In a move sure to weird some fans out, Ubisoft appears to have done away with Counter-Terrorism Unit (CTU) classification in Rainbow Six Siege.
Siege has historically categorized its operators by their CTUs, but Ubisoft has switched up the formula with Operation Ember Rise. The removal of unit names in the main operator menu marks a massive shift away from the status quo of releasing new operators. Typically the CTU of both operators is displayed front and center. While this change is not necessarily a gamechanger, it may still throw fans for a loop when booting up the Ember Rise for the first time this season.
Perhaps the strangest thing to see when looking through the operator menu is that all of the classic operators have the title of “Pathfinders.” Fans who are familiar with the game will recognize each of the old school ops and which CTU they belong to. But for newcomers, it seems as though they will miss out on an easier way to classify their operators, especially when it comes to trying to make callouts while trying to learn the names of all the ops. Unless new players dig into the bio section of each operator, they likely won’t know what CTU they belong to.
The Pathfinders classification is innocuous enough. Siege is getting a wider audience and adding more and more ops to the roster is sure to overwhelm newer fans. Perhaps adding the moniker of Pathfinder is just a way to indicate to new fans that these are the OG Siege operators. Either way, it may take some hardcore fans a minute to adjust to the new norm.
It isn’t the end of the world, just the start of a slightly different one. Another strange tidbit is that operators released post-launch will be classified by their year and season name instead of their CTU. Again, not necessarily bad, but certainly a shift away from the normal proceedings of presenting operators.
For fans who are newer to Siege, they should consider taking a look at each operator’s bio regardless. The bios are full of lore and provide a lot of context for certain voice lines and dynamics that pop up or are referenced in-game. For instance, if someone comes into the game for the first time, plays as Zofia, and takes Ela off the board, then the extra 10 points the player will get for “Sister Rivalry” will come out of nowhere.
Ubisoft’s decision to shift to classifying operators solely by whether they are an attacker or a defender makes sense, considering the size of the roster. The CTU names are sure to be missed by some fans but as the game evolves, so must its playerbase.
Fans can go scope out these changes for themselves on the live servers now. Operation Ember Rise is now live across all platforms and looks to be one of the better releases in recent history.
