Ever since Rainbow Six Siege first launched, teamkilling has been an ongoing issue. The game’s emphasis on realism means that erroneously-placed shots can damage and even kill allied players, and of course that means there are less savory folks who, whether out of anger or sheer maliciousness, will gleefully gun down their teammates if the mood strikes them. Now, however, Ubisoft is finally taking a hard stance against would-be-team killers by making the offense punishable with an instant ban.
The first major update for Siege following the release of its Operation Grim Sky expansion is headlined by the new teamkilling penalties, showing that Ubisoft is taking a similarly harsh stance as it has towards toxic text chat. The new punishment system also brings the consequences for teamkilling in ranked and casual play more in line with each other.
Originally, if a player killed two teammates in one match (Ubisoft understands that accidental team kills can occur, hence the free pass for the first kill), they would be booted from the match and hit with a 30-minute abandon penalty if it was a ranked match (preventing them from queuing up for ranked matches until the penalty time expired). Now, if a player is caught willfully teamkilling in either casual or ranked, they’ll be hit with a 30-minute ban that prevents them from playing any of Siege’s core game modes, including casual, ranked, and Terrorist Hunt.
If a player keeps teamkilling after their first offense, the length of the ban will be extended using the following calculations:
- First offense: Banned from Matchmaking for 30 minutes
- Second offense: Banned from Matchmaking for 1 hour
- Third offense: Banned from Matchmaking for 2 hours
- Fourth offense: Banned from Matchmaking for 24 hours
- Fifth offense: Banned from Matchmaking for 7 days
Ubisoft later clarified that the ban infractions for an individual player will eventually work back down to 30 minutes, but it didn’t clarify just how much time needs to elapse without any infractions for the time thresholds to be lowered. Suffice it to say, all Siege players will now have to be just a bit more careful about where they place their shots, and team killers will have to change their ways or suffer the consequences.