Evil Geniuses, Luminosity and Team Reciprocity all leave Rainbow Six: Siege esports scene

After Kian "Hyena" Mozayani's outburst over his treatment by Ubisoft and Luminosity, it was announced by Ubisoft that Luminosity Gaming were not going to be returning to the Rainbow Six: Siege Pro League.

Ubisoft’s North American division for esports released a statement addressing the matter, bringing with it news that Evil Geniuses and Team Reciprocity would also not be returning for next season's Pro League.

That is a lot of orgs in a short amount of time so let's look at how each has found themselves walking away from Siege esports.

What exactly happened? 

Ubisoft has been under fire the past couple of days regarding their alleged conduct regarding some of their North American rosters. For anyone unaware, going into 2020 and Year 5 of Siege, there were some massive changes coming to the game’s esports scene that most of the player base and professional players alike have been left in the dark about. All we know about it is that they have changed exactly how teams qualify for LAN tournaments, which may be the crux of the upcoming confusion. 

• Read more: Siege Pro League under fire after claims of mismanagement from Luminosity's Hyena

LG’s players have taken to Twitter explaining the blatant lack of communication they have received from Ubisoft, and that this miscommunication cost them their jobs. A mere day later, Ubisoft released the aforementioned statement on a Ubisoft Esports NA Twitter account. 

Immediately after this tweet’s release, the official Evil Geniuses Twitter account made a statement declaring their exit from Rainbow Six: Siege’s esports scene.

Team Reciprocity, the third team declared in Ubisoft’s announcement to be leaving the scene, simply responded with a gif of a crying Pikachu. 

Evil Geniuses

Evil Geniuses (EG) have been one of the longest standing orgs in Siege’s history. They used to be one of the most popular stars of each LAN, the team alone pulling in a majority of viewers from all North American showings.

That being said, over the past few years, it would be an understatement to say they had lost their magic. They have rarely qualified for anything of substance for quite a while now, and many viewers could tell the organization wasn't the force they used to be. 

While obviously the fans are broken up by the loss of the NA giant, some of the players and coaches have been vocal since Ubisoft’s announcement.

Austin “Yung” Trexler is among these players, having been a part of EG’s roster since late 2017. He issued a statement on Twitter saying that he and his fellow teammates will be looking for an org to pick them up soon, but he has stated on his Twitch that he may retire if he cannot find a team by the end of the season. 

Luminosity Gaming

Luminosity Gaming (LG)’s roster has been the most vocal out of any team amidst this drama regarding Ubisoft’s alleged treatment of them and provide the most context for what problems may be occurring to all the teams leaving Siege’s esports scene.

Without retreading too much ground covered elsewhere, some of LG’s players have claimed that Ubisoft failed at effectively communicating with the org and its players, leading to all of them being completely in the dark regarding their employment and living situation, given that they were living in Luminosity’s team house.

Currently, the team is staying in Vegas looking for an org to pick them up, but circumstances are looking grim. 

Team Reciprocity

Team Reciprocity has been the quietest out of the three teams in question, and it is understandable as to why. They were still relatively new on the Siege scene, and they had already been hit by financial issues earlier in the year due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. 

A Twitter account based off of leaking Rainbow Six content tweeted out that “the Reciprocity roster has been acquired by another org to play in R6”. Reciprocity player Davide “FoxA” Bucci retweeted this statement, implying in further tweets that fans “will never guess the org”. 

Moving Forward 

The North American scene’s future in Siege is looking a bit grimmer by the day, but there is still hope. If FoxA is correct, then Reciprocity’s roster has been picked up already, leaving hope for the remaining two rosters to follow suit. 

Ubisoft is continuing to accumulate more hate and vitriol from fans and pros alike regarding their handling of the North American scene.

Seemingly all the players want is to have their jobs given actual security, and not have their positions in further events given away to other players who didn’t actually fight for the spot.