BLAST's Chrystina Martel On RE:L0:AD's Bullet System & Bringing R6 Back to Brazil

Kicking off a brand new season of Rainbow Six Siege, Ubisoft and tournament organiser BLAST came together to hold the R6 RE:L0:AD tournament in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. As the first arena event of the 25/26 season, fans experienced one of the more energetic live audience experiences around, thanks in no small part to the energy of the Brazilian crowd. The group stages saw R6 Siege adopt an interesting new format, featuring the "Reload to Survive" Bullet system and special Cards that could influence the flow of competition.

The finals saw Japanese underdogs CAG Osaka (the first APAC team to ever reach the grand finals in a major R6 tournament) take on Brazilian favourites Furia in a BO5 format. Unfortunately for CAG, despite putting up a commendable fight, their road to victory ended in a 3:0 loss, with Furia taking home not only the trophy, but $170,000 in winnings. 

BLAST's Executive Producer for R6, Chrystina Martel, spoke about the importance of bringing such an event back to the Brazilian crowd, and the unique challenges that come with organising such an event with Siege X on the horizon. 

GINX: As this isn’t the first time BLAST have been to Brazil with R6, we had the Six Invitational in São Paulo just last year. What were some of the key incentives for bringing R6 back to Brazil, and to Rio de Janeiro, specifically?

Martel: We know that Brazil is one of the strongest R6 player bases and that that would surely be no different with the release of Siege X. BLAST and Ubisoft are keen to reward passionate fan bases, and the Brazilian one is up there with the best of the best. 

GINX: How did BLAST ensure that R6 RE:L0:AD felt authentically Brazilian for the local crowd?

Martel: It was very important for us to have a dual language stream - that means having both Brazilian and English broadcast teams onsite. This allows us to not only bring top tier production to both language shows but also offer a multi-lingual show in the arena itself, which was super important to us. 

The Ubisoft Brazil team work hard all year around to cater to Brazilian Siege fans, and it was important to us to work not only with them in putting this event together, but to ensure that we had local Brazilian staff on our crew - whether that’s in League Operations, stage management, etc. 

GINX: It’s been a different format for this tournament, specifically the Group stages and the Bullet system. Were there any unique challenges that came with putting together the tournament this time around?

Martel: The format was a really fun one to build! The idea was born from some of the Ubisoft France team, but it took a village. We wanted something fun to kick off the season and really show off Siege X to fans. Maximising the number of games you’d be able to see was important to us, hence the BO1s to keep things fresh throughout Phase 1. 

We weren’t 100% sure how teams would react - would they be aggressive with reloading bullets or more conservative? We modelled out thousands of scenarios and tried to mitigate potential risks - specifically targeting the ones our models said were most likely. So, as an example, we had to try and ensure that we could fill all five days of Phase 1. That means making sure that teams were qualified/disqualified at just the right rate… 

Honestly it was incredibly fun to build. Huge shoutout to the Ubisoft and BLAST teams involved. I’d love to do something like this again - at the right time, right place. We’ve learned a lot from this tournament and the next iteration would streamline things a bit. (But let’s be real - those 1v1s were incredibly fun, right?!). 

GINX: How important is it that the tournament format and experience remains fresh, especially when returning to regions that R6 has been to before?

Martel: It’s a fine balance, to be honest. You want consistency in an ecosystem so you can’t constantly be changing things. On the other hand, you want to be improving and ensuring that you’re innovating and offering the best possible competitive experience.

In our ecosystem, the game and the esport are intrinsically linked. Our events in May, November and February are tied to patch dates in the game. This allows us to do panels on the Sunday of competition which, personally, I love as a feature. I think it’s a fantastic value add to the esports scene. However, this means our event dates are set and that we have to work around fixed patch dates.

This year we switched things up and made the first event of the year an Invitational, which streamlined things a lot. It meant that we didn’t have to rush any qualifiers and could increase the break between SI and the start of the season, allowing for a true off season and rest period. More so because the event was an invitational - and less so because we were returning to the region - we could shake things up a bit and be more creative with the format. 

And I would definitely call it a success. Viewership for the event has been incredible! We’ve exceeded numbers from previous Majors, which makes sense. You’ve seen things here that you’ve never seen before in competitive Siege - 1v1s in S Tier competition? Unheard of! 

Do we want to do this every event? No, of course not. But, when an opportunity like this presents itself, I think you have to take it and dare to be bold and try something new. I’m very proud of the team and what we’ve achieved with this event. I do think it’s important to shake things up and try new things every now and then to keep things fresh. 

GINX: We’re also going to be seeing a new Esports tab roll out in-game with Siege X, allowing fans to stay connected to the competitive calendar. How do you hope this will affect audience engagement with BLAST tournaments going forward?

Martel: This can only mean great things for the future of Siege X. I’m hoping it means an even more engaged audience who are more informed and up-to-date about upcoming moments in the competitive calendar. I’m sure it’ll also bring fresh eyes to esports competitions. - I can’t wait to show them what we’ve got in store for fans the rest of the year. We’ve got a few surprises left up our sleeves!