FURIA leaves Rainbow Six Siege citing lack of publisher support and effective leadership

Rohan

Rohan

The second org to exit Rainbow Six Siege this month. Why are orgs leaving R6?

Days after TSM announced its exit from Rainbow Six Siege, another big organization has shut its doors on Ubisoft’s FPS title. FURIA esports will take a step back from Rainbow Six Siege, partly blaming the lack of a healthy relationship with the publisher. However, they have not ruled out a potential return in the future.

In a detailed Twitlonger, the FURIA founder jaimepadua wrote down some of the reasons for the org’s exit from Rainbow Six Siege. Despite fielding a roster that was largely consistent in the international scene, revenue became a sticky point for FURIA esports. 

Why did FURIA leave Rainbow Six Siege?

Generates a connection between players and spectators

Jaimepadua highlights some of the key factors that draw FURIA to an esports title. First and foremost is the game itself. Most of the top games such as CS:GO, VALORANT, League of Legends have a dynamic design drawing hundreds of thousands of players.

It has to cause adrenaline. Generate a type of connection between players and spectators that is magical. CSGO and LOL show that often. VALORANT has already arrived in an explosive way and will shine more and more. The Rocket League fills arenas where people go crazy too. The R6 fortunately also meets part of this requirement. However, this is just a piece of the formula.

He goes on to say that Rainbow Six Siege also generates a similar level of adrenaline and has thousands of fans who will religiously follow the game. 

Publisher - Team relationship

However, it’s not just the quality of the game but also the financial viability of investing in an esports title that affects their decision. 

Some of the other game titles such as VALORANT and even third-party events in CS:GO feature revenue sharing of some kind. This ensures teams can run a sustainable business and the entire industry grows forward. As per Jaimepadua, Rainbow Six Siege does not feel sustainable at the moment. He praised the Ubisoft Brazilian team for all their help although he di dnot have similarly kind words for the international team.

"In the sport it is still difficult to generate revenue in a way that is actually worth while sustaining the conditions we want to offer athletes and the community as a whole. And realistically, there is even an extreme goodwill of ubisoft's Brazilian team to make this happen, but we do not feel the same international support. When we can not properly monetize the game, we have to compensate for this insufficiency of indirect forms, a fact that we can do very well in other modalities. However, to do so, it is critical that Publisher is more effective in bringing the game to the maximum possible audience and exposure, so brands and sponsors are more attracted to the connection. Unfortunately, we spent far from it on R6."

Lack of leadership

While acknowledging the R6 community is a vibrant one with many content creators and players, there is an effective lack of leadership at Ubisoft according to Jaimepadua.

The effort we see from passionate R6 fans and tireless members of the media and general communication does not reflect in support and long-term solutions for them, and then everyone ends up getting discouraged at some point. There is a lack of an effective commander for the scenario and so in R6 unfortunately this synergy has not yet happened.

A combination of the absence of sustainability and lack of leadership, unfortunately, will see FURIA exit the Rainbow Six siege for now. 

What about the players?

The FURIA R6 players are still linked to the teams and will be part of the team until FURIA is able to find them a new home.

FURIA’s current Rainbow six Siege lineup is as follows:

  • Luiz "Miracle" Abrantes
  • Diogo "Fntzy" Lima
  • Rennan "R4re" Vitor
  • Thiago "Handyy" Ferreira
  • Willian "Stk" Costa
  • Eduardo "KDS" Fontes

The roster had a very consistent run of results in 2021 and much of 2022. The team had qualified for every post-pandemic Major including the Six Invitational 2021 and 2022. 

A 9-12th placement at Six Invitational 2022 notwithstanding, the team still qualified for the subsequent Six Majors (Charlotte and Berlin). But their inability to qualify for the Six Jönköping Major meant they fell out of the Top 16 - a requirement for an invitation to the Six Invitational 2023. They still had another opportunity via the LATAM qualifiers but they fell short losing 1-2 to LOS + oNe in the finals. 

FURIA’s exit from Rainbow Six Siege is undoubtedly a massive blow for Ubisoft’s FPS title. This announcement comes shortly after TSM’s departure from Rainbow Six Siege.