Rainbow Six: Siege is a popular yet complex shooter. Even as a casual player, there are several things to consider to avoid total failure. MyMMO author Benedict Grothaus has learned some tricks from the pros and presents them to you here.
What are these tricks for? Those who want to compete in the professional leagues of Rainbow Six: Siege must have a solid understanding of the game and invest dozens of hours of practice. The tactical shooter offers simply too many elements to learn in a short time.
However, if you just want to play better or even have a perfect round to impress your teammates, you don’t necessarily need to teach yourself everything. You can watch many professionals play and learn with a bit of understanding why they are so good.
The tricks presented here are meant to give beginners and intermediate players more game understanding and insight into what is happening, as well as to showcase some pro tips to better players.
Where do the tricks come from? Currently, the GSA League is ongoing, an e-sports event for Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. In this, teams from the respective countries compete against each other to crown the best players.
The teams are competing for a whopping €30,000 in prize money in streams happening almost daily. The games are accompanied by two casters.
Rainbow Six Siege: So seht ihr die Deutsche Liga
Alle Infos, Ankündigungen und Streaming-Pläne zur großen deutschsprachigen GSA-Liga.
The tricks I present to you today all come from the GSA League. If you want to see the pros live in action and pick up tricks for yourself, you can find the broadcasts on the official German Twitch channel of Rainbow Six.
1. For Beginners: Learn Every Secret of Each Map
What is this trick about? Professionals usually know more routes and paths around the maps as well as tricks to utilize specific corners, walls, and stairs. Although I have played Rainbow Six for many dozens of hours, I have learned by watching:
- where the new, strong shields are worth it
- which corners are dangerous for attackers because defenders can see them better
- where it is worth blowing up or reinforcing walls that I previously ignored
- where there are paths from which I can ambush enemies
The disadvantage of watching, however, is that the focus of the spectator camera tends to be on the action and less on such details. It takes a bit of fundamental understanding of the maps to grasp the shown details, such as blown-up walls.
For this reason, the GSA League and other tournaments occasionally play clips from map guides released by Ubisoft themselves. These provide clear and visual representations of how a map is structured and where specific routes are possible. For example, I have included the map Clubhouse here for you, which was frequently played in the qualifiers:
Why is this important? Rainbow Six: Siege has a large portfolio of different maps, more than most other top shooters. Furthermore, these maps are larger, more intricate, and typically have multiple vertical levels.
Since you can kill opponents with a single precise shot, it is important to know exactly where they can be or how to find out their position. With the right map knowledge and teamwork, you can easily take out enemies even through walls, ceilings, and floors.
2. For Intermediates: Exploit Bans and Force Opponents into Awkward Situations
What is this trick? In unranked and ranked matches, your team and the opponents can each ban one attacker and one defender. This way you can partially force opponents to play something that gives you an advantage.
Some operators share their role in the team – like the “hard breachers” Thermite, Hibana, and Maverick, who are the only attackers capable of destroying reinforced walls. If the opponents ban one of the three and you ban a second, they are forced to play the third in the group.
This is particularly useful when you start as a defender, as it allows you to gain an early scoring advantage and expand it later. However, this only works if you are confident that your team setup can handle the bans better.
Why is this important? This way, not only can you force the opponent to play something they might not want to, but you also know in advance which operators you can counter. Thus, you can put the opponent at a significant disadvantage.
Furthermore, you may cause the opponents to make a ban on an operator they actually didn’t want to – simply because they see you as a threat.
A good example of this is Ying, who has become frequently banned in the GSA League. Until recently, Ying was considered a rather weak operator but has become significantly stronger for a while now.
The GameStar has reported extensively on her buff. If you don’t ban her but know she is strong in this situation, you force the opponent to take her out of the game for you.
However, you should attach greater significance to the bans of the pros anyway. If you see that an operator is banned especially often, you might want to avoid picking them as your main. Otherwise, you risk that your greatest strength could be eliminated by a ban. They also show you which operators could potentially be very strong.
3. For Aspiring Pros: Recognize and Exploit Situations
What is this trick? In a tactical shooter like Rainbow Six: Siege, it is particularly important to react correctly at any moment and assess every situation accurately. This includes:
- Where is the opponent, and what do I do with this info?
- Which wall can I destroy, and what gadgets do I have for that?
- What weapons is the opponent using, and at what distance can I engage them?
- What information does the opponent have, and how do I use this to confuse or lure them out of hiding?
The pros have perfected processing such information. They use C4, shotguns, or explosives to destroy ceilings and floors. The opening does not provide a passage but visibility into the space above or below and a chance to kill an unsuspecting opponent.
Why is this important? In the match Orgless against Team Secret, such a situation occurred in the deciding round for Orgless’s victory. The player Fonkers, as Hibana, gathered information about the defending opponents.
He knew there was an opponent (Wamai) behind a shield at the end of the corridor and fired in hopes that he would show himself for a moment. It fails, and he briefly falls back to reload.
This brief moment allows the player behind the shield to position himself in a corner that Fonkers cannot see, while his teammate takes position behind the shield.
Fonkers now sees that there is still an opponent behind the shield but does not know that it is a different one. He attacks and is killed by the now cornered Wamai. All this takes only a few seconds, as seen in the clip:
However, it takes a considerable amount of practice to correctly recognize a situation and react appropriately. Watching the pros helps with the theory, but in practice, you will likely face failure several times before such things work correctly.
