The Y5S2.2 update will soon deploy to PC with the updated Player Reporting Panel. For Console, the 2.2 patch will be bundled alongside the 2.3 release.

The Reporting Panel is getting an upgrade! Building upon the last addition of more reporting categories to improve the granularity of in-game reports, we've added a new player-reporting panel. This new panel will provide you with more information on each type of reporting category so you can make an informed decision about which report type best fits the situation. More accurate reports from you and other players, means we can make sure we're handing out the appropriate sanctions to players that deserve it.



Access the Report options via the Player Profile Panel. Each report type has a description to help you choose the most appropriate report type. Once the report is made, you'll receive a confirmation message that we received the report . Players can only be reported once per match per player.

FIXED – Issues with launching when AntiVirus protection is on.
FIXED – Gadget does not always properly deploy if the button is released right before completion.

FIXED – Various clipping issues on maps.
FIXED – Various visual texture issues on maps.
FIXED – Various issues with vegetation on maps.
FIXED – Echo's Yokai can hide in certain spots on Bank due to missing collision with map assets.
FIXED – Uneven floor in Coastline.
FIXED – Defenders are not detected as being 'Outside' when in the window frame of 2F Control Room on Theme Park.
FIXED – Missing compass location on minimap on Tower.
FIXED – Some lower sections of soft walls on Kafe can act as unbreakable surfaces.
FIXED – Unbreakable sign in 1F Office Hallway of Bank.
FIXED – Gadgets can be deployed in out of reach areas in 2F Control Room on Theme Park.
FIXED – Defuser can't be picked up after being dropped in the fountain in EXT Fountain on Villa.
FIXED – Ace's SELMA can get stuck on the cupboard of 1F Kitchen on Oregon and become unrecoverable.
FIXED – Attackers can be spawn killed from EXT Warehouse on Cluhouse.
FIXED – Gadgets can be deployed in out of reach areas in 2F Cash Room on Clubhouse.
FIXED – Attackers can be spawn killed at EXT Warehouse.
FIXED – Drones can clip through the furniture in 3F Bathroom on Yacht.

FIXED – Various Menu/UI issues.
FIXED – Various visual cosmetic issues.
FIXED – Various cosmetic clipping issues.

Updated: June 26th 2020

We will be updating the following list regularly to outline the status of certain issues that are currently pressing for our community. Please note that this list is not exhaustive, and should only be used as a reference to give a general idea of where our focus currently is.

Description: Our priority on that front is to first repackage the way sounds are stored and connected to the game.

We currently have a limited ability to fix specific issues and this improvement should make it easier for us to work on the audio aspect of the game.

For more information on this topic, please refer to the Status Report blog.

Status: Target: Y5S3

Description: We are working on mitigation plans with our partners and we are continuously monitoring the situation. We’ll continue to share updates on the situation until the matter is solved.

Status: Ongoing

Description: [/b] We continue working in close collaboration with all our partners to flag, report & identify cheaters as effectively as possible.

Steel Wave contained dissuasive measures such as rank lock below level 50, as well as a limit of 100 games to reach the Champion’s rank.

We are also working on other options to continue improving the situation on that front, we'll share a detailed overview on the topic very soon.

Status: Ongoing

Description: [/b] Additional context and explanations will be added to the in-game reporting panel. In an effort to effectively address the situation, having more accurate player reports will facilitate information gathering on our end.

Status: Target: Y5S2.2

Description: [/b] During the Steel Wave test server period we received a number of feedback requests for balancing tweaks to the new Operators. After evaluating feedback from players, and data from the TS, we plan to make a few balancing changes to the new operators with the 2.1 patch.

• Lowering the penalty zone by approximately 33%.
  
• Lowering the sound of Banshee effect in first person PoV.

• Remove the possibility of destroying Bandit's Batteries through reinforcements, by placing the charges on the floor

Status: Target: Y5S2.1

Description: [/b] There are inconsistencies in how gadgets interact/destroy props on maps.

Similar to how we implemented consistency on how props break on projectile trajectory in Y4S4, we are working on a system for deployable gadgets’ interaction with these props.

Status: Target: Y5S3

Description: We are adding the possibility to set a specific sensitivity for each zoom levels / sights.

Status: Target: Y5S3

Description: The rework intends to make flash detection more reliable. Enemies are often not affected by flashes due to objects and obstacles. We want to simulate the light ricochet with the environment, to guarantee the effectiveness of flashbangs & other similar gadgets.

Status: Target: Y5S4

Description: We are currently looking at improving the vault detection code to make the action easier to perform and to be more reliable

Status: Target: Y5S3

Description: To address frustrations where players are placed into a game with incomplete teams on either side, we are working on a Match Cancellation feature, that you may have tried on the Test Server.

The goal will be to allow players to cancel matches in the early stages of a game under the condition that their team is incomplete.

Status: Target: Y5S2.1

Description: Improved in-game notifications and feedback for when an Operator has been deactivated.

There have been times when we have had to deactivate an Operator in-game to better the play experience when exploits arise. We are working on better feedback to our players when such an occasion arises.

Status: Target: Y5S3

Description: Interactions with the defuser could often lead to some issues, in Y5S4 we’ll address the following ones:

Defuser plant prompt is sometimes missing when the player is on site
Defusers can be planted outside of the site when the players sits on the edge of the area.
Players could drop the defuser when attempting to plant.
Status: Target: Y5S4

Description: The in-game notification system often displayed outdated or already read alerts. It should guarantee that these notifications are relevant to the players.

Status: Target: Y5S3

Spinning on specific locations could lead to FPS drops for anyone in the same game.
The Banshee's hitbox is inaccurate and covers more than the model.
The defuser can be planted on the edge of the hatch in 2F Master Bedroom on House
Updated: May 27 2020

To follow up on our last Top Issues update below in April, we would like to give you all a status update on the hacking, cheating, and lobby-freezing issues. We'll go over some of the steps we have taken where we have found success, where we are still working to make improvements, as well as emphasize our continued focus on cheating and hacking as priority issues.

Lobby-Freezing: Lobby-freezing occurs while in menu or while loading into a round, and no connectivity icons will appear.

Update: After our April Top Issues blog, we made an update to the game that would allow us to gather more data to accurately track and identify lobby-freezers. We were able to successfully use that data to implement an auto-kick feature for individuals identified as holding up games through extreme loading times. Kicked players will receive an abandon sanction and be locked out of ranked/unranked until the match is over. We have been monitoring the automatic kicks for some time now on the live servers and have observed high success rates of detecting and only kicking players who are holding up lobbies to the detriment of the other players in the game. We are continuing to gather data on console lobby-freezing before we finalize plans to activate the lobby-freeze autokick detection on console as well.

DOS: DOS attacks can be distinguished from lobby-freezing as they typically occur during gameplay and the connectivity icons will appear.

Update: We have also observed some unusual network traffic and activity for Console players and suspect that some cases of lobby-freezing on Console may be tied to DOS attacks. We are currently pursuing this and investigating the issue and will update when we learn more.

Update: In our last update, we re-emphasized that we do not tolerate cheating in-game and were preparing a number of short and long term strategies to address the cheating frustrations. While we are aware this is still an ongoing issue, we believe these upcoming changes will help to mitigate some of the frustrations as we work internally on more robust long-term solutions.

Offline Bans (Target date: End of May): We will begin banning players offline. Previously sanctioned accounts were banned after logging back into Siege. Accounts will now be banned even if they remain offline. This will provide more clarity on the ban feedback loop and improve visibility on banned accounts.
Increased Clearance Level Requirements for Ranked (Target date: Y5S2): In Y5S2 we will be increasing the required clearance level for players to play Ranked. This is aimed at increasing the barrier to access for illegitimate accounts for Ranked to promote a better Ranked environment.
Increased Champion Rank Requirements (Target date: Y5S2): In Y5S2 we will be increasing the requirements for players to be eligible for Champion Rank. In addition to meeting the minimum 5000 MMR, eligible layers will be required to have played at least 100 ranked matches to qualify. This is also aimed at increasing the barrier to access for illegitimate accounts and maintaining a clean Champion leaderboard

XP level cap in PvE: (Status: Active) We have already put an XP cap in PvE in place in order to increase barriers to entry for Ranked for smurfs.

Updated: 23 April 2020

We will be updating the following list regularly to outline the status of certain issues that are currently pressing for our community. Please note that this list is not exhaustive, and should only be used as a reference to give a general idea of where our focus currently is.


We have recently observed an increase in cheating mentions and reports from players. We want to emphasize that we do not tolerate cheating in game and are working on multiple strategies to address the cheating frustrations and uphold the competitive integrity of Rainbow Six Siege. Below are some of the strategies that we can share that are being worked on for the short-term.

LOBBY FREEZING
Description: We've seen an increase in incidences of lobby freezers seeking to disrupt games to their advantage. We will be releasing update(s) that will allow us to better monitor and more accurately track lobby-freezers.

Objective: The updates will allow us to gather necessary data points that we will use to accurately track and identify lobby-freezing. In future updates we will use this data to automatically detect and kick lobby-freezers.

Status: This is currently an ongoing process.

AUTOMATED DATA UPDATES TO BATTLEYE
Description: Due to the increased mentions and player reports of cheating, we are reinforcing the bridge between R6 and BattlEye.

Objective: Strengthen our collaboration with BattlEye by implementing automated processes and reinforcing data sharing to shorten the feedback loop on banned players.

Status: Ongoing.

Description: Increase Ranked and Champion Rank requirements.

Objective: Increase the barrier to access for illegitimate accounts to both Ranked and Champion rank to promote a better Ranked environment and a clean Champion leaderboard.

Status: (Target: Y5S2) We will have more specifics on the new requirements closer to S2.

Description: Daily level grind cap from PvE as a prevention tactic to make Ranked requirements less accessible to illegitimate accounts.

Objective: Our goal is to make Ranked less easily accessible to bots and smurfs by limiting the daily XP that can be earned in PvE. This will make it easier for us to spot and catch bots and smurfs before they are able to make their way into Ranked.

Status: We are aiming to have this completed as soon as possible.

KNOWN BUGS/ISSUES
UNINTENDED ABANDON SANCTIONS BUG
Description: An error was found in the matchmaking flow that was causing players to receive abandon sanctions if they left the Ranked queue right as a match was found. Players were already processed as being in the match when they had already backed out.

Objective: The game flow will be modified so that the penalty warning message for abandon can be displayed earlier, and coincide with the time when the penalty system will effectively apply.

Status: (Target Y5S2) A fix is scheduled for Y5S2.

Description: An error was found in the matchmaking flow that was causing matches to start with incomplete teams if a player exited the Ranked queue right as a match was found. These players were already processed as being in the match when they had already backed out, resulting in games starting with incomplete teams.

Objective: Part of the solution is to correct when the abandon sanction warning message popup is displayed to alert players that they have already entered a match and deter them from leaving. We are also working on a Match Cancellation feature which will allow players to cancel matches in the early stages of a game under the condition that their team is incomplete (this will come later to the PC TS in Y5S2).

Status: (Target Y5S2) A fix is scheduled for Y5S2.

Description: Past completed Community Challenges show up as "Coming Soon" in the Battle Pass menu after the challenge is over. This is purely a visual bug.

Status: (Target Y5S2) A fix is scheduled for this bug with the Y5S2 BP update.

Description: The popups notifying players of an MMR rollback after a cheater has been banned is displaying the incorrect values. This is a purely a visual bug.

Status: (Target Y5S3)__ This is currently under investigation.


Description: This feature improves the current PC Hardware Benchmark tool in Siege, giving detailed information and performance reports about their hardware specifications and resource usages.

Objective: We are working toward a new benchmark test that better conveys how Siege performs on different setups.

Status: (Target Y5S2).

Description: There are inconsistencies in how gadgets interact/destroy props on maps.

Status: (Target: Y5S3) Similar to how we implemented consistency on how props break on projectile trajectory in Y4S4, we are working on a system for deployable gadgets’ interaction with these props.

Description: Ranked games will sometimes begin with incomplete teams due to players leaving at the very start of the match.

Objective: To address frustrations where players are placed into a game with incomplete teams on either side, we are working on a Match Cancellation feature. The goal will be to allow players to cancel matches in the early stages of a game under the condition that their team is incomplete.

Status: (Target Y5S2 on the PC TS) Match Cancellation is scheduled to be released on the PC Test Server in Y5S2.

Description: Improved in-game notifications and feedback for when an Operator has been deactivated.

Status: (Target: Y5S3) There have been times when we have had to deactivate an Operator in-game to better the play experience when exploits arise. We are working on better feedback to our players when such an occasion arises.

Operation Steel Wave, the second season of Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege Year 5, is now available. Operation Steel Wave introduces Ace and Melusi, a new Attacker and Defender from Norway and South Africa, in addition to an entirely reworked House map and slew of gameplay changes.

Owners of the Year 5 Pass can play with the new Operators immediately, while the rest of the players will be able to unlock these Operators starting June 23rd using Renown or R6 Credits. Additional seasonal new content, including the House map rework, are available for free to all players. Year 5 Season 2 will also welcome its Battle Pass “Tour De Force,” on June 29th.

In Operation Steel Wave, players will meet two new Operators:

• Norwegian Attacker Ace is equipped with S.E.L.M.A., a throwable and stickable device that will stick to any vertical surface and slowly destroy up to 3 panels, one after the other. The S.E.L.M.A. gadget can also be thrown at almost any defensive gadget and destroy it with its arms or water explosive.

• South African Defender Melusi is equipped with Banshee deployable electronic gadgets. It applies a slowing effect to any Attackers that are in range and direct line of sight. The Banshee can also be used as an intel gadget as it produces an identifiable sound when an attacker enters its range.

In addition to these two new Operators, players will be able to explore a reimagined House map, which has been newly reworked. The homeowners have expanded their family and their floorplan, with a large two-story addition adding new objective sites and entry points for players to contend with. Additional changes can be experienced throughout the map, all with the intent of evolving the gameplay meta.

Operation Steel Wave also introduces a new Defender secondary gadget – the Proximity Alarm. The small, throwable sticky gadget is an essential intel-gathering tool that loudly alerts Defenders of an oncoming Attacker in its line of sight.

Additional game updates include the following:

• Unified MMR
  
• Amaru Buff
  
• Addition of Echo Elite set

Over the course of the Steel Wave test server period we have resolved a variety of issues and made a few additional updates.



During the Steel Wave test server period we received a number of feedback requests for balancing tweaks to the new Operators. After evaluating feedback from players, and data from the TS, we plan to make a few balancing changes to the new operators with the 2.1 patch. The changes will not go into effect until the Y5S2.1 update.

• Lowering the penalty zone by approximately 33%.
  
• Lowering the sound of Banshee effect in first person POV.

• Remove the possibility of destroying Bandit's Batteries through reinforcements, by placing the charges on the floor.

• Replace her deployable shield with C4.

After re–evaluating a number of current game–meta and gameplay factors, we made the decision to swap out Melusi's deployable shields for C4 to prevent putting extra pressure on attackers and specific attacker utility.

• Increased the damage from 41 to 59. Increased ADS Speed.
  
• Increase the ACS12 RPM to 300 RPM.

Buff to the ACS12's damage to make it a bit more viable than it is currently. ADS speed should also now match other weapons of the same category. Furthermore, on release, the ACS12 had 300RPM, and it was lowered by a later balancing change. With this change alongside the change to slugs, the 300 RPM should not have issues with destruction.


French localized audio for Ace and Melusi will be available in FR at launch. RU localizations are still unavailable.

Attachment system updates allow for attachment skins and simpler loadout balancing.

Adjustment to metal detector SFX and activation on Bank, Kanal + Border.

• Now plays a short 3–sec alarm before stopping.
  
• Only one alarm can be played at a time.
  
• No cooldown on the alarm trigger.

This fixes an issue where alarm cooldowns meant that players could cross metal detector barriers multiple times without an alarm sounding (if it was already triggered previously and on cooldown).

Added a top window blocker and bars to the wall facing treehouse to allow players to shoot through, but players will not be able to rappel in through that window.

• FIXED – ACS12's slugs deal no damage from distances greater than 40m.
  
• FIXED – M4 reload animation and audio are slightly out of sync.
  
• FIXED – AK12 reload animation and audio are out of sync.
  
• FIXED – FPS drops when debris flies next to players.
  
• FIXED – Bulletproof Camera casing still deploys after canceling when crouching.
  
• FIXED – Deployable shields (and Goyo’s Vulcan) have pick–up priority over other throwable gadgets. Gadgets should be able to be picked up in the order of most recently deployed.
  
• FIXED – Players can sometimes vault into another operator under specific circumstances.
  
• FIXED – Secure Area’s Biohazard container hitbox is too large.
  
• FIXED – Shield operators hugging a reinforced wall can prevent the deployment of hard–breach gadgets on the reinforced wall’s inner layer (such as Thermite’s breach charge and Mira’s Black Mirror).
  
• FIXED – Impact grenades and Zofia's grenades explode on attacker instead of on the attacker's ballistic shield if they are sprinting/walking at time of impact.
  
• FIXED – Objective discovery is not triggered when looking at it indirectly from the edge of the screen and FOV settings are above 60.
  
• FIXED – ADS appears zoomed out for some sights on the P10 Roni.
  
• FIXED – Hostage will go into DBNO instead of dying as intended, if an explosive gadget is detonated near the hostage.

FIXED – Abnormal gunshot SFX with T–95 LSW.
FIXED – Missing VFX when using specific weapons and attachments. (e.g.: Using the M12 + Muzzle Brake only yields giant sparkles instead of muzzle flash + smoke).
FIXED – Various minor animation issues when performing certain movements for various operators.
FIXED – Various minor visual fixes and updates for support mode and death replays.
FIXED – Various visual fixes for operators and their gadgets.

• FIXED – Ace's SELMA does not destroy Barbed Wire on the first explosion.
  
• FIXED – Ace's SELMA can stick onto a Black Mirror red canister, causing the animation to be improperly orientated.
  
• FIXED – Ace does not receiving points after destroying a deployable defender gadget with SELMA.

• FIXED – Melusi's Banshees should have the same explosion resistance as Maestro's Evil Eyes. Currently have very low explosion resistance.

• FIXED – Amaru sometimes cannot reel to a hatch even when the gadget activation icon is available.
  
• FIXED – Amaru’s Garra Hook is not attaching properly with the expected frame points on skylights.
  
• FIXED – Amaru can use her Garra Launcher on the blocked window at EXT Tree House of House.
  
• FIXED – Small smoke VFX at the corners where Amaru's Garra Hook attaches to the corners of the window frame.
  
• FIXED – Amaru's reeling SFX is distorted/missing in replays.

• FIXED – Floor debris and partially damaged reinforced hatches can prevent Bandit from deploying his gadget.

• FIXED – Fire does not propagate properly when darts are shot under some furniture assets.

• FIXED – Shock Drones and Yokai can shoot operators through normal barricades and Castle barricades. They will no longer be able to do so.
  
• FIXED – Yokai’s camera POV will gray out and lose color if Thatcher uses his EMP anywhere on the map.
  
• FIXED – Echo's Yokai can sometimes clip through thin ceilings on maps and see onto the rooftops in support mode.

• FIXED – Missing VFX timer on Finka's thumb gadget gauge when using the last adrenal surge charge.
  

• FIXED – Operators can take damage or even die when standing next to a detonating cluster charge even if they are not in the cluster charge AOE.
  

• FIXED – Glaz's thermal scope provides no visibility through smoke even when fully charged. The yellow highlight is still visible, but weaker than intended.
  
• FIXED – Glaz’s OTs-03 can be used with full functionality while escorting the Hostage.
  

• FIXED – Iana’s hologram will trigger the shrapnel system.

• FIXED – Lesion can see through smoke when looking through a deployed GU Mine.

• FIXED – Lion’s EE–ONE–D can be hit and destroyed by weapon fire.

• FIXED – When Nokk has her HEL Presence active and is damaged by Ace's SELMA, the Glitching VFX will not be displayed for anyone operating an Evil Eye or Bulletproof Camera.

• FIXED – If Maestro leaves the game, his Evil Eye windows are not opening to 50% in their disabled state.

• FIXED – Warden is missing his signature reload animation with the SMG–12.

• FIXED – Ying’s candelas do not activate properly after being thrown through an electrified, damaged wall.

• FIXED – Impact and concussion grenades from Zofia's gadget at very close range do not affect enemy operators.

• FIXED – Doorways, reinforceable walls, and hatches on several maps are blocked if a player is AFK at spawn.
  
• FIXED – Various spawn kill/spawn peek opportunities on maps.
  
• FIXED – Glass resistance to gadgets for some map assets is broken.
  
• FIXED – Various collision issues on maps.
  
• FIXED – Various clipping/dynamic clipping issues on maps.
  
• FIXED – Various LOD issues on maps.
  
• FIXED – Various LOS issues on maps.
  
• FIXED – Various map asset destruction issues.
  
• FIXED – Unnecessary/missing vault prompts on maps.
  
• FIXED – Various map asset issues.
  
• FIXED – Various lighting/texture issues on maps.

• FIXED – Spawning in 1F TV Room and 1F Music Room as spawn points for defenders on House results in 1 defender spawning at B Gym instead.
  
• FIXED – Players are unable to pick up Mozzie's Pests if they are deployed on the rug covering the stairs in House.
  
• FIXED – Gadgets can be placed in unreachable areas of reworked House
  
• FIXED – Operators can climb inside the bookcase in 2F Reading Room of House.
  
• FIXED – A wall in 2F Pick Room of House cannot be reinforced in Hostage mode if player who spawns next to it does not move.
  
• FIXED – Attackers rappelling into the window of 2F back stairs of House remain in the air for a brief moment due to a missing floor asset.
  
• FIXED – Defenders can block a reinforceable wall in 2F Car Room of House if they are AFK at spawn
  
• FIXED – Drones do not spawn close to the selected spawn location on House.
  
• FIXED – Small deployable gadgets cannot be picked up again when placed on the armchair pillow in 2F Master Bedroom of House.
  
• FIXED – Drones can get stuck between the pile of pipes in front of construction on House.

• FIXED – One of the hatches in the 2F Server Room of Border is not being completely destroyed and can leave collision that blocks players.
  

• FIXED – Pixel peek from B Wine Cellar of Chalet.

• FIXED – Alibi’s Prisma will not deploy when thrown into interior garden at 1F Main Stairs of Consulate.
  
• FIXED – Breaching charges can be placed on indestructible floor sections in 2F Hallway of Consulate.
  
• FIXED – Collision missing for Hibana’s X–Kairos pellets and the wooden desk at 1F Lobby of Consulate.
  
• FIXED – Rappel point is incorrectly placed for the skylight above 1F Main Stairs in Consulate.
  
• FIXED – Operators' gadgets can get stuck in the flags on Consulate.

• FIXED – Planting the defuser in specific areas on the metal shelf of B Arsenal Room in Clubhouse can glitch the plant and cause attackers to lose the round.
  
• FIXED – Players can destroy the cardboard boxes in Snowmobile Garage on Chalet and hide in the shadows.
  
• FIXED – Spinning in a specific spot on Chalet can cause FPS drops for other players in the game.

• FIXED – Attackers can hide the defuser inside the closet at 2F Penthouse of Coastline.

• FIXED – Gridlock’s Trax Stingers are deploying inside the washing machines of 1F Laundry Room on Favela.

• FIXED – Gadgets and grenades can get stuck under the football table in 2F Games Room in Fortress when thrown from certain angles.
  
• FIXED – In Fortress, when players shoot a Capitao dart in specific places on the hood–extractor, the incendiary bolt will ignite, but the fire will not propagate.
  
• FIXED – Issues with reinforcing a wall in 2F Games Room of Fortress when one of the defenders is AFK.
  
• FIXED – Players can still get shocked through an indestructible wall in 2F Shisha Hallway on Fortress.

• FIXED – Players can hide behind a target dummy inside a wood rack in 1F Garage of Hereford.

• FIXED – Missing glass panels for some windows on Oregon.

• FIXED – Players can get stuck inside the vents of EXT Forklift Alley of Kanal after exiting rappel between the gap in the vents.
  
• FIXED – Echo's Yokai drone can lose signal and stop responding if deployed on top of the vents of 2F Printer Room in Kanal.

• FIXED – Various Menu UI improvements.
  
• FIXED – Various minor cosmetic and shop UI fixes.
  
• FIXED – Various minor menu fixes and improvements.
  
• FIXED – Various cosmetic fixes to charms, uniforms, headgears.
  
• FIXED – Empty player cards visible in spectator mode if all observation tools are destroyed and player joins–in–progress.
  
• FIXED – Floating drones in support and caster mode.
  
• FIXED – Outlines of objectives and some gadgets are sometimes highlighted while in support mode after dying.
  
• FIXED – Various caster/spectator HUD improvements and updates. Increased legibility of the player states on player cards.
  
• FIXED – Visual replication issues from 3rd person POV for operators exiting rappel from a rooftop.
  
• FIXED – Missing flash FX for players who are in support mode.
  
• FIXED – Weapons clip through Defenders hands at spawn if a grip is equipped.
  
• FIXED – (PvE) Missing exterior barricades at the beginning of Situation 02.
  
• FIXED – (PvE) One bot can get stuck in front of the bar at 1F restaurant after the defuser is planted.
  
• FIXED – Attachments are invisible on bots in PvE.
  
• FIXED – Players cannot complete the "Kill one blinded enemy" objective in the 2nd Situation.
  
• FIXED – CPU Load displays 0% in the new advanced benchmark results report.
  
• FIXED – 'None'/'Default' options for attachments, charms, headgear, and uniforms is missing.
  
• FIXED – The Discovery playlist is missing a name on some UI elements in the main menu.
  
• FIXED – Infinite loading in the custom online game mode only
  
• FIXED – Quitting a match during prep/ban phase will display a VISUAL ONLY deranking to Copper V for players who are already ranked.
  
• FIXED – Texture for black weapon attachment skin is darker on holographic/laser sights.

1. Sound Issues
2. Connectivity
--- 2.1. Overall Connectivity
--- 2.2. Latency Policy
3. Cheating and Disruptive Behavior
--- 3.1. DDoS
--- 3.2. Boosting
--- 3.3. Smurfing
--- 3.4. Incomplete Teams
--- 3.5. Vote to Kick Abuse
--- 3.6. MMR Rollback Frustrations
--- 3.7. Streamer Mode
4. Accessibility
5. Smoke Propagation Issues
6. Drone Issues

With a game that has been around for as long as Siege, we are aware that there are long-standing issues that we have yet to fully resolve. We are dedicated to maintaining and growing the game continually, as we have done for many years before. We appreciate the community’s support throughout the years, and we also thank you for your patience as the game continues to develop.

In this Status Report we will be shedding some light on long-standing topics of player concerns that are very important to us, but also complex to discuss. Our regular Top Issues and Community Concerns blog posts lays out current issues with more finite and short-term fixes. The goal of this Status Report is to share behind-the-scenes insight as to why some of the long-standing issues are so persistent, and how we are approaching solutions to them in the long-run.

While not all of these topics will be addressed in the near future, we do have several things already in the works that we want to share.

Concerns: We are aware that various sound issues in the game have been problematic for players for some time. Sound in Siege is a very complex system which attempts to realistically simulate sound propagation in a 3D environment. In some cases, the complexity of the sound system can be confusing which leads to player misunderstandings—for example, when sound uses a specific route to reach the player, but the player is not aware of that route (like in the case of a Maverick hole). In other cases, this complexity can also mean it can be very difficult to diagnose sound bugs, such as the frequently mentioned inversed audio, or missing sounds.

Challenges: Our sound system takes into account many parameters when serving sounds to players. This includes the player’s position, environment, game state, and more. New components that interact with our sound system get added every Season, and with new elements there are always new opportunities for bugs to be introduced.

Another important factor to consider is that Siege’s destruction engine fosters a constantly changing, dynamic environment. Every round is unique since sound propagation dynamically changes based on the different states of destruction. This adds an extra layer of complexity to reproducing and fixing sound-related issues.

The goal of sound propagation in Siege is to dynamically convey realistic sound direction and position to the players. This is done by dividing our maps into multiple spaces, which allow sound to propagate from one space to another through specific connection points (such as destructible walls, floors, doors and windows). Then depending on the current state of map destruction, the propagation system connects the sound to the listener by calculating the best path. It will check whether the connector points are covered by their corresponding wall, or if a hole was made which would let the sound pass. Once the algorithm determines the optimum pathway, we use this information to position and modulate the sound so players can recognize the sound’s origin and distance.

Future: To get sound in Siege to a better place we have taken multiple actions internally to help us diagnose and fix sound issues. First, we have instrumented the sound system to help us catch errors more quickly. This aims to enable us to identify errors earlier in our development process, as well as debug difficult-to-reproduce problems.

Secondly, we have reviewed the status of our sound and propagation systems. We've reached the conclusion that we need to rebuild large parts of it, starting with the way sounds are packaged and connected to the game. We are aiming to begin releasing the sound repackaging in Season 3. However, the full rebuild of the entire sound propagation and sound interactions systems is a major undertaking that will not be finalized in Year 5.

In the meantime, new bugs that pop up are fixed when proper reproduction can be achieved by our QC teams. This is one of the main roadblocks behind the inverse audio and missing sounds bugs: they seem to occur randomly and cannot be recreated consistently in-house, which makes it very difficult to work on the steps towards a solution. However, we will continue to try reproducing sound bugs as part of our usual processes and fixing them whenever possible. We would also like to ask for the community’s help on this matter. If you find a consistent way of reproducing any sound issues you face, please let us know through R6 Fix, opt in for direct contact in your submission, and we can reach out for more info.

Connectivity is a varied topic that encompasses many different areas such as internet service providers, our backend services (such as matchmaking), our game servers, our game server provider, and even DDoS attacks.

Challenges: Our live and online teams monitor our online services 24/7 to ensure that the game is always available to our players. They are always aware of any degradations that arise and work very hard to resolve them as quickly as possible. Despite their constant surveillance, degradations do still occur. While some degradations can occur due to changes on our end, other times degradations are outside of our control (i.e. third-party degradations). When a degradation occurs, we do our utmost to bring services back online with minimum impact to our players. For prolonged periods of downtime we have a compensation matrix in place.

As an example, at the beginning of the stay-at-home measures in mid-March, the added load on our servers caused degradations in matchmaking and login problems. To answer the increased load and player activity, we scaled up our infrastructure by:

• Doubling the number of servers allocated to processing matchmaking data (distributing the load across more servers to prevent backlogs).
  
• Adding additional shards (each shard is a separate server instance) to increase the capacity of our databases (increasing database scalability and performance).
  
• Doubling the capacity of the Rainbow Six Siege load balancer (increasing capacity to be able to distribute network traffic more reliably).
  
• From start to end, the connectivity issues lasted less than a week while we implemented the above measures before returning to normal.

During regular periods of activity, our data indicates that 97% of Ranked games start with 10 players, and more than 98.5% of matches end successfully without individual connection lost, high ping kicks, or game server crashes. The graph below illustrates the overall success rate of Rainbow Six matches since the beginning of the year (in green):



However, a good example of connectivity issues that are not within our control can be seen in the blue section of the graph. The blue section above indicates matches where at least one player was kicked due to high ping. With the start of stay-at-home measures in March, the percentage of high ping kicks has more than doubled due to the additional load placed on the internet globally — a factor we are unable to control.

Future: Our live and online teams are constantly exploring ways to improve the quality of service in Siege. They have been working endlessly behind the scenes since the launch of Siege and continue their efforts to this day.

To improve connectivity performance and resiliency, we migrated our game servers to Linux last year, and this year, work is already underway to improve resiliency in case of third-party outages. To improve horizontal scaling capabilities, improve matchmaking times, and allow for more seamless maintenances, we are working on transitioning our entire backend to a microservices based architecture. As you can imagine, these changes take time. However, we will make our best efforts to make everything seamless and transparent to players, so look forward to more updates from us as these changes go live.

Concern: When a player’s ping reaches a certain threshold for a sustained period of time, they are kicked from the game. The current kick threshold is considered too lenient by some in the community.

Challenge: Our current ping thresholds are based on values observed during the 2015 Alpha tests. Connectivity kicks and warning standards for what we deem to be so laggy as to have a negative impact on the game is based on that data. Anything less than a ping of 110ms is considered acceptable and for any values over this, additional checks and verifications are applied to the player’s actions before triggering a kick to remove the player. Future: We need to maintain an overall quality of play performance for everyone in the game, while allowing some flexibility for potential fluctuations in the normal course of gameplay. Our teams are invested in reducing latency by adding game servers in additional regions—but this will require proper assessments on whether the population in that region would be able to sustain matchmaking while still putting players into matches within a reasonable amount of time. It will also depend on the capacity of our infrastructure providers. (Siege currently maintains servers in West EU, North EU, South Africa, HK, Singapore, Japan, Australia, US West, US East, US Central South and Brazil). As we add more regions and the average player latency is reduced, we may re-evaluate our data and revisit potential changes to ping thresholds.

Cheating in Siege is and will always be a topic of high priority for us. In our latest issue of Top Issues and Community Concerns we outlined the results of some of our short-term tactics to mitigate hackers, cheating, and lobby freezes. We will continue to communicate on anti-cheat measures under the condition that it will not compromise our efforts against cheaters and won’t negatively impact implemented solutions. We do also aim to have a longer-form dev blog on cheating in the near future.

On the subject of toxicity, we take a firm stance against it. We seek to prioritize healthy interactions between players, promote a positive game environment, and uplift a supportive community. Presently, we try to mitigate toxic and disruptive behaviors in game with chat filtering, mute options, Reverse Friendly Fire, keeping all-chat off by default, and the upcoming Match Cancellation feature. The battle against toxicity must ultimately be a collaborative effort between the team and the Siege community, so we will continue to encourage positive behaviors we’d like to see more of.

Concern: DDoS issues have arisen from time to time as cheaters find different methods to attack vulnerabilities in our systems.

Challenges: We are highly committed to protecting our game from DDoS attacks. We have a dedicated team monitoring network anomalies and DDoS attacks on our servers. However, each case differs and often requires different partners (both internal and external) to investigate and remedy. For instance, a recent rise in reports of DDoS was actually tied to lobby freezing—a different method of disrupting the game. We worked to create a refined detection and tracking method for lobby freezers and then implemented an automatic kick for identified cheaters.

To provide some context, below is a graph that represents the number of successful DDoS attacks on our systems.



In the months leading up to Ember Rise, the number of DDoS attacks rose incredibly quickly. We began implementing a number of measures to put a stop to the attacks, including working closely with external providers. Once our DDoS mitigation solution was activated, we saw the number of successful attacks drop to almost 0.

The situation remained stable until recently, when a rise in DDoS reports in the beginning of March led to our discovery of some new DDoS techniques being used.

Future: We will continue to monitor and investigate DDoS attacks on our servers. Our dedicated DDoS team is currently pursuing several avenues to mitigate new types of attacks we’ve discovered in collaboration with our external cloud provider. We will provide more regular updates on this in our Top Issues and Community Concerns blog posts, or in upcoming patch notes depending on when we have more to share.

Concern: Boosters unfairly inflate the rank of other players via dishonest or illegal means. This is usually done by manipulating our matchmaking systems by smurfing and/or through cheats.

Future: To handle accounts boosted by cheaters, we have a 2-step system that includes banning the cheaters, and then carrying out a MMR rollback. Banned cheaters will trigger MMR rollbacks, and we can identify with quite high confidence players who receive a significant MMR as having been boosted. These boosted players then receive an MMR reset and are required to redo their Season’s placement matches. Furthermore, to reduce boosting, we also implemented a limit on the maximum MMR gap allowed between party members. Another step to combat boosting is the upcoming unified MMR change. This allows our matchmaking system to properly identify players based on their worldwide MMR rather than their regional one should they change servers (therefore allowing them to play at their Seasonal MMR reset’s value for a short period).

Unfair matchmaking caused by players who are misrepresenting their actual skill level is an issue we will continuously strive to improve on.

Concern: Smurfs create imbalances in matchmaking when they use new accounts to hide their actual skill level. Our matchmaking system does not use Clearance Level, K/D, or win rate to carry out matchmaking. It uses MMR. MMR is determined by your match’s outcome, while taking into account the enemy team’s MMR. By disguising their true skill level, smurfs impact the competitive balance of the match with very few ways for us to verify the incident.

Challenges: Smurfing is a struggle the entire industry faces and in our community, it damages the playing experience.

Our User Research team will continue to work to improve our understanding and analysis of this topic in the future, however a major difficulty lies in the limited tracking. Smurfs are difficult to identify, and we need a way to do so before making any changes to our system to combat these players. Currently, our team is using the available data to detect outliers that would indicate smurfing. In the meanwhile, we will continue to enforce measures such as 2-Step Verification to add barriers to multiple accounts creation.

Challenge: Games that begin with an unequal number of players are extremely frustrating, and this kind of disadvantage goes against our goal of fair, balanced, and enjoyable games. While the Ranked playlist does allow players to rejoin the games they were in, we do realize that rejoining does not always occur.

Future: In Year 5 Season 2, we have announced the introduction of a new Match Cancellation feature. This will not ship at Season launch but later on during the Season.

To create the new Match Cancellation feature, we had to ensure that the system would not be exploitable and easily abused by players who wanted to bail on a game after loading in. Many situations and parameters had to be evaluated to set up criteria under which disadvantaged teams would be able to justify cancelling a match—such as momentary disconnects needing a chance to rejoin and how the voting system would work. Match Cancellation will give the disadvantage team the agency of cancelling the match when all our criteria for a potential cancellation is met. We are excited to share this with you in our next Season.

Concern: While Vote to Kick is no longer an option in Ranked Games, we often see Quick Match players reporting frustrations over the abuse of this function. The intention of this feature is to provide players with an option to remove a teammate should they exhibit problematic behavior; however, the original intent has sometimes been manipulated by some to create toxicity.

Challenges: We are aware of how this function has been abused and we agree that a redesign of the Vote to Kick rules is in order. There are multiple ways this feature has been abused and we are currently assessing the data to understand the various scenarios and how we can block openings for abuse. We have identified a few starting points, such as preventing players under certain sanctions from voting, and we are currently going over the Vote to Kick designs with the goal of having an upgrade live by Season 4.

Concern: We often hear feedback from players regarding MMR rollback frustrations when players who manage to win against cheaters still have their games rolled back.

Challenges: When we first introduced MMR rollbacks, there were concerns of massive MMR drops to the unwilling/unknowing teammates of the cheater if games where cheaters lose are not cancelled. As an unwilling teammate, all the matches you’d won together are rolled back (thus losing MMR), but all the games lost together will not get cancelled either (and therefore, the lost MMR still remains).

This is a non-issue if teammates are players who knowingly were in a squad with a cheater. However, in many cases where accounts are hacked by cheaters or teammates are just unknowingly playing with a cheater, this can be exceptionally hurtful to a legitimate but unsuspecting player.

Future: With the recently introduced MMR Reset, this partially mitigates some of the potential massive MMR Rollback concerns outlined above. When there is a large enough MMR rollback, players affected will have their MMR reset and be required to re-do their placement matches. We will be exploring what other risks there might be in only rolling back games where cheaters win in the near future.

Concern: We want to provide streamers with a layer of anonymity to maintain their gaming experience against major frustrations such as stream sniping.

Challenges: We are exploring a few options and need to find a solution where we would still be able to internally identify players while Streamer Mode is on—while providing public-facing anonymity.

Future: We have an early iteration of a potential solution which we discussed with a select few streamers. While the initial reception was positive, we need to make sure the feature is as bulletproof as possible security-wise to ensure there are no workarounds to affect anonymity while still allowing us to trace our players and player data when a different identity is used. We are continuing to iterate on the design and validating to see if we can break down this feature into more intermediate deliverables. We are committed to providing tools where content creators can communicate with their community and express their passion safely. At the same time, we will continue to take feedback to ensure that our system is robust and aligned with our players’ expectations.

Challenges: Player accessibility is important to us and the continued growth of Siege. Our vision for greater accessibility involves a full-fledged colorblind solution as a system that allows players the option to re-color claymores, laser sights, camera lights, etc.—while also taking into account which team you’re on for proper feedback.

Our earlier initiatives for implementing colorblind solutions did not live up to our expectations when tested with colorblind players. We learned that filters alone were not sufficient answers to most of the issues, and in some cases, it even created additional problems. We needed to implement a proper solution offering full-spectrum color selection. Customization at this level entails separating multiple elements for dynamic re-coloring—a significant task we have decided to split into smaller parts.

We are revisiting colorblindness in the near future. We will begin by focusing on improving the shooting experience first through taking a look at reticle colors and what can be done there. We hope to have something to share soon.

This is the first step in putting in place a flexible and comprehensive system. Many of our accessibility team’s resources are currently focused on adding what’s outlined in the Communications and Video Accessibility Act to the game. This will come with other accessibility improvements not specifically targeting colorblindness.

Concern: Smoke propagation as it currently stands is unreliable and confusing. The core of the problem is that small interior environments do not work well with our current smoke propagation system to allow for realistic gas positioning. As a result, we often see smoke clipping issues which, in the case of Smoke’s gadget also causes damage.

Challenge: We have previously explored solutions for smoke propagation by expanding on Capitão’s reworked smoke system. However, that system was not built to handle large layers of very dense gas like that of smoke grenades or Smoke’s gadget. Using Capitão’s smoke system on these kinds of smokes would cause massive drops in performance, negatively affecting gameplay and player experience.

Future: We have tried a few smaller fixes and workarounds on the system, but the results were unsatisfactory. We have concluded that we will need to overhaul the smoke propagation system, which will involve sizable work on the graphics and engine side to ensure good visual quality while maintaining a solid framerate. This is currently on hold until we have the time and resources to address it. We will communicate further when we have more to share.

Concern: Various drone-related bugs will pop up from time to time. These are varied, but frustrating as droning and gathering intel is a big part of the game.

Challenge: As the game grows, the drone system has become overly complex with many different moving parts. Sometimes, when making new changes to drones, we may unintentionally affect other parts of the system. Future: We will continue to investigate drone bugs as they arise and will work to fix them as soon as possible.

We are also migrating the drone system to our new gadget v2 system, which is designed to simplify, streamline, and decouple systems. Migration of some gadgets to this system been done transparently in the past year, and we will continue to improve all our gadgets in this way to help them be more resilient to exploits, and iterate faster. Automatic tests have also been added to identify regressions as soon as they occur. In some cases, bugs are caused by complex interactions with the drone system—or the game at large. Those complex cases should be addressed once our migration to the gadget v2 framework is complete.

NEXT UP

If you’ve made it to this paragraph, you’ve made your way through a very long list of long-term goals and promises. But we have good news for the near future too. We have got some community requests that -are- coming soon such as the alpha of the match replay system, map pick-and-ban, and various reworks. Plus, we’ve got even more things on the horizon that we are excited to share such as the reputation system, ping 2.0, and more. We look forward to continuing to build on the game with all of you!

For regular updates on Rainbow Six Siege, continue to look out for our patch notes, dev blogs, designer’s notes, Top Issues and Community Concerns articles, and Seasonal reveal panels. We aim to improve communications on a few key topics such as cheating, connectivity, and matchmaking—we will be releasing dev blogs touching on those in the near future.

To follow up on our last Top Issues update below in April, we would like to give you all a status update on the hacking, cheating, and lobby-freezing issues. We'll go over some of the steps we have taken where we have found success, where we are still working to make improvements, as well as emphasize our continued focus on cheating and hacking as priority issues.

Lobby-Freezing: Lobby-freezing occurs while in menu or while loading into a round, and no connectivity icons will appear.

Update: After our April Top Issues blog, we made an update to the game that would allow us to gather more data to accurately track and identify lobby-freezers. We were able to successfully use that data to implement an auto-kick feature for individuals identified as holding up games through extreme loading times. Kicked players will receive an abandon sanction and be locked out of ranked/unranked until the match is over. We have been monitoring the automatic kicks for some time now on the live servers and have observed high success rates of detecting and only kicking players who are holding up lobbies to the detriment of the other players in the game. We are continuing to gather data on console lobby-freezing before we finalize plans to activate the lobby-freeze autokick detection on console as well.

DOS: DOS attacks can be distinguished from lobby-freezing as they typically occur during gameplay and the connectivity icons will appear.

Update: We have also observed some unusual network traffic and activity for Console players and suspect that some cases of lobby-freezing on Console may be tied to DOS attacks. We are currently pursuing this and investigating the issue and will update when we learn more.

Update: In our last update, we re-emphasized that we do not tolerate cheating in-game and were preparing a number of short and long term strategies to address the cheating frustrations. While we are aware this is still an ongoing issue, we believe these upcoming changes will help to mitigate some of the frustrations as we work internally on more robust long-term solutions.

• Offline Bans (Target date: End of May): We will begin banning players offline. Previously sanctioned accounts were banned after logging back into Siege. Accounts will now be banned even if they remain offline. This will provide more clarity on the ban feedback loop and improve visibility on banned accounts.
  
• Increased Clearance Level Requirements for Ranked (Target date: Y5S2): In Y5S2 we will be increasing the required clearance level for players to play Ranked. This is aimed at increasing the barrier to access for illegitimate accounts for Ranked to promote a better Ranked environment.
  
• Increased Champion Rank Requirements (Target date: Y5S2): In Y5S2 we will be increasing the requirements for players to be eligible for Champion Rank. In addition to meeting the minimum 5000 MMR, eligible layers will be required to have played at least 100 ranked matches to qualify. This is also aimed at increasing the barrier to access for illegitimate accounts and maintaining a clean Champion leaderboard
  
• XP level cap in PvE: (Status: Active) We have already put an XP cap in PvE in place in order to increase barriers to entry for Ranked for smurfs.

Updated: 23 April 2020

We will be updating the following list regularly to outline the status of certain issues that are currently pressing for our community. Please note that this list is not exhaustive, and should only be used as a reference to give a general idea of where our focus currently is.

We have recently observed an increase in cheating mentions and reports from players. We want to emphasize that we do not tolerate cheating in game and are working on multiple strategies to address the cheating frustrations and uphold the competitive integrity of Rainbow Six Siege. Below are some of the strategies that we can share that are being worked on for the short-term.

Description: We've seen an increase in incidences of lobby freezers seeking to disrupt games to their advantage. We will be releasing update(s) that will allow us to better monitor and more accurately track lobby-freezers.

Objective: The updates will allow us to gather necessary data points that we will use to accurately track and identify lobby-freezing. In future updates we will use this data to automatically detect and kick lobby-freezers.

Status: This is currently an ongoing process.

Description: Due to the increased mentions and player reports of cheating, we are reinforcing the bridge between R6 and BattlEye.

Objective: Strengthen our collaboration with BattlEye by implementing automated processes and reinforcing data sharing to shorten the feedback loop on banned players.

Status: Ongoing.


Description: Increase Ranked and Champion Rank requirements.

Objective: Increase the barrier to access for illegitimate accounts to both Ranked and Champion rank to promote a better Ranked environment and a clean Champion leaderboard.

Status: (Target: Y5S2) We will have more specifics on the new requirements closer to S2.

Description: Daily level grind cap from PvE as a prevention tactic to make Ranked requirements less accessible to illegitimate accounts.

Objective: Our goal is to make Ranked less easily accessible to bots and smurfs by limiting the daily XP that can be earned in PvE. This will make it easier for us to spot and catch bots and smurfs before they are able to make their way into Ranked.

Status: We are aiming to have this completed as soon as possible.

Description: An error was found in the matchmaking flow that was causing players to receive abandon sanctions if they left the Ranked queue right as a match was found. Players were already processed as being in the match when they had already backed out.

Objective: The game flow will be modified so that the penalty warning message for abandon can be displayed earlier, and coincide with the time when the penalty system will effectively apply.

Status: (Target Y5S2) A fix is scheduled for Y5S2.

Description: An error was found in the matchmaking flow that was causing matches to start with incomplete teams if a player exited the Ranked queue right as a match was found. These players were already processed as being in the match when they had already backed out, resulting in games starting with incomplete teams.

Objective: Part of the solution is to correct when the abandon sanction warning message popup is displayed to alert players that they have already entered a match and deter them from leaving. We are also working on a Match Cancellation feature which will allow players to cancel matches in the early stages of a game under the condition that their team is incomplete (this will come later to the PC TS in Y5S2).

Status: (Target Y5S2) A fix is scheduled for Y5S2.

Description: Past completed Community Challenges show up as "Coming Soon" in the Battle Pass menu after the challenge is over. This is purely a visual bug.

Status: (Target Y5S2) A fix is scheduled for this bug with the Y5S2 BP update.

Description: The popups notifying players of an MMR rollback after a cheater has been banned is displaying the incorrect values. This is a purely a visual bug.

Status: (Target Y5S3) This is currently under investigation.


Description: This feature improves the current PC Hardware Benchmark tool in Siege, giving detailed information and performance reports about their hardware specifications and resource usages.

Objective: We are working toward a new benchmark test that better conveys how Siege performs on different setups.

Status: (Target Y5S2).

Description: There are inconsistencies in how gadgets interact/destroy props on maps.

Status: (Target: Y5S3) Similar to how we implemented consistency on how props break on projectile trajectory in Y4S4, we are working on a system for deployable gadgets’ interaction with these props.

Description: Ranked games will sometimes begin with incomplete teams due to players leaving at the very start of the match.

Objective: To address frustrations where players are placed into a game with incomplete teams on either side, we are working on a Match Cancellation feature. The goal will be to allow players to cancel matches in the early stages of a game under the condition that their team is incomplete.

Status: (Target Y5S2 on the PC TS) Match Cancellation is scheduled to be released on the PC Test Server in Y5S2.

Description: Improved in-game notifications and feedback for when an Operator has been deactivated.

Status: (Target: Y5S3) There have been times when we have had to deactivate an Operator in-game to better the play experience when exploits arise. We are working on better feedback to our players when such an occasion arises.

At the beginning of Y5 we announced an upcoming new Match Replay feature for Rainbow Six Siege.

While originally scheduled to go live in the first half of the year, circumstances have forced us to push back the schedule on Match Replay. Match replay is a feature that requires a great deal of technical development, but we hope to deliver the best experience to our players when it is ready to go live. Despite the delay, we’d like to share an early look at Match Replay with you all.



Match Replay is a system that automatically records your last 10 played games. With it, you’ll be able to re-watch and fully spectate your recorded games from both first-person and top-down points of view, from any player, and any angle.

Our goal with Match Replay is to provide players with an interactive tool that will provide full coverage and perspective on their last 10 games. Through the Watch tab in the main menu, you will be able to access your replays where your last 10 games are saved. Once you’re in the replay, you can use the Spectator mode tools to relive your clutch plays, scrutinize missteps, and analyze your strategy to level up your game.

Further down the road, we would like to give Match Replay even more functions such as storing them on the game server instead of locally, a share feature so you can share your replays with your friends, and even the possibility of downloading and watching replays from official esports matches.

We plan to first push an early version of Match Replay out onto the PC Test Servers for testing before sending it to live, so keep an eye out on the TS Patch Notes for updates on when it will be available!

Prepare for the unexpected, because Operation Steel Wave is full of novelties! New Operators arrive, with gadgets that are sure to change the flow of every match they participate in. A new NIGHTHAVEN recruit, Ace, swoops in to join the Attackers, while the Defenders gain a new teammate in Melusi, an Inkaba Task Force ranger.

As you’ll find in the Patch Notes below, with this season you can also expect our House rework as well as the new secondary gadget, the Proximity Alarm. Keep an eye out for changes to our Matchmaking Rating system and Amaru’s gadget function, plus brand new seasonal weapon skins and Echo’s Elite skin!

View Patch Notes

Balancing changes are data and feedback informed. Several teams in contact with various segments of our community, gather and compile both data and feedback to provide guidance to our designers. We are about to give you an insight about future changes and the reasoning behind them.

• Adding new secondary gadget: Proximity Alarm.

The new thrown sticky gadget is an essential intel-gathering tool, and it works just as well for anchors as it does for roamers. It will be triggered by any attacker entering its detection field.

One of the key factors behind the creation of this gadget is that we felt that we needed to have a "hands off" gadget able to provide audio intel. We consider this new addition as a variation of the Barbed Wire which tends to be used for intel-gathering more than for his crowd control aspect.

Having a gadget not requiring active interaction to trigger its effect was the main goal, it will therefore work differently than Bullet Proof Cameras for instance.

We believe that we have found a good balance between the range of detection and the volume of the sound emitted by this gadget, we are curious to hear your feedback from the Test Server.

Many operators will see their secondary gadgets reshuffled:

• Castle: Impact Grenades replaced with Proximity Alarm.
  
• Caveira: Bulletproof Camera replaced with Proximity Alarm.
  
• Goyo: Impact Grenades replaced with Proximity Alarm.
  
• Rook: Barbed Wire replaced with Proximity Alarm.
  
• Wamai: Barbed Wire replaced with Proximity Alarm.
  
• Tachanka: Deployable shield replaced with Proximity Alarm.
  
• Mira: Barbed Wire replaced with Proximity Alarm.
  
• Oryx: Replaced Bulletproof Camera with Proximity Alarm.
  
• Recruit : Primary Gadget

• Switch ACS12 ammo from shells to slugs.
  
• Increased damage to 41 (from 27).
  
• Damage drop off distance set to 18 m.

Population targeted by the change: Casual and top ranked.

Motivation behind the change: Low popularity of the weapon and technical issues.

According to our data, the ACS12, the other primary option for G.I.S operators was barely picked (+/-1%). The community preferred the versatility and the outstanding performance offered by the Alda and the Mx4.

The ACS12 was also known for creating performance issues on our end, and it appeared necessary to come up with a solution.

The switch to slugs should affect the auto-shotgun ability to remodel bombsites and make this weapon a bit closer to Kaid's and Goyo's TCSG12.

We do not expect this weapon to become overly popular. We expect people to notice the relatively low recoil at first, but we consider it to be needed to find the right balance. In any case, we'll keep a very close eye on its performance, and we will be ready to reduce its damage if necessary.

• Removed the mouse sensitivity modification when affected by Grzmot mines and KS79 concussion grenades.

Population targeted by the change: Top ranked and esports.

Motivation behind the change: Reduce frustration.

We have experimented various crowd control effects and the sensitivity modification continued to be a constant factor of frustration. Given their relative popularity, this feature turns out to be a regular source of frustration. We have decided to remove the sensitivity modification to partially address the issue in top level plays. Ela's performance and popularity might be impacted more strongly than Zofia's. We will keep a very close eye on them to reevaluate the change if needed.

• Removed the camera roll effect from Echo's Sonic Burst.
  
• Concussion effect now lasts 10 secs (not tied to player movement anymore).
  
• Changed vignette intensity during concussion effect. (Now similar to other concussion effects).
  
• Replaced Ballistic Shield with Impact Grenades.

Population targeted by the change: Casual and top ranked.

Motivation behind the change: The concussion effect is not consistent across all abilities and the camera roll is not intuitive enough for newcomers.

Echo remains one of the top banned defenders in ranked across the last seasons. He is both frustrating to play against and very powerful. Pro players seem to consider that what matters most is the Yokai's invisibility as well as his capacity to perform plant denials. However, they recognize as well that the camera roll effect being tied to the movement of the Operator does not seem logical and ends up being frustrating. These changes should lead to less frustration and should help newcomers to understand how the Sonic Burst concussion effect works. We will keep an eye open on the feedback from this change, we want players to be able to differentiate a Sonic Burst from other concussion effects.

Removing the deployable shield from Echo's load-out is a way for us to continue reducing the amount of utility in esports matches. We continue our efforts to reduce the presence of these shields to an acceptable level. We consider that impact grenades should be a decent alternative for the Japanese defender.

Population targeted by the change: Casual and top ranked players.

Motivation behind the change: Low presence, revive mechanic potentially prejudicial.

We would like to make Finka’s ability a bit more meaningful and remove the player's hesitation whenever an ally is in a DBNO state. After this change, teammates will be revived with 50 hp (30 base HP + 20 Temporary HP from the boost). We hope this will slightly increase her presence and win delta to make her a viable support in attack.

Finka has been discussed as well during Pro Workshops. We have noticed that the recoil cancellation when under Finka’s buff is perceived negatively, as it interferes with muscle memory. It is too early to say if we are ready to act on that specific aspect, but we always keep an open mind and will reconsider for future updates. The addition of Melusi's gadget might open a spot for Finka in esports play.

• Replaced P226 Mk5 with SPSMG9 (Clash's SMG).
  
• Reduce LV Explosive Lance fuse time to 1.5 s (from 2.5s).
  
• Reduced CRSX300 screen climbing after each shot.

Population targeted by the change: Casual, top ranked players and esports.

Motivation behind the change: Low presence, and low win delta.

Kali was designed to offer an alternative to Thatcher, we are exploring what levers could be used to try to make her a more viable option.

We intend to address Kali on two different levels, her load out and her ability. We initially wanted to replace the CZ75, but feedback has been heard and we decided to add another option by offering the SPSMG9 as an alternative. We hope that this new sidearm will offer more flexibility to the Nighthaven CEO, in terms of gunplay. We also would like to try and make the CRSX300 a bit more easy to use. We are very much aware that this gun is also a strong source of frustration for defenders. We are going to proceed carefully in that aspect and reduce the screen climbing after a shot.

We are also looking at improving her gadget. We want to adjust the fuse time to make it a bit more challenging for Bandit mains to pick up their batteries. Pro players also suggested that the Lance is somewhat not efficient enough against Kaid's Electroclaws and that she often requires the assistance of IQ. Again, we are keeping options open and would like to monitor the impact of the validated changes first, before exploring more options.

• Added PRB92 to Nomad's loadout (Capitão's pistol).
  
• Added LFP586 to Kaid (GIGN revolver).

Population targeted by the change: Casual, top ranked and esports.

Motivation behind the change: Lack of options for Nomad and Kaid in terms of secondary weapons.

Kaid & Nomad could only rely on the .44 Mag Semi-Auto as a sidearm. This is a very particular gun, due to its built-in sight, that's why we wanted to offer more options. We are also trying to see if more people would opt for the AUG instead of the TCSG12 with Kaid, if they could rely on the revolver which brings a (limited) destruction aspect.

• Replaced Bulletproof Camera with Proximity Alarm.
  
• Reduced damage when going through walls to 5 (from 10).
  
• Added Angled Grip to Oryx's MP5.

Population targeted by the change: Casual, top ranked and esports.

Motivation behind the change: Low presence and win delta.

As much as Oryx seems to be great at creating wide rotation holes, his ability was somewhat limited by the quite high subsequent damage taken. We would like Oryx players to have more opportunities to use the ability as they see fit, whether during preparation phase or against other players while roaming. Pro players' feedback indicates that 5 hp sounds like better amount. We will still keep an eye on his efficiency when preparing bombsites as he could have become a bit too efficient in that regard.

The Proximity Alarm seems also to be a better fit for a roamer and should improve team play, as it is a good gadget for intel-gathering and covering flanks.

Our discussions led us to choose to replace the Bulletproof Camera instead of the Barbed Wire as those have a higher pick rate. It made more sense to keep a popular secondary gadget when our goal is to increase the overall presence of the Operator.

Oryx's MP5 will now have an angled grip. Our data indicates that the weapon does not perform as well when deprived of an ACOG. It is a way for us to increase Oryx's swiftness and mobility. We also considered adding the attachment to Rook, but that was deemed as too powerful and quite scary.

• Reduced number of Candela to 3 (from 4). Already deployed on PC.

Population targeted by the change: Casual, top ranked and esports.

Motivation behind the change: Ying feels too oppressive, frustration generated by a feeling of powerlessness against Ying.



Ying was buffed several times during the last few months. During Y4S4.3 we added an extra pellet to her Candela, and changed their dispersion to increase the gadget reliability. According to our data, this change had little to no effect on Ying performance and popularity.

The latest balancing patch included controversial updates, including a significant buff for Ying. We believe that the combination of these two buffs have led to create an over-performing attacker. Our data analysis team was able to confirm a steep increase in the number of Candelas used across the casual and the top ranked populations. After gathering feedback and additional data, we decided to reduce her number of Candelas by one. We are aware that Ying has become better in terms of gunplay and that she is still able to burn ADS quite effectively thanks to her smoke grenades. As always we will continue to keep a very close eye on her performance to see if further tweaking is needed.

• When using the Garra Hook, barricades will be broken as Amaru goes through them.
  
• The Garra Hook will now break hatches.
  
• Faster recovery when landing.

Population targeted by the change: Casual.

Motivation behind the change: Low presence, increase the surprise effect on defenders.

Amaru is mostly used in Quick Match. Despite offering unique tactical opportunities, her ability is not comfortable to use. We consider now that the she is too predictable, and that she cannot really use the hook to her own advantage. We would like to reduce the time needed for her to recover after using her ability. Breaching barricades upon direct contact should also provide some audio and visual cover. She will now be less exposed and could surprise opponents a bit more.

We don't expect Amaru's performance to improve too drastically, our goal is to improve her overall presence.

Try out the latest Rainbow Six updates on the Test Server and earn an exclusive charm through the BugHunter program.

Two groups come to a head in a familiar place. The gunshots ring through the hallways of the Headquarters as they clash. There’s valuable loot on the line, and these Operators will stop at nothing to claim them. Will you make it out alive with a fortune, or will you fall in the crossfire?

For two weeks starting May 5th, take what’s yours in The Grand Larceny!


PLAYABLE OPERATORS
Most Operators will be unlocked to play in this event, with a few exceptions for gameplay reasons. Each of them will only have a main shotgun equipped, customization with the event’s weapon skins as found in The Grand Larceny Collection and the Roaring Riches Bundle.


RULES OF THE EVENT
The Stolen Goods game mode is different from our standard ones. There is no Hostage, no Area to Secure, and no Bombs to Defuse. There’s also no Preparation Phase, and Attackers’ drones have been removed entirely. However, there are Safeboxes spread out throughout a special version of the old Hereford map.

Defenders must protect these at all costs, but they can also win rounds by eliminating all their opponents.

Attackers, on the other hand, have to open a certain amount of Safeboxes, or eliminate all the Defenders.

Mind you, all players always know where the Safeboxes are, and you’ll find that a lot of flooring no longer leaves metal beams after being destroyed. So, get creative with those shotguns and go all out!


THE COLLECTION
The Grand Larceny event comes with its own Collection of 31 items, featuring exclusive customization for Amaru, Fuze, Gridlock, Hibana, Maverick, Echo, Maestro, Kaid, Wamai and Warden. These century-old stylings are the same you’ll find in-game by picking these Operators to play the Event.

The Grand Larceny pack can be obtained by completing special Event Challenges, or by purchasing them for 300 R6 Credits or 12500 Renown each in the Packs section of the Home screen.

The Roaring Riches Bundle, which contains the Deco Artistry signature weapon skin and the Crafted Six charm, will also be available to acquire with your preferred currency during this time.

FIND OUT MORE!