CCS is not dead. Things have been pretty interesting around CCS and the world since our last league matches in 2019, to say the least. We did announce a roadmap for the summer and fall of 2020 which was knocked completely off the rails due to multiple factors. We can’t wait to get back to competitive play and to give you the best esports experience possible. With that in mind, let's talk about some of the factors currently affecting CCS!
How Does COVID-19 Delay CCS? It’s All Online!
Yes and no. First, none of us is out of reach of the global ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic. While being completely remote is an advantage of CCS and other smaller tournament organizers, we work cooperatively with Ubisoft. For the Tier 2 and Tier 3 scenes to grow we cannot schedule any matches during their flagship programs like NAL, EUL, CAL, NACL, and EUCL. First, this would be detrimental to our viewership numbers. As much as we love the community and feel it’s mutual, we all know you would rather be watching Tier 1 and 2 matches. Second, it’s really tough on the players who want to participate in both these programs and our own to fit in scrims for both and then sprinkle in qualifiers for majors and regional leagues—we want to avoid burnout and we don’t want to have rosters that fall apart mid-season because team goals fall short in other areas. With the pandemic knocking LAN leagues out of thin air and forcing Ubisoft to readjust their entire model, it's going to affect other organizers as well. It’s extremely important for the growth of CCS to work with Ubisoft as closely as possible. Since we know Rainbow 6 better than most, they depend on us for developing production talent and putting together a quality project that will get players ready for the next level.
You Keep Doing Other Projects and Are Leaving Us Behind.
CCS is considered a small business, and generating a continuous stream of income is vital for our longevity—it keeps prize money in your pockets and it allows us to work towards regular compensation for our staff. Walker believes it is important to showcase that CCS is an event organizer that can deliver a turnkey product for anyone needing to put on a show. By building this network through VGL, DBNO, the DZ charity event and other projects yet to be announced, we continue to build a portfolio that entices businesses to work with us; whether that’s for an entire event, production planning, tournament format or consulting. Rainbow 6 is always our top priority, and we want to be here for years to come so you can truly depend on us. Other amateur tournament organizers fail to create a solid foundation, and we pride ourselves on avoiding similar pitfalls that appear to happen regularly to others.
Where is CCSW?
We have not forgotten about you! We want to continue to build upon the positivity set by the first CCSW event and give it the time in the spotlight it deserves. While we expect multiple women’s teams to qualify for season 5, CCSW is an invaluable platform which has provided hours of footage for women players to be recruited to Tier 1 and Tier 2 competition. We are hopeful that 2021 returns to normal and does not force such a compact series of competitions across all of Rainbow 6. There have been dozens of players asking about its return and we sincerely apologize that our 2020 plans were knocked off-course. We would like to experiment in 2021 with a workshop addressing concerns with the launch of CCSW and how we can improve upon women-focused esports, so that our next women’s event is the best it can be.
Why Is It So Hard to Keep Us Updated?
There are a lot of moving pieces going on behind the scenes. This could be anywhere from licensing, bidding, NDAs, or having current staff called up to the big leagues, forcing us to retool. However, we know that we can always improve. We will try our best moving forward to have a steady stream of communication to everyone. Our community is what makes us who we are, and we will do our best to increase updates so that no one feels left out or left behind.
Let’s Talk Season Five
Season Five will last a total of five (5) weeks and be a double elimination bracket format
The regular season will begin on November 10 and finish December 10
Season Five will cover the North American and European regions
- Play days for both NA and EU will be on Tuesdays and Thursdays
All matches will be best of three (3) with exception of the grand finals and third place games being best of five (5)
Participants must be sixteen or older at the time of qualifiers in order to be eligible
Tier 1 teams and players on Tier 1 rosters (outlined by Ubisoft) are not eligible to participate in Season Five.
- Single pro players are not allowed to fill other team rosters
The prize pool will be 1,500 USD per region and be split among the first through third place teams
All matches will be streamed live on twitch.tv/ccsesports
Let’s Talk Qualifiers
There will be two qualifiers per region, each containing two stages
- Stage one will be a 128-team Swiss Tournament where the top eight (8) teams will qualify for stage two. (Approx 8 hours of time will be needed)
- Stage two will be an 8-team double elimination bracket where the top four (4) teams will qualify for Season Five. (Approx (3) or (8) hours of time will be needed. More details to come)
Qualifier dates are as follows: (We’re sorry, but you’ll have to pick between trick or-treating and qualifying for CCS)
NA & EU qualifiers will be on the same dates.
- NA & EU Qualifier #1 Stage 1—Saturday, October 24, 2020
- NA & EU Qualifier #1 Stage 2—Sunday, October 25, 2020
- NA & EU Qualifier #2 Stage 1—Saturday, October 31, 2020
- NA & EU Qualifier #2 Stage 2—Sunday, November 1, 2020
Sign-up links will be provided at a future date