The rise of Rainbow Six Siege as an esport has been steady and consistent over the last few years, culminating in a tournament with a bigger prize pool that anything CSGO has to offer. February saw Montreal host a tournament with a $2m prize pool for the world’s best teams, won by a G2 side that allegedly cost that org €3m to prise away from ENCE.
However, what makes Siege so interesting is the scaling of wages to exposure, especially when compared to other FPS games, and CSGO. This was exposed again this week with the news that TSM, who famously left tier-one CSGO over the cost of signing a team, have now entered the Siege scene, and done so with one of the most hyped and exciting prospects the game has ever produced, Jason ‘Beaulo’ Doty.
TSM Rainbow Six Siege roster
- Matthew ‘Achieved’ Solomon
- Khalil ‘b1ologic’ Pleas
- Jason ‘Beaulo’ Doty
- Tommy ‘Krusher’ Samuel
- Bryan "Merc’ Wrzek
Coach: Owen ‘Pojoman’ Mitura
Beaulo came to play (for real)
The roster, which we’ve included above in full, was known as the ex-Excelerate team from their last contract, was expected to find some support prior to the new season, but the addition of YouTube star Beaulo no doubt made it far more exciting to the money men at TSM. Despite not being 20 years of age yet, he has accrued 735,000 subs on YouTube and 300,000 on Twitch, and is far from the typical personality looking to become more famous, being as he appears to be committed to the idea of proving himself the best.
There is no doubt Beaulo has the mechanical skill to match any player, including the likes of G2’s Pengu or Kantoraketti, but it will be up to his team mates to ease his transition into a pro team and give him the space he needs to have an impact. If that is the case, there is a chance for TSM to rise quickly through the NA rankings, where the Evil Geniuses team that has long been considered the best have started to show their obvious flaws on a more regular basis, and no true contender to their crown exists.
If this move does work out, it also has the potential to be much cheaper than CSGO, where teams are paying players $20,000 a month to not perform at LAN events (cough, G2, cough). The growth of Siege has also been in large part to the excellent, and progressive work done by Ubisoft, suggesting a bright future that only got brighter when one of the biggest orgs worldwide got involved.
Image: TSM
