Rainbow Six Siege Devs Talk Balancing And Why Pushing Players "Out Of Their Comfort Zone" Can Be Good

Ubisoft has clarified its stance on balancing Rainbow Six Siege for the game's professional players, specifically what it meant by earlier stating, "if professional players are not happy with our proposed features, then that means we are going in the right direction." In a blog post for the in-game Operator adjustments in update Y5S1.2, Ubisoft said it merely wanted to convey that it's the developer's job to push Siege's playerbase out of its comfort zone on occasion.

"It is true that part of our balancing efforts is to push every player, professionals included, out of their comfort zone," Ubisoft wrote. "This does not mean we are going about things to be intentionally frustrating for these players, but instead make adjustments to ensure our professional players are the best at the game as a whole, and not a specific update or meta. We also have to consider the entire player-base, and while some aspects of professional play will trickle down to general matchmaking, not all do (Goyo for example)."

In regards to Goyo, the Ember Rise Operator has a low pick and low win rate. Apparently, not many casual players see much utility in placing booby-trapped deployable shields--which makes a lot of sense given that they can be just as big of a detriment to Goyo's fellow defenders as to the opposing attackers.

However, Goyo is quite popular at the professional level, so Ubisoft is removing one of the defender's shields in hopes it stems some of the frustration of going up against him. Given Goyo's already low pick-rate and average success at the non-professional level, this change shouldn't have too much influence on his performance outside of esport competitions.

"We will improve our communication around balancing changes to include additional context and explanations for instances where we make a decision on an important topic and are in disagreement with our professional players," Ubisoft wrote. "This will provide everyone with a common starting point for discussion. Please note that this is not feasible for every topic, but we will do it for the more critical topics."

Update Y5S1.2 makes adjustments to five Operators--Ying, Jäger, Mozzie, Buck, and Goyo--with Ying getting a noticeable buff that should help raise her utility, both when spearheading the attacker's offensive and when facing off against a defender in a one-on-one fight.