What have they done to my beautiful boy

GamesFPSRainbow Six SiegeWhat have they done to my beautiful boyWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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(Image credit: Ubisoft)

rainbow six siege blackbeard nerf

I can’t believe it finally happened.

On a dusty day in May 2016, just a few months into Rainbow Six Siege’s redemption campaign following its disastrous launch, a Navy Seal namedBlackbeardjoined the team. He was only the second attacker added after launch, and with his defending counterpart Valkyrie raised Siege’s total roster size to 24. Blackbeard’s unique gadget, a rifle-mounted ballistic shield that negated headshots from the front, was immediately controversial. Headshots are king in Rainbow Six Siege—it’s one of the only games where they’re a guaranteed one-shot-kill—so you can imagine how an operator who gets to ignore that risk with few downsides became everyone’s favorite to complain about.

Despite Blackbeard being the target of so many calls for nerfs, bans, or straight-up deletion, he has remained on the roster relatively unchanged eight years and 50(!) operators later. The Blackbeard of 2024 can still block headshots for free and win fights he doesn’t deserve to win—but that all ends soon.Ubisoftunveiled its long-awaited Blackbeard rework this past weekend:

Rainbow Six Siege: Collision Point Operator Gameplay Gadget & Starter Tips - YouTubeWatch On

Rainbow Six Siege: Collision Point Operator Gameplay Gadget & Starter Tips - YouTube

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His role has dramatically shifted from “guy who holds angles and wins direct gunfights” to a “bullet sponge who risks getting headshot every time he slowly brings his gun to the ready.” It’s sort of like if Overwatch 2’s Tracer became a tank overnight, or if Valve remembered Team Fortress 2 exists long enough to replace the Heavy’s minigun with a flamethrower. Ignoring the jarring mechanical shift, the pairing looks aesthetically ugly—Blackbeard himself is still decked out in his iconic desert camo, but his all-black shield with goofy skull insignia looks unrelated and tacky. This Blackbeard is a botched whiteout job. He just looks incorrect.

Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege - Operation Dust Line Trailer | Ubisoft [NA] - YouTubeWatch On

Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege - Operation Dust Line Trailer | Ubisoft [NA] - YouTube

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After working with (and around) the same rifled-shielded beard bro for most of my adult life, my brain still barely accepts that the Blackbeard I know is bound for the same live service limbo as pre-nerf Mercy and theentirety of CS:GO. Blackbeard’s identity—and a significant symbol of Rainbow Six Siege’s early years—will soon be gone. It sucks that long-running games have gotten comfortable with literally deleting their history in the name of present balance.

It sucks even more that, the more vestiges of old Siege Ubi chips away, the more content it has to resell to us in the form of a “Siege OG” style throwback—a fleeting form of preservation that dangles nostalgia like a carrot on a stick. This isn’t how live service games should get old.

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