Changes and a Battle Pass Incoming
After the recent Major completion in Raleigh, Ubisoft has announced that the new season of Rainbox 6 Siege will be coming, known as Ember Rise, and in it, there are a bunch of new changes including a trimmed map pool and a Champions rank.
People have often spoken about the competitive map pool rotation in R6 and it seems that Ubisoft is listening. The Year 4 Season 3 update with Ember Rise will see Fortress, Hereford Base and Theme Park all get the axe. Shockingly, as fun as the Hereford Base redesign was, the community was clear that it wasn’t a fan favorite.
Ubisoft has said that a Theme Park redesign is in the works, so it only makes sense that it’s going to be removed now. Hopefully they’ll do a better job on this than Hereford Base, since the Kafe rework was a fantastic change when it was made recently with the introduction of Phantom Sight. Kanal will also be back in the map pool with Ember Rise.
The new Champions rank will also be introduced with Operation Ember Rise, and it will be the new tier of competitive ranking that will sit above Diamond. If you were to map out MMR ratings from start to finish, Diamond appears to be up to 5000, with Champions beyond that. The rankings have gone from Copper to Gold, all having four different classes in each from I to IV. From there, players could move up to Platinum I to III, and finally into Diamond. The new Champion rank will sit above that.
In addition to new ranks and map pool rotations, Rainbow Six Siege will also be getting a battle pass which is scheduled to release alongside Ember Rise, and thankfully, will start off free.
Players will jump on board with a progression train that will allow them to unlock cosmetics, renown and operator lore. The battle pass will be rolled out in two phases, starting with the free pass. This pass will only last 7 days and will be launched alongside the new operation.
Alexander Karpazis, the Ubisoft Presentation Director said that he is really excited for the Rainbow Six battle pass.
"Our intentions behind it is to reward players more than ever playing our game, and also to provide a progression they can work through whenever they're playing”, he said.
The mini battle pass named “Call Me Harry” will be short and have 7 days in which to progress through the 7 tiers. As you play, you unlock tiers and rewards so the more you play, the more you earn. When you complete the first phase of the battle pass, you’ll get the unique Chibi.
Phase two will come with the season 4 update and will feature 2 tracks in progression, one for free, and one premium. You progress through both by earning points whether you choose to unlock the premium pass or not. No word yet on how much this will cost, but Ember Rise will be live on test servers on 19 August.
