Rainbow Six Siege Pro League Season 9 kicks off today

Rainbow Six Siege Finka
Rainbow Six Siege Finka (Image credit: Ubisoft)

Ubisoft is set to kick off the ninth season of the Rainbow Six Pro League today, its competitive championship for Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege. The ESL-backed event will host several U.S. matches, following multiple delays as a result of technical issues.

Rainbow Six Pro League Season 9 packs 24 of the world's top esports teams, spanning Europe, North America, and Latin America. While initially scheduled for December, audio bugs that surfaced with Operation Wind Bastion saw a delay into 2019. With the game's 4.1 patch now deployed, the league is set to make its return.

Pro League Season 9 commences with four matches between eight U.S. teams, starting with Excelerate vs. Cloud9. Below is the full schedule for January 8, 2019, via the ESL match schedule:

  • Excelerate vs. Cloud9 (8PM ET/ 1AM GMT / 2AM CET)
  • Spacestation Gaming vs. Evil Geniuses (9PM ET/ 2AM GMT / 3AM CET)
  • Rogue vs. OrgLess (10PM ET / 3AM GMT / 4AM CET)
  • Rise Nation vs. DarkZero (11PM ET / 4AM GMT / 5AM CET)

Matches can be watched live on the Rainbow 6 official Twitch channel. Later matches are planned for Latin America on January 9, followed by Europe on January 10. And with the Six Invitational set for February, a tight schedule of matches is planned for the weeks ahead.

Alongside a fresh wave of competition, Pro League Season 9 brings changes to play. Lion, among the game's most controversial Operators, will be automatically banned for first part of the championship. Operation Wind Bastion's latest Operators, Kaid and Nomad, will also be locked under a new three-month "Evaluation Period."

In the meantime, Ubisoft is gearing up for Rainbow Six Siege Year 4 Season 1.

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Matt Brown

Matt Brown was formerly a Windows Central's Senior Editor, Xbox & PC, at Future. Following over seven years of professional consumer technology and gaming coverage, he’s focused on the world of Microsoft's gaming efforts. You can follow him on Twitter @mattjbrown.