After making Rainbow Six Siege X official in Boston, Massachusetts, during the Six Invitational 2025 Finals, Ubisoft revealed all what's coming in Year 9 Season 2 during the Rainbow Six Siege X Showcase, celebrated in Atlanta, Georgia, on March 13.
It's undeniable that Rainbow Six Siege X will transform the game, with the patch including updates to the game's rappelling animation, weapon inspect, a brand-new 6v6 game mode called Dual Front, destructible ingredients, map overhauls, a new audio system, and many, many more changes.
However, some times video game developers don't have to innovate that much to keep players happy; and that's what happened when Ubisoft announced that Unranked will be back to the game with Rainbow Six Siege X.
For those unaware, Unranked was a game mode in Rainbow Six Siege that allowed players to enjoy the Ranked experience without having Ranked Points on the line. This meant that players could compete under professional rules without having to "try-hard" or feeling the pressure of winning; it was a perfect mix of competitiveness and fun.
Despite Unranked being a success among the community, Ubisoft decided to change it with the release of Operation Heavy Mettle. In August 2023, Unranked was changed to what's now known as Standard. It's fair the changes were quite noticeable.
When changing Unranked to Standard, Ubisoft wanted to make this game mode more time efficient. While the length of the preparation phase and the action phase were kept the same, Ubisoft decided to make overtimes last for just one round instead of a possible three.
Although that already considerably reduces the play time of a Standard match, Ubisoft went a step further and decided to eliminate the ban phase. In other words, the strategical aspect of banning operators and maps was gone, turning Standard a semi-competitive game mode.
All in all, the community wasn't very happy about the changes. Additionally, combined with Ubisoft changing the way Quick Match worked, adding pre-made reinforces and reducing the length of the rounds, many fans felt attacked by the changes, which affected their regular experience by quite a lot.
With Standard changing back to Unranked, Ubisoft shows they can learn from the fans' feedback. At the same time, fans will be able to enjoy the Unranked experience, which offers a space to players who want to play under competitive rules without competing for Ranked Points. No pressure sometimes means more fun!
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