Ubisoft’s tactical shooter Rainbow Six Siege had a more than troubled start: Amidst delays, bugs and matchmaking issues, the game couldn’t quite live up to the positive reviews from the trade press. Even the very first professional LAN event was plagued by problems. But that was about to change…

A full six months after the game’s release, Ubisoft partnered with ESL to host a Rainbow Six Siege LAN tournament in Cologne, Germany. It was a small event compared to modern competitions – $50,000 in prize money was available and only four competing teams competed. At that time, the audience consisted exclusively of press and event staff.

Bugs, bugs, bugs
Ubisoft wanted to make Rainbow Six Siege accessible to Esports as early as possible, but this attempt was to fail. In the very first match, a Sledge player found that his character’s special ability couldn’t break windows. At the time, he was one of the most popular operators, which made this bug a major problem. The developers recognized this as well:

“The first round, the first action we see on the screen, is indeed the infamous sledge bug. At that moment it felt like a tragedy, because it was again that first action, the first game, our first final ever, and a bug happened.” – Alexandre Remy Brand Director of Rainbow Six Siege
The upswing

The fact that Rainbow Six Siege didn’t fade into irrelevance is largely thanks to the dedicated support of Ubisoft Montreal. The developers there breathed new life into the game with many regular patches. Over the course of three years after its release in 2015, Rainbow Six saw steadily increasing player numbers under Ubisoft’s subscription model: by 2018, they reached the 40 million registered player mark.

In addition to the normal bug fixes, Ubisoft Montreal also introduced new elements to Rainbow Six Siege – including an auto-kick feature for players who had killed teammates, anti-cheat software, and an active key-word ban system. Thanks to the latter, players who used homophobic or racist insults in chat are banned.

As for the improvements in the game, the developers did just about everything right. First, they improved the actual game experience, then the communication in the community, and finally, the interest of the athletes.

The Esports

Despite its humble beginnings, Rainbow Six Siege managed to recover and find its place in Esports. By the 2020 Invitational, the prize money for the tournament alone would increase to $3 million – an incredible development after the game’s bumpy start.

Interest picked up as the game turned to Latin American and Asia-Pacific audiences. Ubisoft Montreal committed to a second – Season and made some important changes. The Xbox competition series was eliminated, Latin America was added to the Pro League, and investments were made in more attractive prize pools.

By the end of the second – Season , Alexandre Remy’s tone had changed considerably:

“We were surprised by the attendance and the engagement of people, but let’s face it, we were nowhere near the big sports.”
This second – Season has seen some pretty big names in Esports launch their Rainbow Six Siege teams, including FaZe Clan, Team Liquid, Evil Geniuses and others. Others, such as G2 Esports, Natus Vincere, Team SoloMid and Fnatic, should follow soon after.

Rainbow Six Siege has thus managed to do what almost no game could have done under these circumstances – in Esports or elsewhere. It has evolved over time from a bug-plagued casual shooter to one of the most successful titles on the Esports scene and is aiming to compete with the big leagues Dota 2, Overwatch, or League of Legends. Whether it will succeed there as well remains to be seen.

However, it looks good: The developers continue to work diligently on new content, such as the current Battle Pass or the new Operation Void Edge. So it remains exciting!

Overwatch

Overwatch is a computer game by Blizzard Entertainment (Diablo 3, World of Warcraft) and a first-person shooter with individual fantasy elements. The game was released in May 2016.

In Overwatch, the player must choose between 21 unique characters, which can be freely selected in a loosely held classification system (offensive and defensive class, support unit and tanks).

A character’s three to four different abilities can be controlled and activated through the mouse and keyboard. The game modes already vary from scoring points to cargo hauling. Team play is required in both modes, as each character takes on a specific role in the battlefield (e.g. heal teammates, provide backup, or secure defensive lines).

The name Overwatch derives itself from a fictional elite military unit that came together when robots tried to subjugate humanity in a near future. Individual characters are associated with this unit in the game, while others oppose it. It is not yet known whether the storyline will continue in multiplayer.

Brawl

Brawl is a game mode in which time-limited rule variations of the well-known modes are drawn. Sometimes completely new game modes are used in Brawls.

Rule variations include, for example, the restriction to certain heroes or classes, changes to the cool-down times or certain cards. New game modes that have been playable so far include a soccer game and a PvE mode.

Usually, Brawls are restarted as Brawl of the Week every Tuesday at 22:00 UTC and are then playable for a week. On certain occasions, such as – Season al events, Brawls may also be playable for a longer or shorter period of time.

The game mode is comparable to the card chaos from Hearthstone and was activated for the first time in the beta phase on March 22, 2016 through a patch.

Actions

• Arcade: More health, shorter skill and ultimate cooldowns, and faster resurrection after death.
• Girl Power: Female heroes only.
• Head’s Up!: McCree, Genji, Hanzo, and Widowmaker. Only head hits count.
• High Noon: High Noon on Route 66, only head hits with McCree count.
• Highly Offensive: Only offensive heroes. Limit is two of the same hero per team.
• Junkenstein’s Revenge: Soldier, Hanzo, Ana, Mc Cree only (1 each). The first co-op PVE mode in Overwatch. Part of the – Season al event Halloween Horror.
• Justice rains from Above: Only Mercy and Pharah playable.
• Moba Watch: Only unique heroes per team. No hero switching allowed.
• Mystery Heroes: Upon death, you will be resurrected as a randomly selected Hero.
• Overly Defensive: Only defensive heroes. Limit is two of the same hero per team.
• Show Your Support: Support Heroes only. The limit is two of the same Hero per team.
• Super Shimada Bros: Welcome to Hanamura. Only Hanzo and Genji are playable. Shorter skill cooldowns, longer ultimate cooldowns.
• Tanks A Lot: Tank heroes only. Limit is two of the same hero per team.
• The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Only McCree, Reaper and Roadhog playable.
• We’re all Soldiers now: Only Soldier: 76 playable on control cards.
• Lucioball: Lucio only: Soccer mode, 3 vs 3.
• Yeti Hunt: Five meis against a yeti that has the characteristics of Winston.

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