Xset announced they are leaving Rainbow Six as a sidenote in a very dense post. In it they let go of their R6 team, their current Rocket League team, are planning to pick up an Apex team, a new Rocket League team, and join 2 other unspecified games. All of this in a single paragraph. Needless to say that’s a confusing mess of trying to guess what the PR spin is supposed to be, but beyond that what does this mean for Siege?
Xset as an org hasn’t been a failure. Rather than the Beastcoasts that have been underperforming for years now, Xset had a rough 2021 and immediately bounced back with an impressive 2022. The team went to 2/3 Majors and placed minimum top 8 at both and qualified for the Six Invitational. Xset has had 2 weapon skins as part of R6Share on what were popular weapons at the time of release. (The R4C is coming back somewhat but the MP5k is likely dead without a 1.5x scope) The team is also more than willing to spend big to acquire players they want. As multiple people have said on Supr’s podcast; Xset went hard for Creators, Spiritz, Yoggah, Kyno, and who knows how many others.
This clearly wasn’t a team that was here to leech off a franchised league. They found success and yet are still backing out of Siege.
That said, I couldn’t tell you why. With no insider info all I can guess is a lack of Return on Investment or a way to make quick cash and call it a day. Some players were fairly popular but none were icon status like a Beaulo or Shaiiko. None of the players are particularly consistent with content creation. Beyond the impressive results for a team brought together at the start of the year there really isn’t much to write home about.
The timing is also bit weird, given that Xset is effectively missing out on being represented at the biggest event in the Siege calendar, the Six Invitational, but that’s likely due to NAL negotiations starting at the end of the year while SI is in February. By leaving the NAL Xset is effectively forfeiting their brand being seen at SI. Unfortunate timing or calculated timing by Ubisoft.
What will be interesting to see is how this affects the former Xset team. There’s 4 possibilities which are unknown in part because the details surrounding the 2023 circuit are still hidden to the public.
- Xset sold the NAL spot to another esports organization, the new org keeps some or all of the existing team
- Xset sold the NAL spot to another esports organization, the new org drops the entire team and builds its own roster
- Xset backed out of the NAL, but there’s no one buying the NAL spot, with no representation the ex-Xset team is allowed to play in the 2023 closed league
- Xset backed out of the NAL, but there’s no one buying the NAL spot, with no representation the ex-Xset team cannot play in the 2023 closed league
Possibility 1&2
In the first and second possibility, Xset is making a money play. Either it’s too expensive to run a R6 team -unlikely given the announcement of entering 3 new games- or a big org is willing to buy the NAL spot. If a Complexity or Sentinels wants into a franchised league, they have the money to make it worth any organization’s time. When you add Valorant to the equation it makes even more sense. Xset did not get a Valorant Partnership despite their team’s impressive results. They also missed out on a deal where G2 was rumored to buy out the roster. This, of course, did not go through due to the Ocelote/G2 debacle causing G2 to lose their near guaranteed Partner slot. So Xset trying to get a fat stack from a different franchised game makes sense. From there, the team is then either kept or taken apart and built anew depending on the whims of the new org, much like how Xset built their 2022 roster when they re-bought into the NAL.
The org also could have found it too hard to monetize R6 esports despite their success. Once again I find the judgment to expand into 3 new titles questionable if you can’t successfully monetize 1 established game. But I also don’t get millions in venture capital money to burn like most big esports orgs so what do I know?
Possibility 3
The 3rd possibility only exists due to a lack of information regarding the new closed league. In Ubisoft’s official press release documenting the changes to the 2023 circuit they refer to the various regional leagues as “closed” not “franchised” as many other esports do. Now this may be a franchised league under a different name, but it may also mean that the former Xset players are allowed to stay in this closed league while they search for a new org to represent.
The difference between a closed league and a franchised league are unclear, especially given how vague Ubisoft was regarding specifics at almost every point of this press release. We truly got the most basic of outlines.
Possibility 4
In the 4th possibility the former Xset team cannot play due to a lack of org support. If the closed league really is just a franchised league, Ubisoft won’t let an unsponsored team play. The wording is very specific: Closed league with up to 10 teams. This means they’re willing to have less than 10 teams if necessary. In that case the players would get picked apart by the various NAL teams and we’d have another year of a 9 team NAL.
Where does this leave us?
Unfortunately we’re at the wait-and-see stage of this. Xset has backed out, there’s either already a new org coming to replace them or Ubisoft is shopping around the NAL spot until it’s time to start 2023 Stage 1. Either way, esports orgs like waiting until the last minute to announce things and with so little details regarding the specifics of the new circuit, there’s not much to do but speculate.