Like every FPS, Rainbow Six Siege has a long history of cheaters and hackers ruining the fun for competitive and casual players alike.
Rainbow Six Siege players have been frustrated with not only cheaters but Ubisoft's anti-cheat program for years. Hackers use wall hacks, aimbots, and other unfair cheats to have an advantage on the opposing team. While usually quite obvious what's happening, many players feel there is nothing they can really do to stop it.
Rainbow Six Siege developers take on cheaters head-on
A lot of Rainbow Six Siege players feel as though Ubisoft has not done enough to get rid of the cheaters that run rampant in ranked games. But there have been many instances where developers have announced new ways to combat cheating.
In 2018, Ubisoft stated that the company's plan was to crack down even harder on hackers as the issue continued. Following this statement, Ubisoft banned over 1,300 players for using hacks like XP boosting and defusing bombs from afar. But the ban was only for two weeks, which confused many Rainbow Six Siege players.
But Ubisoft explained that the suspension wasn't the real solution to removing hackers. The overall goal going forward was to establish a better way of recognizing these players on a behavioral and software level and then remove the causes altogether.
Ubisoft sues hacking website for selling cheats to Rainbow Six Siege players
Ubisoft sued website Mizusoft in 2019, claiming the site sold "hundreds of thousands" of dollars worth of cheats. Soon after, the site went offline but not before the gaming community got wind of the situation.
Mizusoft had offered Rainbow Six Siege cheats for $77 a month, featuring weapon damage boosting and the ability to display all enemy positions. The company had allegedly "bragged" to media outlets that the cheating software ruined the experience for other Rainbow Six players.
Ubisoft demanded compensation for the "massive and irreparable harm" the website caused to Rainbow Six Siege as well as the dissolution of the company.
Since then, Ubisoft has made some further attempts at cutting down the number of cheaters in Rainbow Six Siege. In 2021, developers targeted AFK cheaters by adjusting detection software and issuing manual bans.
Unfortunately, the ongoing mission to fight hackers hasn't been enough.
Rainbow Six Siege players demand something be done about hackers
In September of 2021, Rainbow Six Siege players got #SaveSiege to start trending on Twitter. The hashtag was started by Matthew "Achieved" Solomon, a professional Rainbow Six Siege player, who was sick of dealing with the game's "massive cheating problem." The player stated that cheaters should be developers' "number one priority going forward."
What anti-cheat system does Rainbow Six Siege use?
Rainbow Six Siege uses BattlEye as its anti-cheat program. It's considered a viable program for tactical shooters, reversing a cheater's ELO once detected. But players have spoken out against BattlEye before.
Top Rainbow Six Siege players like George "KingGeorge" Kassa and Maurice "AceeZ" Erkelenz started a boycott in April 2021 due to some of the anti-cheat system's major flaws. The pro players urged other fans to stop buying R6 Credits until Ubisoft made some changes.
BattlEye reverses the ELO of a match for every player involved if a chapter is discovered. This happens whether the cheater is winning or losing. This frustrates players who beat the cheating team since their ELO is still reversed. This led players to demand immediate changes.
In 2021, players have continued to run into a variety of new ways to cheat in Rainbow Six Siege, from messing with the game to using game-breaking hacks.
While Ubisoft can't fairly be accused of doing nothing about the frustrating hacker issue in Rainbow Six Siege, players are still wondering what more can be done to make run-ins with cheaters not as frequent.