Luminosity Gaming R6S players in dispute with Ubisoft over Pro League kick
Luminosity Gaming's Rainbow Six Siege team has accused the game developer Ubisoft of preventing them from continuing to compete in the Pro League following LG's decision to exit the league.
The story first surfaced on Tuesday, April 14, when Kian "Hyena" Mozayani made a Twitter post, explaining the situation he and his team have found themselves in, while also claiming that Luminosity Gaming's Rainbow Six Siege team is apparently being held back from competing by Ubisoft. All this comes just before the rumoured LAN R6S league Ubisoft are currently working on launching.
"Roughly 3 weeks ago, we were told that LG would be releasing us since they could not come to an agreement with Ubisoft regarding the upcoming LAN league," said Hyena in his Twitlonger post.
"Over the course of these 3 weeks (during the season) we practised and played our matches not knowing if we would have a spot in pro league next season. Throughout this whole period, LG and Ubisoft re-entered negotiations without our knowledge (up until recently) and they fell through again."
Hyena went on to explain Ubisoft supposedly delayed their meetings multiple times, thus leaving LG's roster in the dark, not knowing whether they should pack up and leave their team house or stay for the competition. This led to quite a frustrating situation, as the team wanted to get answers as soon as possible, seeing how their home cities were being put on lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, meaning that there was a chance they could not return home.
Hyena continued by explaining that he tried contacting a number of people at Ubisotf, in a bid to get a response, but to no avail, as he was supposedly told that they were not able to help as they did not know whether Hyena and his teammates would be traded to another team before the league arrives, which effectively meant they could have their career put on hold.
During his rant, Hyena also took his time to call out Ubisoft Esports Director Robb Chiarini, who Hyena describes as "grossly unfit to be an esports director" while pointing out he is surprised Mr Chiarini kept his position after his less-than-inspiring work with the For Honor and Brawlhala esports scenes, which are both "dead".
"Having your name associated with two failed competitive scenes, one would assume that Ubisoft wouldn't give this clown an even bigger game to fuck up, but I am surprised by this company’s decisions every day! Both in game and out," added Hyena.
On a more positive note, Hyena called out Lisa Marie, the Esports Community Manager at Ubisoft, who as stated by the American R6S pro did a phenomenal job helping him and his team and did her "absolute best within the confines of her job description" while being the only Ubisoft's employee that cared about the situation and LG's team's future.
Hyena ended his rant by listing his team's accomplishments in a bid to get attention from other esports organisations who would sign the roster, which has now found itself stranded in Las Vegas and out of job.
Some of the accomplishments Luminosity Gaming achieved were a successful run through qualifiers for Pro League, where they ended up pocketing a fourth-place finish, a fourth-place finish at OGA PIT Season 3, fifth-eighth at United States Nationals 2019 and the appearance of the grand final at the invite qualifiers, where they lost a close best-of-five (Bo5) match against Spacestation Gaming, who ended winning the whole thing.
"Obviously placing 6th this season is less than ideal but given our mindset and lack of certainty regarding our spot going into the second split, I think we did alright. But last time I checked, placing 6th is out of the relegation zone and keeps you your pro league spot."
Hyena's rant sent the R6S community in a frenzy with masses of people showing their dissatisfaction with Ubisoft and namely their Esports Director Mr Chiarini. The two-time world champion Niclas "Pengu" Mouritzen added his two pennies and stated that "now is the time for LG/Ubisoft to come out clean and explain [the current situation] in full."
R6Leakers, a prominent and reliable source of Rainbow Six Siege esports rumours, roster moves and information spoke about the LG's situation, stating that LG refused to pay in to the next season due to the "performance relative to cost", while also adding that Evil Genuises' roster could be the next team to not be involved in the Pro League.
"Not mentioned in Hyena's earlier post is that both Luminosity and Evil Geniuses chose to not be in Pro League. Ubisoft planned on both being a part of the ten team pro league, with both Soniqs and Disrupt joining them," read R6Leakers post.
"Both organizations chose to not continue their partnership with R6 – rumoured to be EG due to relocation, LG due to performance relative to cost – Ubisoft could not revert their decision to go to a LAN league, leaving both of these rosters unable to sustain the cost without an org"
Ubisoft have yet to respond to Hyena's Twitlonger post nor did they make any official statements about the whole situation involving Luminosity Gaming, however, given all the backlash the game developer is getting, their hand may be forced to make an official statement to address the issue sometime soon.
