Gaming
Get to know the faces you’ll be seeing a lot at the Rainbow Six Pro League Season 2 Finals at Gamescom.
In just a few days time the very best Rainbow Six Siege players in the world will head to Cologne, Germany to compete in the season finals of the Rainbow Six Pro League. The tournament will take place on ESL’s main stage in the middle of Gamescom, one of the biggest video game conventions in the world, giving tens of thousands of people the chance to see some top notch Rainbow Six action.
eXcellence Gaming, Vertical Gaming, Elevate, Team Fontt, BRK e-Sports, ENCE esports, PENTA Sports and Millenium will be battling it out in Cologne to take the lion's share of $237,500. Some of these teams are regulars in the end of season finals, while others will be making their first appearance, meaning this will be one of the most unpredictable finals yet – and what better place to have it than in the chaos of the Gamescom show floor.
For those of us watching, who maybe haven’t kept up to date with all of the online matches this season, there is of course the issue of the ever changing meta. With Rainbow Six Siege featuring a lot of different operators for both attack and defense it can be difficult to keep up with who is favoured and who isn’t. But to help you out on this front, we’ve collected the main operators you’re likely to see quite a bit at the season two finals.
Blackbeard
Blackbeard was one of the very early DLC operators, and has become a staple of high level pro play in recent months. For the most part he has a pretty standard kit, however his big selling point is the tactical shield that he can place on top of his weapon. This shield will cover his face and head when aiming down the sights, meaning he can easily poke his weapon round corners or peek through broken walls and windows with little fear. This makes him an ideal operator to win duels, and try and get that early pickoff by peeking aggressively. As you might have guessed, he has a cool beard as well.
Sledge
Things don’t get more simple than Sledge. His special ability is just a massive sledgehammer (see what they did there?) that can tear through pretty much anything. If there’s a wall in the way, then Sledge is your guy to open it up. He’s also liked due to his weapon arsenal – in previous finals he was even picked when his sledgehammer was banned from pro play due to a bug, purely because his weapons are so strong. This guy is pretty hard to miss, as he has that massive hammer on him at all times.
Ash
Ash is one of the more mobile operators and has an oddly small head hitbox making it difficult to secure those high damage shots, but her general defense and tankiness is weak to counter this. Her special ability is the M120 CREM that features two breaching charges. These charges can break through almost anything, including ceilings, and can be shot from a safe distance. She excels at opening up areas and forcing defenders to change plans, and can catch opponents unaware by blowing a hole in the floor below them and then getting a team-mate to light them up. It’s great fun to pull off in matchmaking, but not all that safe in pro play.
Hibanna
Hibanna is another attack operator for opening up walls and new lines of attack. Her options are a little more tactical than Ash, as her X-KAIROS launcher opens up smaller areas and takes longer to detonate. This is a great way of creating new lines of sight to take out enemies, while staying in relatively safe cover yourself. She isn’t the best at creating totally new openings to rush through, as she can only create one per round, but when combined with the likes of Ash or Sledge she becomes very effective.
Valkyrie
Valkyrie is a defense operator who shines on some maps – and not so much on others. She has the ability to throw out three cameras, which all of the team can use, much like the regular camera system. These cameras can stick to any surface and can see in full 360 degrees, meaning they can be hidden high above the map and still look down on everything. Vision is key for defenders, and knowing where the attackers are coming in from gives a big advantage. However, in the smaller maps that are very tight she’s rarely seen.
Mira
Mira is one of the two newest operators and has one of the most unusual abilities in the game. She can place a two-way mirror on a wall, which means whoever is stood behind it can see through, but whoever is stood in front of it just sees black. This is completely bulletproof from both directions, offering great cover and vision. The person behind the mirror can shoot a gas can just below it to shatter the window and hopefully take down whoever is on the other side by shooting through, which can create some really cool moments.
Smoke
Smoke, as you might have guessed, carries smoke grenades with him. Anyone walking through these clouds of smoke, even his team-mates, will take damage and can even be eliminated by them if they are stupid enough to stay standing in there. This sounds a little underwhelming, but is actually a great counter to any of the slow moving shield carrying operators. One smoke will push them back, and their slow pace means they will take a lot of free damage. Smoke is a little on the boring side, but is often required to keep the big guys out.
Bandit
Bandit is another fairly mundane operator, but again is very useful. He can place down what is effectively a massive battery, which will electrify reinforced walls, barbed wire and tactical shields. When anyone goes near the electrified object, they’ll take damage, meaning electrified barbed wire can pretty much cut off a route – it’ll also destroy any drones that try and fly through it. When combined with operators such as Castle, this ability becomes way more effective, but even alone it’s effective at slowing down attackers and making them rethink their plans.
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