Rainbow Six Siege is a complicated game.

This may sound obvious, but the churning mess of layers, nuances and different play styles can make matches played in the competitive Pro League and those played in your average game of ranked (the most competitive experience that a general player can have) are taking place in different universes.

However, an average Rainbow Six Siege player can learn plenty of tips and tricks from watching Pro League. Here are a few to get you started.

1. Utilise operator synergies

Rainbow Six: Siege's Bandit Ubisoft

Rainbow Six Siege shows off its incredible dynamics when you place the right people with the right operators. In Pro League, operators are often paired together on teams to utilise the synergies between the speeds, abilities and even secondary abilities – with the strongest operators that you see often utilising something else from another operator in order to work effectively.

Pair up with your friends, keep your comms tight, and you'll be a scary obstacle for the opposing team. Here are some examples...

Attack: Thermite & Thatcher — this is the age-old power couple within Rainbow Six Siege. Thatcher utilises his EMP gadget in order to remove any Bandit Charges, Kaid Electroclaws or Mute Jammers so that Thermite can breach the wall. Thatcher can be replaced in a lot of scenarios with Maverick.

Attack: Any entry operator + a support player droning — this works especially well in Ranked and with people who are comfortable with entry fragging. In Ranked matches many players tend to drone themselves into a site, in the time between getting off their drone and entering the building, opponents can and will rotate and be in new positions, letting them challenge from an unexpected angle. Getting your teammate to drone you in every time allows you to play with real-time information and become a much more effective player for your team.

Defence: Mozzie & Mute — this pair are lethal. The damage they can cause in terms of denying droning is incredible. You can use their utility to deny droning of a whole floor, which on maps such as Clubhouse/Consulate/Kafe can actually be incredibly strong if you want to roam. Alternatively, you can use their utility closer to site for the late round which can allow the defence to play off angles without being droned.

Defence: Maestro & Goyo — These two are quite the pair for unexpectedness. A little-known fact is that Maestro’s Evil Eyes have unlimited range. Pair this with the fact that the Evil Eye can also detonate a Goyo Vulcan shield and you can create some very creative ways for late round area denial or even plant denial.

2. Understand default defensive set-ups and standard attack

Bank, a map in Rainbow Six Siege Ubisoft

Lower level ranks in particular often set up the site incorrectly according to the default META (Most Effective Tactic Available). For many sites, especially for maps in the competitive rotation or formerly in this rotation, there is a default site set up that most Pro League teams will start from and adjust accordingly. When you watch more and more Pro League, you begin to see and understand these defaults, they’re default and strong in Pro League for a reason and emulating them will only create success for an average ranked player.

You can find most of these default holds on YouTube.

In terms of attack, the above is also true, although there are more layers as a team decides what is on their priority list. If we use an old competitive map, Oregon, then we see that there is absolutely a default way to attack this map given the linear approach. If the defenders are defending the Laundry site, you take the small tower and clear west until you have cleared fully across the two floors – you then establish Meeting Room control and work your way down into site from the main lobby. There are many players and squads in Ranked who still don’t apply this default attack and often get flanked from the west side.

3. Bringing the right operator line-up

Caveira Rainbow Six Siege Ubisoft

Pro League teams make value-based decisions around operators and the utility they bring. There’s a default pool of around 10 or so operators you will always see on each side for Pro League teams. They’re in that “most played” section in Pro League because they provide an incredible amount of utility above other options available.

If your main is any operator not in that pool, think again, because you’re likely hindering your team in more scenarios than you’re helping them. For example, if you always bring Ying, your team is most likely forfeiting soft destruction, Thatcher or a hard breacher for her and these are often essential for team composition.

4. Make sure you’re playing in a team

Stop enemy rotations to be the real MVP Ubisoft

The whole game is designed, built and balanced around five-player gameplay. This means you'll need to be communicating and playing as a semi-coordinated group to get the best of things.

If you’re often playing in a 3-man squad or less, you need to go out and find more people to squad with.

There are millions upon millions of players that play this game regularly, so don’t give yourself a handicap before you start the game - if you’re forced to play in less than a 5-man squad, make sure to give good and accurate calls using the in-game chat, and hopefully you'll get lucky and be paired with friendly teammates.

5. Play aggressive on attack, passive on defence

Rainbow Six Siege operator Mozzie Ubisoft

A huge mistake that people make in Ranked is going for hero plays, often its value-based decisions that lead to consistent results. A major part of this is that in Pro League and competitive pay in general, the attackers are the lead aggressors and the defenders are the more passive players.

This is because the defenders take time advantage, therefore simply staying alive as long as they possibly can give you a real advantage within a 3-minute round. Defenders in Ranked tend to get caught in irrelevant roams, or punished for overpeeking and attempting spawn kills. This really puts pressure on the defending team and can leave them at a significant disadvantage should these high-risk, high-reward plays be rumbled by the attackers.

Alternatively, attackers are often not the aggressors in ranked and tend not to understand the value of trades. If an attacker enters aggressively on a defender that’s roaming and dies, but their teammate gets the re-frag and trades out that death, that is a positive thing for the attackers as they’ve swapped 1 life for 1 life and gained the relevant map control. What you tend to see in Ranked is attackers wait for the defenders to move to try and catch them for free – something a smart defender will punish by simply not moving and playing passive.