Rainbow Six Pro League has been getting traction and increasing its popularity every season, and their latest season has been a huge success. Peak viewers reached an all-time high with 243K viewers during the grand finals. It even had more viewers than ESL Counter-Strike finals even though the Rainbow Six Pro League gets less than 1/4 of the earnings that Counter-Strike get. It has been an astonishing accomplishment to say the least.



The success of Rainbow 6 Pro League can be credited to developers that have been trying very hard to improve the competitive scene and its esports scene, and their hard-work is slowly paying off.



Starting season 8, Rainbow 6 will follow Overwatch League’s path and implement a revenue sharing-based pilot program for organizations that is part of the Rainbow 6’s Pro League. For the pilot program, teams, and players will be received a shared-profit from a selection of Pro League in-game items. This will allow teams and players to have a steadier income and help the environment for pro players to become more stable. They are guaranteeing Pro League until 2020 and we have a ton of exciting seasons coming up.







▲ Missed all the action for Season 7? Check out these highlights





Everything You Need to Know about Rainbow Six Pro League Season 8



The new season will introduce a host of changes to the current game, and will be launching its upcoming DLC, “Operation Para Bellum”, that will include two new operators and a new map. Here is a “quick” breakdown of all the changes for season 8.



If you would like to see more information about Operation Para Bellum, click here.





Operation Para Bellum – New Operators



The new operators for the “Para Bellum” DLC will be recruited from Italy’s very own Gruppo di Intervento Speciale (G.I.S.). The new operators will feature a completely new gadget and a modified version of Valkyrie’s “Black eye”. Both operators will serve on the defending side.



Alibi





Alibi will be able to deploy gadgets, called Prisma, across the map that can project a hologram of herself to deceive enemies. They can be placed anywhere on the floor and even outside the defending zone that will trigger a warning for the offender players.



However, there are some limitations to this hologram. The hologram will carry the operators’ basic weapons sans attachments and her regular skin. The holograms are stationary and will flicker when shot. You could shoot down the hologram by destroying the Prisma.



Despite the gadget’s uniqueness, the gadget is relatively easy to play around. It might possibly fool people first few weeks, but it is entirely possible that the veteran players will figure out how to play around it after a while.



Maestro





Maestro will be able to attach cameras, called Evil Eye, around the map with two unique features. First, his cameras can shoot fire high-energy beams that can damage operators and gadgets alike. His cameras are also indestructible and only time his camera can be shot down is when the camera opens its protective glass to shoot its beam. The camera will be vulnerable to other gameplay techniques, i.e. being damaged by Thatcher’s E.M.P and when the wall that the camera is attached to is destroyed.



Due to the importance of information in Rainbow Six, Maestro might see more play than Alibi. However, Maestro is not the only operators that will be getting indestructible cameras. Frost, Doc, Mute, Castle, Caveira and Vigil will all be getting indestructible cameras as well, and ultimately reducing the uniqueness of Maestro.







▲ Here’s a preview of the new operators





Operation Para Bellum – New Map Rotation and New Map ‘Villa’



The map rotation for this pro season will be Bank, newly “buffed” Clubhouse, Oregon, Consulate, Border, Coastline, and the new map, “Villa”

The map, Tower, has been removed due to its large size that puts the offenders at a disadvantage, and it may be too difficult for teams to play without coordination.









▲ As for the new map, “Villa”, you check out this preview by TmarTn2.



The newly “buffed” Clubhouse will include alteration that will significantly change gameplay. The map designers have added a way for Defenders can move between the Bedroom and the cash room without going outside. The objective locations were changed for proper balancing and the newly changed map will feature a new set of stairs in the garage, added a bathroom to sneak past the bar and removed some hatches on the rooftop to allow defenders to move freely. The designers have made a host of visual changes to give an updated look to this classic map.







▲ Here’s another preview of the newly “buffed” map by Macie Jay.





Changes to Season 8 – ‘Pick-and-Ban’



Season 8 will include a new feature that has not been implemented before, “pick-and-ban” system. This a newly added system, that will be available through custom games (this feature will not be implemented in rank games), will allow teams to ban operators from the match. Here is how it will work:



With this new feature, teams will be able to define their own meta and develop strategies that will be unique to each of the teams. This should be pretty interesting for a game where the pick rate for Mira was about 84% and Lion was over 94% in season 7. If you would like to know more about the pick-and-ban system you can click here.





Changes to Season 8 – Scheduling



Season 8 will be divided into two six months season that will be divided into two “sub-seasons”. Each sub-season will have 14 play days where each team will play every other team twice. After the first season, there will be a Major event and a release of a new DLC. The second half of the season will play with the new DLC. These matches will be a best of one.



The schedule for the first season is out and you can get the full NA and EU schedule by clicking their respective links. If you are a Google Calendar User, come join our calendar where we will have all the updated matches coming up for season 8.



At the end of the season, two of the best teams will move on to the end of season LAN finals. The bottom placed team of the Pro League will be relegated down to the Challenger League and be replaced by the first place of the Challengers League. The seventh-place team from the Pro League will play against the second place Challenger League. These matches will be a best of five.





▲ APAC Schedule for Season 8



The Grand Finals will take place at the Jeunesse Arena in Rio Janeiro, Brasil, the home of Season 7 champions, Team Liquid. The total prize pool for the tournament will be $275,000. Top two teams from each region to compete for the championship and It will run around November 17 to 18th.



If you are in the area and would like to know more information about the finals, you can find more information here.





Don’t forget to follow these channels to make sure you don’t miss any of the R6 action.

English: www.twitch.tv/rainbow6

French: www.twitch.tv/ubisoftfr

Spanish: www.twitch.tv/ubisoftesp

German: www.twitch.tv/ubisoftde

Portuguese: www.twitch.tv/ubisoftesports

Italian: www.twitch.tv/rainbow6it

Russian: www.twitch.tv/rainbow6ru

Korean: www.twitch.tv/rainbow6kr

Japanese: www.twitch.tv/rainbow6jp





If you would like to see complete changes to the upcoming season, you can check them out here.