Six Invitation 2026 preview

As Rainbow Six Siege X tournaments go, you aren’t going to get any bigger than the Six Invitational. While it starts at the beginning of 2026, the Six Invitational acts as the end of the previous year, as well as an informal, annual World Cup. 

As such, the Six Invitational is in its own tier, being the biggest event in the R6 Siege esports calendar. With this scale, it is hosted by R6’s developer and publisher, Ubisoft, where the best teams from around the world come to compete for the biggest prize Rainbow Six esports has on offer.

With that in mind, here’s everything you need to know about the Rainbow Six Siege Invitation 2026, including its schedule, participating teams, structure, prize pool, and how to watch the event.

The Six Invitational will kick off on February 2 with the group stage and conclude on February 15 with the playoffs and Grand Finals. The event will be hosted in Paris, with the Adidas Arena serving as the venue, marking the fifth year in a row that the Six Invitational has come to France.

BLAST is a secondary sponsor and host behind Ubisoft, who you may know as the organisers of the CS2 Austin Major in 2025.

In total, 20 teams are invited to the Six Invitational 2026. They get into the event based on several factors, joining from either their placements in their region’s pro-league, Invitational Qualifier, winning a Minor, the previous Six Major, or being allocated an invitation by Ubisoft.

Here are all the teams involved in the Six Invitational:

At the start of the Six Invitational 2026, the 20 teams will be split into four round-robin groups of five. This group stage will take place from February 2 to February 6. First-place teams of each group go straight to Round 2 of the upper bracket, while second and third-place teams round out the upper bracket’s first round. The second-placed teams will get to choose which of the third-placed teams they want to face.

Fourth-place teams advance to the lower bracket of the playoffs, while the bottom-place teams of each group are eliminated. From there, the playoffs are a double-elimination bracket, with all matches except the Grand Finals being Bo3. The Grand Finals are Bo5, with neither team getting a map advantage.

The teams in the groups get points not only with match wins, but also round wins and losses. Here’s how the group stage points work:

If you’re unable to get to Paris to watch the event in person, you can watch the Six Invitational 2026 on official streams. The tournament will be streamed for free on both YouTube and Twitch on the following channels:

The Six Invitational 2026 has a mighty prize pool of $3 million. While there will be individual rewards, unlike in other esports events, these rewards will not come with extra prize money. Instead, the prize pool share is based solely on a team’s placement.

Here is how the prize money is split:

While ironically, at the start of the year, the Six Invitational 2026 will say farewell to Rainbow Six Siege esports calendar. It has the unofficial title of the World Cup of Siege for a reason, and if you’re a fan of R6 esports, this is one you cannot miss.

With a meaty $3 million prize pool up for grabs and 20 of the best teams from around the world, there is plenty on the line. A fifth visit to France for the Six Invitational promises to repeat the success Ubisoft has previously found with the event, and if you want to see the best Rainbow Six has to offer to compete, you need not look any further.