Six Invitational 2023: Teams, schedule, format and more

February 6, 2023

by Brian Bencomo

The 2022 Rainbow Six Siege esports season will come to a conclusion with the Six Invitational 2023. For the first time in three years, R6’s season-ending championship tournament is returning to its original home of Montreal. In February 2020, Spacestation Gaming lifted the championship hammer in Montreal. TSM are the reigning champions, but they didn’t qualify this year, so once again there will not be a repeat champion.

The Six Invitational runs from Feb. 7 to 19 with 20 of the best teams in the world vying to be champions. Of the 20 teams, 16 qualified via points accrued through their performance in regional leagues and three Majors in 2022. The other four made it via regional qualifiers. To get you ready for the biggest Rainbow Six tournament of the year, here are all the qualified teams, the schedule and format, and a breakdown of the field.

Sign up for the next Nerd Street tournament!

Qualified teams

Photo credit: Ubisoft

w7m esports
Team BDS
Wolves Esports
DarkZero Esports
Team Liquid
Astralis
KOI
M80
Oxygen Esports
G2 Esports
FaZe Clan
Soniqs
Heroic
MNM Gaming
Elevate
CYCLOPS athlete gaming
Dire Wolves
Team Secret
Spacestation Gaming
LOS + oNe

Schedule and format

Image credit: Ubisoft

The Six Invitational begins Feb. 7 with round robin group play, which continues until Feb. 11. The 20 teams have been divided into four groups of five, and each team will have a best-of-three against each other team in its group.

The playoffs will begin Feb. 13, and the top team in each group will advance to the second round of the upper bracket. The second- and third-place teams in each group will proceed to the first round of the upper bracket. The fourth-place teams will be placed in the lower bracket, and the last-place team in each group will be eliminated from playoff contention.

The playoff bracket will be double-elimination with matches being best-of-three except the grand final, which will be best-of-five. The grand final will take place on Feb. 19. Fans can attend the last few days of the event: Feb. 17-19.

Breaking down the field

Favorites: Team BDS, DarkZero Esports, w7m Esports

Photo credit: Ubisoft

The favorites to win the Six Invitational include the top teams in the global points standings from each of the three top-performing regions: Europe, North America and Brazil. Let’s start with Team BDS. They were the best team in Europe and the world in the latter part of 2022. BDS won the Gamers8 tournament last summer, finished second in Europe’s Stage 3, won the last Major of the year and capped their season by winning the European League Finals in December. No team is hotter coming into the Six invitational. However, no team has won back-to-back major international events in the past couple years.

DarkZero Esports also won a Major last year, and they have Troy "Canadian" Jaroslawski on their roster. He’s one of the most successful players in Rainbow Six esports history and a two-time Six Invitational champion. W7m Esports were the best Brazilian team throughout 2022 -- one of only two teams to qualify for all three Majors last year. Brazilian teams dominated in 2021 but failed to win any international events in 2022. W7m could put Brazil back on top.

Contenders: Team Liquid, Wolves Esports, KOI

Photo credit: Kirill_Vision / Ubisoft

Among the contenders is the other Major winner from 2022 and two teams that were excellent all year but fell short of winning any international events. KOI, the team formerly known as Rogue, won the Berlin Major last summer. They finished sixth in Stage 3 of the European League, but with Europe being such a strong region in 2022, they’re a good bet to find their championship form again.

Wolves were the best team across all three stages of the European League last year but failed to win any Majors. They lost in the quarterfinals of the Berlin and Jonkoping Majors, so if they can get past that quarterfinal hurdle, they might go all the way. Team Liquid, like Wolves, had a strong 2022, but failed to get that signature win on the international stage, finishing second at the Jonkoping Major. They won the Brasileirão 2022 Finals in December so are coming into the Six Invitational with some momentum.

Dark horses: FaZe Clan, Spacestation Gaming, Soniqs

Photo credit: itsmeERROR / Ubisoft

This group includes teams that had slow starts in 2022 but came on strong in the latter half of the year. FaZe Clan qualified for the Berlin and Jonkoping Majors and finished second in Berlin. They won the Sweden Major in 2021 with largely the same roster, so they’ve proven they can win big international tournaments.

The other two dark horses are the two hottest North American teams. Although Astralis and M80 (formerly XSET) are higher in the NA points standings, Spacestation and Soniqs enter the Six Invitational in better form. Soniqs were a semifinalist at the Jonkoping Major, where they lost to the eventual champion, Team BDS. Spacestation qualified for the Six Invitational via the North America Qualifier. Last year’s Six Invitational winner was TSM, who qualified via the North American Qualifier too, so it’s not unheard of for a late qualifier to win it all. Plus, Spacestation’s roster has tons of international experience, with three-fifths of the roster having won the Six Invitational in 2020.

Lead photo credit: Ubisoft