The ESL and Ubisoft Are Squandering Rainbow Six Siege’s Competitive Potential

Competitive gaming is a simple concept, much like professional sports. You take the best players, put them head to head, see who comes out on top. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately if you happen to be one of those players and make your living this way) money is involved, which means things are going to get incessantly complicated and loaded with scandal and controversy. Maybe it’s because I’m American and most of the teachers I’ve had in public school instilled more value in knowing the thirty NFL teams than they did in knowing the fifty states (I can’t ever remember Arkansas, but I’ll never forget the Steelers), but the notion of a “professional” scene of just about anything is interesting to me. On that note, the “professional” scene for Rainbow Six Siege is a colossal dumpster fire.

Let’s begin with VwS.Clever. Now this is old news at this point having taken place about a year ago, but I think the whole debacle sets the tone leading up to the pro scene today. VwS.Clever was a competitive player who regularly used a second monitor during his streams on twitch. Now the pro scene for Siege is run by the ESL (Electronic Sports League) who require that all participants on the PC platform submit ESL Wire and MOSS files, platforms designed to catch cheaters in the act by taking information from the players PC and random screenshots during the game for analysis upon suspicion of foul play.

VwS.Clever ran a second monitor during his games as evidenced by his twitch stream details (which he wrote) listing his second monitor, and the fact that he admit to having a second monitor close by so he can check it “for work and stuff.” But in his MOSS files submitted to the ESL, there was no second monitor recorded. It would be one thing to assume he simply disconnected it for professional games, but he streamed his matches live on twitch and could be clearly seen looking away from his main monitor, frequently, and often mid-firefight (the middle of a firefight being precisely the moment you normally wouldn’t look away from your screen.)

The only reason having a second monitor would be a big deal (and the only reason for hiding it) is because of a cheat called “wallhacks” or “ESP.” What they do is basically provide a visual overlay for the game that shows you where everyone is at all times, even through obstacles or walls. At any level of competition this can be a massive advantage, but in the competitive level, it also means money is at stake. Naturally people grew suspicious when they started to rack up all these clips of VwS.Clever making perfect shots, while looking away from his main screen, in the middle of a pro-league match, at a monitor that supposedly doesn’t exist. A total of nine suspicious clips were compiled to prove VwS.Clever was a cheater by other pro-league players who wanted his team to be disqualified and kicked from competition, per the rules posted by the ESL in regards to cheaters.

This is the part where I would love to say that the ESL watched the collected evidence, heard the opinions of his peers, and took action against VwS.Clever for, at the very least, not including MOSS files for his second monitor. But what really happened is the ESL came forward announcing that their investigation would need a couple days. Naturally an entire month went by, and their conclusion was “We were trying to find anything from legal side which could allow us to ban him. Unfortunately we didn’t so we can’t ban him.” (verbatim ESL response posted on the reddit.)Team VwS got 6 of their 13 points from VwS.Clever’s cheating and made it to the finals, but ultimately (and deservedly) lost at the LAN tournament (probably because it’s hard to cheat in a live arena.)

“Sure” you might be saying to me through your monitor “there was one bad egg amidst a sea of noble players, and this was one occasion which was handled poorly at the very early stages of the competitive scenes lifetime. Almost a year later things have surely improved.” That would be great considering VwS.Clever decided to retire after the accusations, it would mean it was all smooth sailing from then on. But it turns out this is the real world, and again, there was money at stake. So of course there’s more shadiness.

During that first pro-league season a full team called Electronic Gaming Evolution (eGe) was accused of cheating and not reporting their MOSS files. Every match they played ran with ESL Wire off, or were missing several of their players MOSS files after the submission deadline. Officially according to the ESL “Incomplete or defective MOSS files will be treated as missing MOSS files. Manipulating MOSS will be strictly punished and will be considered as cheating.” So naturally, eGe was banned from the competitive scene.

Just kidding, they changed their name to ACE Gaming and kept competing throughout the rest of the year with not even so much as a penalty point for the missing files which are mandatory for competition. This team became known for losing early rounds and then all of the sudden becoming the best players in the world mid-match, almost like they flipped a switch that allowed them to see everyone through walls or something.

Let’s pretend you’re still not on board and you’re saying something like “Well ok, but all this was before Battleye which cleaned up the cheating problems in Siege magnificently. It’s not an issue anymore right?” In which case I’d have to tell you, you’re missing the point. The idea that anyone could make it to the finals with a known cheater, or that a team could be allowed to compete being stacked with cheaters, shows straight negligence on the part of the tournament managers. Nobody is protecting the integrity of the game. Yes, the cheaters are dealt with (for the most part) by Battleye, but it doesn’t stop shady behavior.

In order to get to the pro-league there are qualifier tournaments. They’re a pretty big deal for players since the qualifier tournaments act as a gateway to the pro-league where the real fame and fortune is. One such qualifier match between teams Oops and E2 was contested with ESL admins asked to make a ruling regarding a questionable maneuver in Siege called a “shieldboost.” Both teams used the maneuver in the match, and official ESL rules state your contention needs to be posted immediately after spotting a problem. The steps are; stop the match, contact an admin, tell them the problem to have it sorted right then and there. Team E2 decided to wait until after they lost their match against Team Oops to post their contention, over a maneuver both teams used (with video evidence of both teams using it) and won the contention having their loss overturned by an ESL admin, and Team Oops were eliminated from play. Team Oops tried to have it overturned, but the next round of the tournament was starting and the ESL couldn’t be bothered to deal with sore losers who are upset just because they technically won and followed the rules.

Another qualifier EU team “On dit merci qui?” was scheduled for a qualifier. This is an important position; you’ve been practicing with your team, running strategies, working on your aim, all leading up to a moment for a chance to compete at a professional caliber. It’s a shame for “On dit merci qui?” then that when they were in this position, finally having their chance, the ESL decided they should just be disqualified before the tournament starts, for no reason, and without notice, on the day of the competition. It took just shy of an hour for player TankNinjaz to hear back from the ESL regarding the disqualification. The official response was “I apologize for the trouble, but your team was kicked out of the cup by accident and mistake from me. Our system don’t allow us to reintegrate you back into the cup. Best regards, Ava, ESL Admin.” (verbatim quote complete with grammar errors.)

When your tournament organizers screw up so colossally to just accidentally and randomly eliminate teams for no reason, and their response is “yeah my bad, lol, better luck next time losers” when they get called out on it, it’s time to look into changing your tournament organizers. Because if you don’t it keeps happening. Consoles aren’t safe from the controversy either, as the R6 Invitational Qualifiers on Xbox had their match start times altered just a couple hours before the tournament, meaning a large number of teams were immediately disqualified without ever competing. All because the time was changed for no reason, on the day of, and without warning.

Let’s pretend (again) you’re still trying to defend the ESL and Ubisoft’s decision to use them as their tournament organizers for their main competitive shooter. You might say something like “Well this is bad sure, but it’s not professional level games yet. Obviously the ESL has their best admins working on the top level.” Oh… you sweet summer child.

During the second season of pro-league competition, EU based pro team FENIX backed out of the league. When they forfeit their position they were tied with Berlin based team PENTA in the scoreboard. However when FENIX pulled from competition, their previous wins were recounted as losses which boosted PENTA in the standings to fourth place. Fourth place was enough for PENTA to secure financial bonuses according to their contracts, and to progress in the tournament. What compelled FENIX to withdraw from competition? PENTA extended offers to two FENIX players for the next season with those players joining the roster a few weeks later. PENTA picked up better players, and secured a financial bonus by manipulating their competitors. The evidence? A couple of SMS messages between FENIX and PENTA players organizing the deal. What did the ESL do with that evidence? Absolutely nothing, PENTA just played against Finnish team GIFU earlier this week for the Season 2 qualifiers.

“But that was a while ago, the production quality of the professional scene has improved, I’m sure the ESL takes it more seriously now that more money is on the line.” Well, interesting theory, but earlier this week pro player dalycan decided to share some insight as to why his team Onslaught struggled in their match against Ominous.

The short of it is that back in February for the R6 Invitational, Onslaught was told they wouldn’t need to go through the qualifier tournaments because the team was already invited. However Onslaught is expected to contain at least three out of five of their original players to maintain their slot in the invitational. The players of Onslaught and a couple other teams were cycled and traded around, but Onslaught met the 3/5ths rule with dalycan, Talon, and Nineline. Onslaught makes sure with the ESL that they’re all set for the invitational and don’t need to go through the qualifiers and the ESL assures them their spot is safe. While the qualifier tournament goes on, Onslaught practices with their regular team of Sov, Talon, Justyn, P3NG1N and dalycan.

The qualifiers end and an ESL admin sends out a tweet that Onslaught lost their spot in the invitational because fpsZED wanted to switch teams and that meant they didn’t meet the 3/5ths rule (despite them being confirmed to meet it with Talon, Nineline, and dalycan. fpsZED was never in the original confirmation.) Suddenly Nineline no longer qualified as an original member because he didn’t play 60% of the games from the previous season. Dalycan as a last ditch effort asks a retired player, Xclusive, to rejoin the roster so Onslaught will qualify. The ESL agrees as long as Xclusive plays the first match. The rules at the time reading “once the team is invited and the league is formed you create a new ‘original 5.” This means Xclusive shouldn’t have to even play the first match, just be a sub on the Onslaught roster, but the ESL admin insists the team will be disqualified if Xclusive, dalycan, and Talon are not playing the first match. You might say this sounds like a worthless and pedantic rule, and that’s because it is. But hey, at least the ESL is finally enforcing their rules.

Until the first week of the invitational goes by (Onslaught had the bye week and didn’t have to play) and dalycan noticed another competing team, ERA, didn’t have 3/5ths of their original roster. He brings the issue up to an ESL admin who, naturally in their ever accommodating nature, make the point that if Xclusive, dalycan, and Talon are not in that first match that Onslaught will be instantly disqualified. The only consistency for Onslaught is the threat of disqualification and the uncertainty that they’ll have the spot they were asked to fill months before. They would have competed and earned the spot if they needed to, but the ESL decided to jerk them around instead.

Onslaught lost their first match since they couldn’t play with their full roster, the ones they practiced with. Sov generously decides that if the team gets knocked out, P3NG1N never gets to play in the pro-league and drops to give P3NG1N his spot. Dalycan, unhappy that his team is the only one being asked to abide by the rules, gets a hold of a different ESL admin who allows them to play with their full roster. Unfortunately, Sov could not be reached on short notice after Onslaught got the greenlight and they played with a sub. They got destroyed.

Earlier this week ESL admin Vets2Vets answered Dalycan insisting that the ESL was in the right. Basically reaffirming what Dalycan had a problem with, that Nineline wasn’t eligible for the 3/5ths rule and that Xclusive would have to be present. This rule is in place to ensure that a team cannot sell or transfer their spot away without players who competed to earn it. Playday 2 (Onslaughts first game) the ESL admins noticed that Onslaught still hadn’t met the 3/5ths rule since Sov and Xclusive were missing from the submitted roster. Vets2Vets said he made the call “As a courtesy and in effort of fair play, I allowed Nine to play the game in the place of the roster I was given as he was an org member that was invited, to which unfortunately, they were beat. I can not account for the team dynamics or what lead to the loss in game. But I can assure you this, I was not the reason they lost.”

As for why ERA was allowed to play without seemingly complying to the 3/5ths rule, it was because they got their invitation after reaching the finals of Season 3, a feat Onslaught didn’t achieve. Members of the ERA roster qualified for the 60% games played ruling when they reached LAN and played in the finals. If they hadn’t done that, ERA would have not met the same 3/5ths rule and been asked to swap their roster.

Vets2Vets posted his side for the sake of transparency in the ESL. It is obvious the admin team loves the game and want to see it taken care of, and Vets2Vets is definitely compassionate and wants to keep the game alive. But the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and a desire to keep things running flawlessly does not translate to an ability to do so.

The fact that Rainbow Six Siege has made it as far as it has with the ESL weighing it down this hard is a testament to the intensity of the game. The fans of the pro-league watch the best players in the world go after cash prizes in some of the most heart pounding, white knuckled moments to be found in gaming today. But behind the scenes is a totally miserable situation. More transparency like Vets post could help, but the key would be to keep from making these judgement errors in the first place. If the ESL can’t keep their structure together, the competitive potential of Siege will be wasted in a broken tournament system, and Ubisoft will have thrown away the best professional shooter of this generation.