Rainbow Six Siege’s upcoming Pick and Ban explained

Since the start of year three, Ubisoft has been working on a Pick and Ban mechanic. The feature has been available on the technical test servers for a while now.  Pick and Ban will be available in custom games on the live build once Operation Para Bellum is released.

What is Pick and Ban?

Pick and Ban is a gameplay feature that will allow teams to ban up to two attack and two defense operators per match. The bans will remain in effect for the entirety of the match. This feature aims to add a new competitive aspect to the game by allowing players to “craft their own Meta”.

How it works

Ubisoft has said that Pick and Ban will only be available in custom games starting from season 2. A video posted on Ubisoft’s channel demonstrates the mechanic in action:

Ban Phase

At the start of a game, both teams take alternating turns to ban operators. The sequence of the ban phase is as follows:

1.  Defending team: ban Attacker 1 
2.  Attacking team: ban Attacker 2 
3.  Attacking team: ban Defender 1 
4.  Defending team: ban Defender 2

This predefined sequence will allow both teams to ban one attacker and one defender.

Pick Phase

After the ban phase has concluded, players will choose their spawn/objective location before they pick operators. Fans have wanted to be able to select spawn location before the operator selection for a long time.

Reveal Phase

Once both sides have selected their operators, the pick phase ends. In the reveal phase, the team compositions are revealed to everyone. This sounds like an odd mechanic at first, but it is intended to be used alongside the Sixth Pick mechanic.

Sixth Pick

The Sixth Pick element will introduce a whole new aspect of competitiveness to Rainbow Six Siege. Following the reveal phase, one player from each team will be able to switch their operator to a different one. Their choice remains hidden from the other team. The sixth pick mechanic will add an element of unpredictability and players will have to think ahead if they want to succeed.

For example, if the defenders have picked Bandit and the reveal phase informs them that the attackers have no Thermite or Hibana, they might swap out Bandit for a more useful pick. The attackers could pick up on this and switch to either Thermite or Hibana and catch the defenders off guard.

Objective Rotation

The update will add another object rotation option: Play and Win.

Play

If a team successfully defends an objective, they must play a certain number of rounds on a different one before being able to select the previous objective again.

Win

If a team successfully defends an objective, they must win a certain number of rounds on a different one before being able to select the previous objective again.

Ubisoft has explained the whole mechanic in great detail on a Dev Blog published today.