Rainbow Six Siege ESL Bans “Ember Rise” Cosmetics Over Pay-to-Win Concerns
Rainbow Six Siege ESL has once again banned the use of a certain set of in-game cosmetics. As per the ESL rules, any uniforms or headgears that provide any sort of a competitive advantage are disallowed in competitive matches, and this extends to the new Ember Rise outfits.
For those who aren't aware playing USN tonight, Ember Rise skins are banned. pic.twitter.com/xkC7nkzFS5
— Sternab (@SternabR6) October 26, 2019
Since launch, Ubisoft has remained adamant on its policy regarding microtransactions. The developer firmly believes that cosmetic items purchased with real world money shouldn’t provide any advantage whatsoever. However, for the past two seasons, pay-to-win concerns in Rainbow Six Siege have greatly increased.
Last season’s Wind Bastion outfits, and the current Ember Rise outfits have quickly become one of the game’s most controversial topics. Due to their nature, operators wearing the outfits are harder to see in some scenarios. Both casual and professional players have repeatedly asked Ubisoft to address this issue.
Enemy cosmetics are bad for the game. (there is a zof there look hard) pic.twitter.com/yFZiizV3k4
— Snake_Nade (@Snake_Nade) October 4, 2019
As seen in the image above, equipping these outfits makes the player blend into the surroundings. From a competitive standpoint, this is a big no-no, and that’s why ESL has now banned the use of both Wind Bastion and Ember Rise cosmetics. This isn’t the first time this issue has come up, as the Twitch elite skin with the camouflaged shock drone skin sparked a controversy as well.
This wouldn’t be that big of an issue if the aforementioned cosmetics weren’t exclusively available for purchase with real world money. The complete Ember Rise uniform bundle costs 6000 R6 Credits, which equates to €50.
Despite community feedback regarding the Wind Bastion outfits, Ubisoft went ahead and released the Ember Rise outfits. Although the strict rules and regulations of ESL mean professional players don’t have to deal with this, regular players are forced to deal with this “abuse”.
For this reason, players have been begging Ubisoft to let Rainbow Six Siege players disable cosmetics for enemy operators. Such a solution would address the frustration of competitive-minded players, whilst allowing the remainder of the players to enjoy flashy cosmetics.
