Rainbow Six

Rainbow Six has gained many fans around the world (source: playstation.com)

Developer studio Ubisoft is best known for its game titles (Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry) that focus on single-player gameplay and emphasize a good story. However, Ubisoft Montreal, a subsidiary, has also successfully entered the online gaming scene with its FPS (first person shooter) Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege (commonly referred to as Rainbow Six Siege or R6). It came at a time when the gaming community was eagerly demanding a new action game that wasn’t just another clone. The esports scene of this genre was then dominated by Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, but Rainbow Six Siege quickly gained many fans and became a worthy esports competitor to CS.

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Tom Clancy’s name guarantees game quality

The works of American writer Thomas Leo Clancy (known as Tom Clancy) are successful books with a fictional war theme based on real contemporary military technologies. In addition to film adaptations, his works have also entered the video game world. The most famous is the Splinter Cell series (rogue-like games), developed by Ubisoft. Due to the ownership rights of this brand, Ubisoft decided to use it for another game. Rainbow Six Siege does not focus on a solo campaign and single-player experience, but rather focuses on quality online content that several players can enjoy simultaneously. The game was released on December 1, 2015, and brought fresh air to the gaming environment. The team behind R6 took the basic concept of Counter-Strike (5vs5) and elevated it to a higher level. During development, they even consulted with real counter-terrorism experts, making building sieges extremely authentic. The rise in popularity did not take long, and the game, focused on tactical battles, teamed up with production organization ESL, which hosts the world’s biggest esports events. The goal of Ubisoft Montreal was clear: to create a new esports giant. This was achieved for a while, but over time, the game became outdated and returned to the shadow of CS. This led to a decline in players and viewers, but it did not make it a dead game, as it still enjoyed significant popularity, especially in North America. Rainbow Six Siege today has a decent player base and professional esports scene, but its days of greatest glory are behind it.

Game preview

Game mechanics and objectives

The main difference from other tactical shooters is the ability to destroy the game environment (especially walls), opening up entirely new strategic possibilities. Player cooperation is very important here, and the shooting model is quite challenging. Those who can’t aim are unlikely to succeed. Each player takes control of one character, each with different abilities and approaches to combat.

Game modes

Currently, the game offers a total of 20 different maps and 5 game modes. Three of these are PvP (player versus player) modes: casual, ranked, and newcomer, and two are PvE (player versus environment): terrorist hunt and situations. Rainbow Six Siege focuses on player versus player combat, making PvP modes the most popular. These are further divided according to the main mission objective: Hostage (the attacking team must rescue the hostage), Bomb (the attacking team must defuse the bomb), and Secure Area (the attacking team must secure the designated area and hold it for a certain time).

Minimum HW requirements for Rainbow Six Siege

Operating System: Windows 10 Processor: Intel® Core™ i3 560 or AMD Phenom™ II X4 945 Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 460 or AMD Radeon™ HD5770 DirectX: 11.0 RAM: 6 GB Hard Drive: 85.5 GB Internet connection

R6 marketplace with skins outside Steam?

Anyone familiar with video game cosmetics (skins) knows that the ability to trade skins is only possible on the Steam digital distribution platform. Other games do not allow the transferability of their digital products between accounts, preventing any possible trading. Rainbow Six Siege is indeed on Steam, but it does not use its community marketplace and internal inventory. The game was released by Ubisoft, which does not want to bring extra profit to its competitor (Valve). However, in 2023, an announcement came that surprised everyone. The game R6 offers many skins – whether for game agents or weapons – and so far, it has not been possible to sell or trade them. Ubisoft Montreal came up with the idea of its own community marketplace, which will focus solely on Rainbow Six Siege. The entire project is still in beta, and we have yet to see what it will bring and whether it will be successful.

Rainbow Six Siege and esports

The goal of R6 development was to create a strong esports title, and today everyone knows that. For a while, it even seemed to succeed: viewership numbers were rising, bookmakers were offering betting markets on matches, and many new teams were emerging. There was even talk of Rainbow Six as the main competitor to Counter-Strike. However, Ubisoft fell behind a bit, and the game soon became outdated, mainly due to its unchanging gameplay, which lacked excitement. As the years passed, the game became older and older. New updates tried to revive it, but unsuccessfully. R6 did not die completely but carries its scars to this day. Every year, an event called Six Invitational is held, the biggest tournament in Rainbow Six Siege. Teams from regional leagues and tournaments (such as BLAST R6 Major) held worldwide qualify for this event. Among the most successful teams today are the American Faze Clan and Team Liquid, the European G2 Esports, and the Brazilian w7m esports. A few years ago, tournaments and leagues were held in the Czech Republic, but they have gradually disappeared. Currently, we have not been able to find any active professional domestic competitions. Rainbow Six Siege still has potential and is an entertaining pastime, but it is up to its publisher whether the wind will once again blow in the sails of this once-popular tactical shooter and drive it back to the top.

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2️⃣ Do bookmakers cover Rainbow Six Siege?

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Peter Broz

Article author – esports expert Follow me: LinkedIn | Facebook Email: peter@slothbet.com I came into contact with playing computer games long before a billion-dollar business with professional teams emerged around them. Although I never reached the professional level, I still have many acquaintances among the top esports players today. At SlothBet, I will primarily contribute to the esports section.