Hero image: The Osaka Major. Image: Ubisoft
The Rainbow Six Siege Osaka Major starts this Friday, and because Osaka sits two hours behind Sydney in November (Japan is UTC+9, AEDT is UTC+11), its opening matches land in the late morning in Australia.
Ubisoft’s competition page lists the event from 6 to 15 November in Osaka, Japan, with 20 teams. It runs in three phases — a play-in from 6 to 8 November, a Swiss phase from 9 to 11 November and playoffs from 13 to 15 November.
The first four play-in matches are all best-of-one. Read in Sydney time, the page lists DarkZero against Tyloo at 11:30am AEDT on Friday 6 November, LOS against All Gamers at 12:30pm, Weibo Gaming against Dplus Kia at 1:30pm and Virtus.pro against Kingzero eSports at 2:30pm.
This is not an Australian story. We could not confirm an Australian team at the Major, and the page does not list where teams are based. It is here because Ubisoft calls the Major “one of the most important events of the season”, with qualification points on the road to the Six Invitational, and it is played in a time zone close to ours.
The 20 teams are 100 Thieves, All Gamers, Cloud9, DarkZero, Dplus Kia, Edward Gaming, ENTERPRISE Esports, FaZe Clan, Fluxo W7M, G2 Esports, Geekay Esports, Kingzero eSports, LOS, M80, Sharper Esports, Team Falcons, Team Liquid Alienware, Tyloo, Virtus.pro and Weibo Gaming.
The page lists the prize money as $600000 without naming a currency. First place takes $200,000 and 1,500 points in the column the page labels “SI points”, second $102,000 and 1,200 points, and third and fourth $50,000 and 1,050 points each.
There is more for viewers than the matches. Ubisoft’s Steam post says predictions are open — with weapon skins and Alpha Packs for correct picks — and that linking Ubisoft and Twitch accounts earns Twitch Drops during official broadcasts.
Oceania’s own Siege season is still running too. The Gauntlet, the region’s Tier 2 playoff, runs from 3 to 6 December, as Gamers Classified reported last week.
Source: Ubisoft – Osaka Major (Rainbow Six Esports), Ubisoft – Osaka Major Starts November 6: Rewards & Esports Action (Steam)