We recently mentioned Operation Health, the three-month push to improve and upgrade Rainbow Six Siege. As part of the Rainbow Six Pro League World Championship finals over the weekend, the development team released a few more details on how Operation Health is going to work. But first, let's take a look at those finals.
After seven weeks of online qualifiers, the world's top eight teams headed to the live finals at the Spodek Arena in the heart of Katowice, Poland, to compete for a $237,500 prize pool. Among the qualifiers were Elevate, Vertical Gaming and Flipsid3 Tactics from the US, V3 Masters and Black Dragons from Brazil, pan-European team PENTA Sports, Finnish team GiFu and Spanish team gBots.
The finals were run as a single-elimination tournament, with each match-up being a best-of-three across Rainbow Six Siege's first-to-five wins TDM-Bomb game mode. In this mode, attackers have to defuse a bomb, and the defenders have to build defenses and prevent that happening. Of course, players don't respawn in Rainbow Six Siege matches, so if an entire team is taken out, their opponents automatically win.
The quarter-finals were a bad scene for North America. European favorites PENTA Sports took down Elevate, V3 Masters took down Vertical, and gBots took down Flipsid3 tactics - all in two straight matches. The remaining quarter-final match was a victory for Black Dragons, taking down GiFu 2-1.
With the US teams out of the running, the semi-finals were a straight fight between South America and Europe. PENTA Sports continued their winning streak by taking down V3 Masters 2-1, and the Black Dragons took down gBots by the same margin.
So it all came down to the championship final: Black Dragons (Brazil) and PENTA Sports (Europe). To see what happened, check out the following video and read on!
Border
The series final began on Border, a Middle Eastern map that arrived as part of Operation Dust Line last May. Border contains a combination of old and new buildings and open pathways, and is considered one of the most destructible maps in the game, meaning safe areas can turn into death traps at a moment's notice.
Black Dragons got off to a strong start as attackers, getting the jump on PENTA (who'd chosen the Armory as their bomb site), rushing the building, and taking down the entire team. NESK, in particular, seemed set to be unstoppable, taking four kills alone. 1-0 to the Black Dragons. As the roles reversed and PENTA became attackers in the next game, things turned a little more chaotic. With Black Dragons choosing the Ventilation/Workshop as their bomb site, PENTA were able to use this chaos to their advantage, taking down all the Black Dragons while only losing one of their own squad. 1-1. For the third game, PENTA put their bombs in the Ventilation/Workshop area. Black Dragons again looked strong as attackers; when their initial infiltration of the building didn't work out, they were still able to bring it down to a one-on-one with just their man NESK and PENTA's KS. But KS took the winning shot, and Black Dragons came out losers. 2-1 to PENTA Sports. Black Dragon hid their bombs in the Armory for the next game - another close fight. But as the final two PENTA players began defusing the bomb, the remaining Black Dragon, D1OGO1, was forced to rush them and came off worse.
3-1 to PENTA. For the fifth game, the PENTA squad were back defending the Armory. Black Dragons got a sniper kill on PENTA's GOGA in the first few seconds of the round - could this be the turning point? No, the round remained close until another two-on-one finale clash went in PENTA's favor. Four-one to PENTA, with Black Dragons now three games behind. By this stage, PENTA's KS was proving a formidable force - having raked in 10 kills, one assist and only two deaths. Black Dragons returned to defend the Armory for the match-point game. Again, it was a close fight but ended with just one remaining Black Dragon coming off worse against four PENTA. PENTA Sports won the map 5-1.
Consulate
Next up was Consulate, one of the game's original maps - set in and around the heavily fortified French consulate on the Ivory Coast.
PENTA started on defense with their bombs in the Basement area, as both teams took a slow and tactical approach. That all changed when PENTA's Falko demolished two Black Dragons with a single C4 charge - the rout was back on. The round ended with the Black Dragons wiped out, and three PENTAs still standing. 1-0 to PENTA.
For the second game, the Black Dragons were on defense, also putting their bombs in the Basement. This close game built to a tense finish with only two remaining players - as Black Dragons D1OGO1 tried to destroy PENTA's defuser, their man Pengu closed in and took the final shot. 2-0 to PENTA.
Into game three, with PENTA defending their bombs on the first floor. Maintaining strong control of the map throughout, PENTA never really looked to be under threat - and despite a last ditch effort by D1OGO1, the European team were victorious, putting them ahead 3-0.
The Black Dragons were back on defense for game four, planting their bombs in the Basement and building strong defences. By this stage, PENTA's confidence was high, and they methodically blitzed the Black Dragon defenders, swarming the basement and taking down the last member of the opposing team with only one of their own down. 4-0 to PENTA.
With the fifth game now map-point and series-point, PENTA planted their bombs in the second-floor offices. NESK took the first kill on PENTA's jOONAS, the Black Dragons fighting aggressively until only D1OGO1 remained for their team. He planted a defuser in hopes of finishing the match as the two last PENTA players, Fabien and Falko, synchronized and closed in from opposing sides. D1OGO1 valiantly took down Falko, but Fabien had the last word.
5-0 - game, map, and series to PENTA Sports. The European team had capitalized on their communication, coordination, and confidence to become Rainbow Six Siege Year 2 Season 1 Champions!
Operation Health update
With the Year 2 Season 1 Finals over, let's move back to Operation Health. As part of the stream for the finals event, this video from the developers was released, explaining how things will work in a little more detail. A dedicated web page for Operation Health's progress will launch over on the official Rainbow Six site tomorrow, allowing players to keep up with all the changes and improvements.
Finally, as a sexy bonus, here's a short documentary that was also released as part of the stream. Siege: The Rising Scene follows the journey of two players who took competed in February's Six Invitational in Montreal: Troy "Canadian" Jaroslawkil from Continuum, and Sebastien "FurioSG" Guérineau from Vitality.
For all the latest Rainbow Six Siege news, stay tuned to UbiBlog and check out our previous coverage.
