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PRO LEAGUE

NAM Pro League Roster changes 2020 – EG, LG and REC are out

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R6 NAM PRO LEAGUE ROSTER CHANGES 2020

R6 NAM Pro League
Roster changes 2020

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Rainbow Six Siege Pro League Season XI has finished a while ago.
Due to the current world situation with an outbreak of the virus, Season XI had a rather anti-climax ending. Season’s LAN finals were canceled and no relegations took place this season either. Therefore, the entire season felt basically like publicly streamed scrim.
 
Many people expected changes to rosters, especially with the new Pro League format.
But I think most people did not expect as massive shifts as we saw in NAM. 
If you follow Rainbow Six Siege Pro League scene then you are probably aware of the shitstorm erupted by certain announcements.
 
In this article we will:

ROSTER CHANGES
IN NAM PRO LEAGUE

To begin with, let’s summarize the upcoming roster changes to Rainbow Six Siege NAM Pro League:

ORGANIZATIONS LEAVING R6 NAM PRO LEAGUE

Three organizations competing in Pro League NA will leave the Rainbow Six Siege scene. 
Those organizations are:
  • Evil Geniuses (EG)
  • Luminosity Gaming (LG)
  • Team Reciprocity (REC)
Team Reciprocity roster has been acquired by Oxygen Esports.
Unfortunately, EG and LG players did not find a new organization to keep their Pro League spot.
As a result, we won’t see such OG Rainbow Six Siege players as Necrox, Yung and nvK in the upcoming season. Nor recently ascending from Challenger league Luminosity Gaming players.

NEW ORGANIZATIONS IN
R6 NAM PRO LEAGUE

Three organizations will join Rainbow Six Siege ESL Pro League NA:
  • Susquehanna Soniqs
    Joining with a roster of:
    • Supr
    • SlebbeN
    • Gomfi
    • Easilyy
  • Disrupt Gaming (DG)
    With a roster of:
    • Nyx
    • Shuttle
    • Retro
    • Read
    • Drip
       
  • Oxygen Esports
    Acquiring REC roster in the process:
    • FoxA
    • LaXInG
    • VertcL
    • Slashug
    • B1ologic
As discussed in our article on R6 Siege Pro League format changes, from the next season Rainbow Six Siege Pro League NAM will shift to the offline (LAN) league in Vegas, USA. This change has a substantial impact on dismissed rosters.
In the past, the team (players) could keep the spot in the league if they had 3/5 players who “owned” the ESL spot, even without an organization – thus we’ve seen ORGless teams.
However, with the new LAN setup, players do not own the spot in the league. As a result, released professional players who do not find a new major organization will lose their R6 PL spot.
Luckily for Team Reciprocity ex-players, they were acquired by Oxygen Esports.
But that was not the case for all released rosters…

LG & EG ROSTERS CONTROVERSY

This article comes late to the party with information on this subject for one specific reason:
Initial reactions are more often than not driven by viral emotions, supplemented by a limited amount of information available at the public’s disposal.
 
Our brain tends to oversimplify such topics just so we can create an illusion of understanding how the world operates.
Of course, Rainbow Six Siege NAM Pro League roster changes are not on the level of debate on global warming. But the underlying human nature remains the same regardless of the topic’s significance and complexity.
 
My initial reaction was similar to the majority of the R6 community – “Ubi’s bad“.
And to be fair, Ubisoft has brought it on themselves by lackluster communication style to both community and, as per the players, to the impacted parties, as well.
However, the more I thought about that, the more I saw not so straight forward situation, with an unfortunate outcome for the players.

EG & LG players reactions:

Some players from both teams have shown a lot of frustration with this situation publicly on Twitter.

nvK’s Twitlonger post on this subject:

Necrox retweet of nvK’s post:
Hyena’s twitlonger on this situation can be found here.
Factor shared his update on this unfortunate situation on twitlonger here, too.
Anger, frustration, and disappointment are natural emotions in moments like that from impacted people. Players were basically fired.
It’s always a pity to see employees (that’s what players are from a business perspective) receiving the short end of the stick due to poor management.
What seems to make it worse is reported lack of clear communication and even potentially disrespectful behavior towards impacted players, as indicated by the above tweets.

UBISOFT'S PUBLIC COMMUNICATION:

First words from Ubisoft on this subject sounded like a typical corporate PR bla-bla and said nothing to address the actual frustrations and concerns:
More recently, Ubisoft has also released a FAQ on this situation, which can be found here.

QUESTIONS TO BE ASKED:

After looking into above communication from players and Ubisoft, two aspects continue to puzzle me:

WHY PLAYERS HIRED BY ORGS BLAME MAINLY UBISOFT FOR LACK OF CARE FOR THEIR FUTURE?

This is not to say that Ubisoft is without a fault in this whole situation.
If indeed they treated players with disrespect, then the company deserves all the criticism for doing so.
Treating your business partners with respect should be an absolute minimum and standard practice, no matter how big or small the partner is.
 
However, organizations hire players so I assume the majority of responsibility for communication towards the players about their employment status would lie in the organization’s management hands.
Employers (orgs) are the ones representing their employees (players) in meetings with 3rd party businesses (Ubisoft).
If I lose my job due to a project being canceled between my employer and their business partner, I expect full transparency and consideration for my future from my organization and not the 3rd party company. 

HOW COME TEAM RECIPROCITY ROSTER FOUND NEW ORG?

We haven’t seen emotional posts from ex-REC players on social media. And as we know now, they found a new home – Oxygen Esports.

I think there are two primary reasons for REC finding new org, such as REC organization’s effort & team’s performance in PL.
ORGANIZATIONS' EFFORTS:
Factor’s twitlonger mentions:
“We weren’t given the option to look for an org, let alone receiving help from Ubisoft to find one. This information was relayed to us directly from one of the ex-REC players.” 
I take this information with a grain of salt since the source is unknown and indirect.
 
So, let’s look at pieces of information that may help us understand why REC got new org:
  • Tweet from LaXInG:
Tweet from LaXInG contradicts Factor’s twitlonger information.
Which one is the truth?
We won’t know for sure, but I lean towards the version that Team Reciprocity managed to find new org for players.
 
Why?
View shared by Factor is more of a conspiracy theory and comes from an indirect source (someone told him).
On the other hand, LaXInG’s is a more direct source of information, aligned with the official statement from Ubisoft, and generally makes sense.
On a side note, business owners such as @ChadLarsson should receive the recognition they deserve for dedication to their staff!
TEAMS' PERFORMANCES
Another potential factor is the teams’ performances.
Players from REC performed better as a team in Pro League than both EG and LG.
I mean no pun to released EG & LG players, but objectively both rosters did not perform very well in Season XI, whatever reasons for that were.
 
Correlation does not always imply causation, but the team’s performance might have played a significant role in finding new org, as well.

WILL OFFLINE PRO LEAGUE BE AN ENTRY BARRIER FOR NEW TALENT?

Having an offline league can improve the quality and reputation of Rainbow Six Siege as an e-sport. 
However, the concern could be the limitation it imposes on new players and organizations.
As we saw, renowned R6 players lost their spot in Pro League as they didn’t have backing from an organization that could sustain such high costs of the offline league (i.e. housing).
Meanwhile, Ubisoft indicated an interest to increase focus on Challenger league, but following questions pop in my head:
What happens when players do not have a “tier 1” organization behind them but won a spot in the Pro League? 
Will players lose their spot just like players from EG and LG did after Season XI?
Will Ubisoft manage to attract more tier 1 orgs in the future?
 
I am skeptical about this aspect of Pro League changes since Ubisoft failed to find orgs for 2020 interested in joining their offline US Division. Hence they did not achieve the desired number of 10 teams. We could argue that the reason was an unforeseen drop of 2 active orgs, but that’s beside the point. 
If they haven’t found more orgs now, where will new orgs come from in 2021?
 
Of course, there’s a possibility that negotiations failed due to the pandemic situation in 2020.
It’s possible that organizations wanted to join Rainbow Six Siege US Pro League, but were not convinced about free agents available right now.
I guess we will have to wait till 2021 and see how the situation unfolds, but such questions should probably be addressed ahead of time by Ubisoft’s Esports department.

AFTERWORD:

So all-in-all, who should be blamed for ex-LG and EG players’ situation? 
I guess everyone a bit:
  • Organizations and Ubisoft could have communicated more transparently and respectfully to impacted players
  • Negotiations should be handled more efficiently to give players more time to find teams or adjust accordingly
  • Organizations could have done a better job for finding a new home for released Pros
  • EG & LG players could have performed better during the season
 
We tend to jump quickly on a wagon steered by our strong emotions. Instead, we should chill a bit with our judgments – despite common opinion, our day’n’age is not overly saturated with information. It is overly saturated with opinions, especially when we lack sufficient information.
 
Personally, I watched OG Evil Geniuses players since the beginning of the R6 Pro League and will miss seeing them in the upcoming season.
Clutches by Yung or Necrox, aggressive plays by nvK – those will be missed.
For LG players I could see the potential to grow as a team if given time. 
 
I hope all impacted players manage to resolve their situation and use this experience constructively, to grow stronger thanks to it. Adversity is an inevitable aspect of life and those who succeed in building a good life are the ones who embrace obstacles on their way.
 
I am not going to ask for your opinions on this topic. Enough of opinion on this topic was shared already on social media.
Instead, perhaps share a play or specific moment you remember released players for?
 
Here are some videos about OG EG players:
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R6 NAM Pro League format major changes

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Rainbow Six Siege NAM Pro League changes

R6 SIEGE NAM
Pro League
format changes

Rainbow Six Siege Esports scene is going through some major overhaul.
In this article, we will list changes implemented to the NAM Pro League scene and discuss the potential impact on the professional scene of Rainbow Six Siege.

CHANGES TO R6
NAM PRO LEAGUE FORMAT:

As a summary, the Pro League for Rainbow Six Siege will move away from its original ESL format and shift into an offline schedule.
Changes are quite significant and if you want to dig in deeply, then check this post on the official Rainbow Six Siege website
 
Here’s a 2020 Pro League timeline provided by Ubisoft in the linked article:
Credit: Ubisoft
Ubisoft’s article contains a lot of information, so let’s wrap it all up based on what we know so far:
  • New Pro League will be a yearly competition split into 3 seasons
    Due to the pandemic situation, the 2020 competition will understandably have only 2 seasons.
  • NAM will be split into US and Canada divisions
    Canadian league will be an online event and, unlike the US league, will have open qualifiers.
  • US Seasons are now offline, played in Las Vegas
    Players participating in the US division will be located in Las Vegas and will play offline, similarly to major LAN tournaments.
    Teams will have weekly matches in a format of best-of-three. This is a significant change from the previous 1 map matches.
  • US division will consist of 8 teams
    The original plan from Ubisoft was 10, but the developer couldn’t get enough teams to provide proper support to players for the offline league (housing, etc).
  • Each season will conclude with a Major
    Major will consist of 16 best teams in the world, so it basically replaces Season finals present in the previous ESL R6 Siege format.
  • Regional Pro League year will conclude with Regional finals
    Results in Majors will have an impact on participation in the North American Finals.
    We haven’t seen the exact details on the impact of Regional finals on participation in Yearly Six Invitationals, but it’s safe to assume that the reward will be significant – either regional winner gets guaranteed placement in the Six Invitational tournament or is provided with a substantial amount of Global Standings Points
  • Each Pro League year will conclude with Six Invitational
    Seems that Ubisoft is not implementing any changes here beside potential modification to the participants’ selection process
  • Global Standings Points will be introduced
    Thorough the year teams will be awarded GSP for their performance.
    No details were shared yet but I assume this means standings in regional rankings by the end of each season, results in Majors, and performance in Regional finals might be distributed in a weighted system.
  • Challenger leagues will consist of 8 teams in each national division
    Ubisoft’s article mentions broadcasting Challenger matches. Hopefully, the level of competition and broadcasting will be sufficient to bring interest to this league.
    The best team from the Challenger league will face off the last team in respective Pro League division for a spot in next season’s Pro League.

OPINION PIECE ABOUT THE CHANGES:

Season best-of-three matches sound awesome!

I was never a big fan of 1-map matches. Results of matches in such a format rely heavily on:
  • map preferences
    Every team, even the best, has maps on which they perform better and those maps that they prefer to skip.
 
  • being warmed up
    Some teams just start matches slower, while others are ready from the get-go. With best-of-one, we tend to see matches where by the time both teams are firing on all cylinders, the match is basically over.
  • luck
    At times an unfortunate disconnect, technical problem, or simply one of many bugs in Rainbow Six Siege can significantly influence match with a limited number of rounds.
The new format of best-of-three matches, on the other hand, will benefit teams with strong character and consistency over time.
Teams that can stay strong together as a cohesive unit, even when things do not go well, and recover on the second map will benefit greatly from format changes!
 
Personally, I cannot wait for some crazy comebacks!
Last but not least, the more rounds the better for us – fans of Rainbow Six Siege Pro League!

Global Standings Points could be a positive change...

…if implemented well!
GSP may improve the quality of matches played at the end of the season. In ESL format, some last matches of the season did not really matter from a standings perspective.
Teams that neither had a chance to qualify, nor a risk of relegations would often take such matches lightly, and even “save strats”.
Such matches can be fun to watch – seeing Tachanka brought by Pros or rushes can be entertaining for a moment.
However, the effect was a noticeable drop in quality and effort put by certain teams.
With a Global Standings Points system, on the other hand, teams might still be incentivized to perform well even without a chance to qualify for the upcoming Major.

Challenger league could use a boost in popularity!

I hope Ubisoft can deliver on giving Challenger league more spotlight and attention.
NA Challenger League Season XI Youtube channel (not sure this is official or fan-made, though) had abysmal 300 subscribers on Youtube.
 
The longevity of the esports scene of Rainbow Six Siege depends on tons of factors.

The quality of new talent is one of them.

Without new players on the scene, the Pro League might grow stale over time. Fresh mindset and tactics can be powerful in exciting crowds. We need that new hero or villain to root for or against.
Furthermore, without proper marketing and financing of Challenger league teams that ascend to the Pro League might struggle to find proper sponsor options. As we learned on the example of Evil Geniuses and Luminosity Gaming rosters, proper organizational backing plays a major role in participation in the Pro League.
I am a bit skeptical about the effort Ubisoft will put to the Challenger league but hope to be positively surprised!
Those are our thoughts on format changes to the Pro League format announced for the NAM region. We will follow the development in Pro League changes to see how the situation unfolds. For now, thanks for reading!
 
What do you think about the upcoming changes? 
Do you like this new direction of the R6 Siege Pro League?
 
Let us know in the comments below!
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R6 Pro League in 2020: 20-second META?

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Rainbow Six Siege
ESL in 2020:
20-second META?

ESL Pro League scene in Rainbow Six Siege has seen a lot of different META since its inception.
This is not really surprising as the game has been constantly altered, enhanced and expanded by Ubisoft. Every new season brings a multitude of changes.
R6 Siege seasons come with new operators. New maps are being added by the developer or, as more common nowadays, old maps are reworked. But that’s not all!
Balance in the game is also continuously tweaked by new patches. Developers observe how the game is being played and then buffs, nerfs and alters certain aspects of operators and gameplay.
 
The way the Rainbow Six Siege is played now in Year 5 is significantly different than it was back in 2018, not to mention 2016.
As the game evolves, so do players and such implication is right for both amateurs & professionals.

WHAT IS META?

META is a common word thrown here and there in regards to online gaming, but what does it actually mean in terms of computer games?
 
As a word, meta comes from greek where it is a prefix that means “beyond” or “after”. Nowadays in the competitive gaming industry, meta stands for Most Effective Tactic Available and is used to describe an optimal and effective method of playing the game. Such tactics are considered to bring the most efficiency to the game’s world, with its current rules and mechanics.
 
Meta is common in competitive games like League of Legends, CS: GO, Overwatch, and Rainbow Six Siege is not an exception.

Is META always the best strategy? 

No, not necessarily.
Any meta may indeed be the best method known to the best players, at the moment. However, it does not necessarily mean that such tactics are the best ones available.
If you think “R6 Professional players are the best in what they do, hence they must have thought about all possibilities” then consider for a moment the case with chess.
 
Chess has been around since the 6th century and is probably one of (if not THE) most studied and perfected games.
You would think that every possible move and strategy is known by now, right?
Well, then check out the story of a match between Stockfish vs. AlphaZero.
Machine learning (AlphaZero) without chess knowledge could learn in 4 hours to beat another program that contained all the data in history about moves made by chess masters (Stockfish).
How? Stockfish was limited by human creativity, while AlphaZero was not.
Nowadays, the creativity of moves and strategy is an indication for suspicion of AI involvement in chess matches.
 

To sum up:

My point is that we like to think we know all there is to be known. We forget about our limitations and cognitive biases, which restrain our capacity to see alternative and better options.
We become better by admitting our ignorance and seeking improvements to existing ways, not by blindly accepting the status quo as the best solution.

What's the Rainbow Six Siege
ESL 2020 Meta?

As of Season XI of Rainbow Six Siege Pro League, the prevalent strategy revolves heavily around “20-second META“.
 
Such a tactic means that attackers spend the first 2:30 minutes of the round by taking control of the map and clearing defensive utility.
This last part of “clearing utility” is the most controversial topic regarding the current R6 Siege Pro League situation and the flow of the match.
With introductions of Goyo and Wamai to the matches, defenders have a staggering number of gadgets that require attackers to sink their utility.
 
Just look at that tweet from Pojoman:
Of course, Pojoman exaggerated with mentioning utility of 7 operators, but you get the point.
 
Just a single Goyo shield aided by ADS and Mag-nets can burn tons of projectiles.
As a result, the pace tends to slow due to offensive teams going through the laborious process of scouting, adjusting and then dealing with defensive utility.
 
The below match between TSM and Tempo Storm was a good showcase of 20-second meta (even though Goyo was banned):

Is Rainbow Six Siege
20-second meta bad?

Let us be honest here – we do not find current meta very attractive to watch in Pro League matches.

Watching 2 minutes of meticulous utility clearing is rather boring part of the experience.

 
Of course, the utility should be an important aspect of the game, and round time is indeed one of the biggest assets defensive squads have.
However, R6 Siege has always been an FPS with the addition of utility to spice things up.
 
The balance between gun and gadget play, combined with environmental destruction and teamwork is what makes Rainbow Six Siege so damn good game to play, and even to watch!
As it currently stands in Season XI (Y5S1), clearing defensive utility takes too much of round time and slows down the dynamic of the round too heavily for our liking.
 
Please note that we do not advocate for the run’n’gun style to dominate our beloved game. Extremes on either side are inferior to striking a sweet balance. Though the balance is hard to achieve in any area, and Rainbow Six Siege is not an exception here!

What could Ubisoft do
to change the meta?

There are a few ways developers could probably improve the current situation.
One of the ways could be a reduction of utility available to defenders. Obviously, such action could have hard to foresee consequences, especially on the non-competitive side of Rainbow Six Siege. Too harsh nerf to an operator(s) could deem them redundant – yes, we all remember what happened to Glaz.
 
As per the TTS update, Ubisoft considers lowering the potential of Goyo’s utility by reducing his total Volcan shields count to 2 (from 3).
That might be a good start, but let’s see how it plays out when changes come to live servers.
Since Jager seems to be resistant to any nerfs thus far, perhaps lowering his ADS count to 2, instead of 3, could be a solution to utility sinks?
 
Furthermore, we liked the idea suggested in Get_Flanked’s tweet:
However, we like this idea online if it is implemented for Rainbow Six Siege ESL Pro Leauge.
Ranked is a significantly different animal than what pros experience.
 
What do you think Ubisoft could do?
Do you like current ESL meta?
 
Let us know in the comments below!

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Rainbow Six Siege Y6S2.2 Patch Notes

Rainbow Six Siege Y6S2.2 Patch Notes

July 8, 2021

Mid season reinforcements for Y5S3 are available now! Rainbow Six Siege got operator balancing, guard brake animation for shields and yellow ping changes! Check here the full Y5S3.3 patch notes.

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