For nearly a decade, Rainbow Six Siege has captivated our attention in the gaming community. Siege X was a constant source of adrenaline, strategy, and late-nights for players like Jess, better known as Thrill, a long-time creator in the gaming community. But after ten years of loyalty, even the most dedicated players can reach a breaking point.
In a heartfelt farewell video, Thrill explains why the tactical shooter that once felt like home has become unrecognizable.
Cheaters Killed the Competitive Spirit
Let’s start with the most obvious wound: cheating. Siege has become a hacker’s playground, where legitimate games are the exception, not the rule. Thrill describes nights plagued by “upwards of ten cheaters,” a staggering number in a game that depends so heavily on tactical precision and destructible environments.
It’s not that Ubisoft isn’t aware of the issue (they’ve promised new anti-cheat measures) but Siege’s BattleEye system has long been considered one of the weakest on the market. The situation worsened when Siege X went free-to-play, giving cheaters the ability to rejoin within minutes of a ban. Combine that with cheap, pre-leveled ranked accounts sold on black-market sites, and you’ve got an ecosystem that rewards the worst players in the room.
Ranked 2.0: The Fall of Real Competition
In 2020, Ubisoft introduced Ranked 2.0, promising a better experience for players chasing skill-based matchmaking and seasonal rewards. But in Thrill’s eyes, this update marked the beginning of the end.
The new system hid MMR, replacing meaningful ranks with shiny participation trophies. “It’s one of the single worst changes in FPS history,” Thrill laments. The new ranks no longer represent skill—they represent playtime. The more you grind, the higher you climb, regardless of actual talent or teamwork.
Even worse, once you reach your peak rank, the game artificially boosts you back toward that level every new season. A rank once symbolized mastery; now it’s just a colorful charm on your weapon.
A Balance Team Lost at Sea
If the ranking system eroded Siege’s integrity, the balancing team buried it. Thrill points to countless examples of questionable design decisions, but none more egregious than Doc’s transformation.
Once a modest medic with a balanced healing ability, Doc now dishes out 200 HP heals, effectively turning every firefight into a second chance. Rather than adjusting Doc’s gadget, Ubisoft decided to remove ACOG scopes from most defenders, punishing the entire roster for one operator’s imbalance.
It’s a pattern that’s repeated across updates. When operators become overpowered, they’re gutted into irrelevance instead of refined. “It genuinely feels like the balance team is blind to what the issues really are,” Thrill says. Siege’s balancing has swung from chaos to catastrophe.
