Rainbow Six Siege changes casual matchmaking and Ranked map rotation for Season 3

In preparation for Rainbow Six Siege’s Year 2, Season 3, Ubisoft are continuing to ready incoming changes ahead of its 5th September release date.  Operation Blood Orchid will mark the second lot of changes being made to the way the casual matchmaking system works, now introducing its own, separate matchmaking rating.

Four months ago, Ubisoft changed the way in which it paired players in Casual by utilising the matchmaking rating (MMR) achieved in Ranked play. This change was made for “a more engaging experience in Casual” according to the original Reddit post, with Ubisoft stating that although higher ranked players won’t find as much fun being paired up evenly against other high level players, low level players didn’t find it fun to be “stomped” with the previous matchmaking system.

Fan outcry poured into the fact that there wasn’t a great distinction between Casual and Ranked play, and that the former had become significantly less fun. These passionate voices have since been heard, as Ubisoft has announced it is now splitting the two, with Casual MMR no longer linked to Ranked MMR but based on its own rating.

Alongside this separation, there is a further “base line MMR” implemented for new players, pooling them with others comparable to their own skill levels. This will give players a chance to learn the ropes, while erasing this lower MMR rating over time as they win more matches.

Alongside this patch comes Operation Blood Orchid’s map, Theme Park. Contrary to previous announcements, the developer will be including the new map into its Ranked rotation for Season 3 based on feedback from fans. This change might not be the last made before the new season begins, as Ubisoft is continuously looking at feedback and “will be working to address your concerns with more information on our future plans for the matchmaking map rotations” in the coming weeks.

All of these changes will go live on the main servers on September 5th and will also see the launch of three new operators, attacker Ying and defenders Lesion and Ela.

KitGuru Says: I am excited for Operation Blood Orchid, as I do feel Siege has made tremendous improvements over the course of its first and second year. I missed having a new operator to learn and new map to play, but the wait will hopefully be worth it with these changes and fixes alongside them. Are you looking forward to Season 3?

Become a Patron!