Rainbow Six: Siege pros discuss Pick and Ban, Sixth Pick and more

Back in Season 8 of Siege’s Pro League scene, the community saw the introduction of - Pick and Ban - a system where each team could ban one attacking operator and one defending operator each, not to be available for play for the entirety of the match. With this introduction came an additional change named - sixth pick.

Once all players have chosen their operators for a given round, their team composition will be shown to the other team. One person on each team will then have the ability to quickly swap to a different operator without the opposing team knowing. 

Who wants sixth pick out of the Pro League?

While the topic of removing certain aspects of the pro game has been discussed practically since its addition, the discourse surrounding specific elements has cropped up more over the course of Operation Void Edge.

Recently, Pro League caster Parker “Interrobang” Mackay spoke on his Twitter regarding some changes he would like to see within the professional scene including the removal of sixth pick.

    
He details many changes including a modified ban phase, but the single aspect he focuses the most on is the removal of sixth pick.

The idea behind its removal stems from allowing both teams to keep their strategies secret from each other without the reveal phase and sixth pick simply spelling out for them what each team is bringing to the table.

Naturally, if sixth pick were to be removed, Mackay states that he wishes the Reveal Phase to be gone as well. 

• Read More: Rainbow Six: Siege caster Milosh on the 20-second meta

TSM Analyst Jacob “Daeda” Hale has also spoken on Twitter about enriching the ban phase to be more complex if the reveal phase and sixth pick were to be removed.

Like Interrobang, Daeda believes that making the ban phase more complex and reverting the presence of sxith pick would allow for a much more comfortable and entertaining competitive climate, with some different thoughts on the reveal phase along with other thoughts.

He discusses the prospect of the reveal phase remaining, but only allowing attackers to see the defenders line-up, but not the inverse. 

What other things could be changed?

While the discussion of removing 6th pick has been the recent hot topic within the competitive scene, it is not all which is being discussed. Changes to the league’s map pool, ban phase and reveal phase have all been proposed, with various solutions for all of them. 

Amidst the chaos of Season 11’s quarantined playdays, it can be comforting to many Rainbow 6 players to have the presence of Esports as a source of entertainment. Many community members have been trying to push the league to its competitive limits in order to make it the best, most entertaining, and most fun it can be

 If you are at all confused about the Rainbow Six: Siege competitive scene, feel free to check out this guide to Rainbow Six Pro League.