For some time now, Rainbow Six Siege has been planning to overhaul one of the oldest and weakest operators in the game. A small group of fans, however, does not want to see this and has started a petition against it.
Which operator is it about? It’s about Tachanka, a defender of the Spetsnaz, who has been in the game since the release of Rainbow Six Siege in December 2015. The Russian operator has become an icon due to his appearance with the bulky helmet and his special gadget: a mounted machine gun with a shield.
Through this, he gained the status of a meme in the community and the nickname “The Lord”. Now, however, the developers are planning a big rework for the operator.
At the Six Invitational, it was already revealed in February what changes are to be made: His MG turret will disappear and instead, he will receive a grenade launcher with incendiary grenades as a gadget. The colleagues at GameStar have reported extensively on Tachanka’s rework.
Why the rework? Tachanka is not only one of the oldest operators, but also currently the weakest by far. He is so weak that his strength doesn’t really have a place on the graph:
Furthermore, according to Game Director Leroy Athanassoff, his MG has caused problems and repeatedly led to bugs. That’s why it needs to go. Another point is likely the eSports scene. There, balancing is important for professionals to adapt their setup ideally to the opponent. With a new Tachanka, strong rush tactics for attackers would be more difficult.
With the rework, the chance increases that the Russian operator will have a place in eSports and will be played in the ongoing GSA League. This would also be good for Tachanka fans, as they would finally see their favorite in professional action.
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Fans resist – but only quietly
This is how hardcore fans resist: Two years ago, Tachanka fan Byron Panos started a petition to Ubisoft on change.org to keep “The Lord” as he is. His main argument is: If you are going to make the effort to completely redesign an operator, you might as well create a new operator and keep the old one.
That way, Tachanka fans would not lose their favorite and there would still be the opportunity to introduce the new features. This would have only advantages for everyone, Panos argues in his text.
About two weeks ago, the petition reached 200 votes. Since then (May 26, 2020), it has gained 202 approvals. The support for Tachanka does not seem very large.
When will the rework come? So far, there is no specific date for Tachanka’s rework. It is supposed to come in Year 5, which is currently ongoing, rumored to be in Season 3. However, there is no date for that yet.
Season 2 of the year is expected to start in June. So far we know that in this season, the new operators Ace and Melusi will be introduced, who could particularly annoy the pros.
Recently, Ubisoft revamped the operator Ying. However, she was nerfed so much that the studio had to backtrack. How the Tachanka rework will turn out is yet to be seen. However, the developers emphasize that it is important to maintain his status as an icon. Tachanka should remain “the Lord” of Rainbow Six.
