The Search for the Most Broken Video Game Character

After 2 years of rising from the ashes of a disastrous launch filled with game-breaking glitches and failed mechanics, Rainbow 6: Siege was well on its way to becoming a major E-Sport. But then found itself crawling back out of its own grave with the release of Year 3 Season 1: Operation Chimera, and the introduction of Lion.

Wallhack

A cheat allowing players to track enemies through walls in real-time.

While wallhacking is a common cheat among competitive first-person shooters, Lion brought this ability to Siege in a real, "legal" way. Lion's gadget, an aerial drone called the EE-ONE-D, could scan the entire map, and if any enemy player moved during the scan, their position would be revealed to everyone on Lion’s team. Although, this didn’t come in the form of just a blip on a mini map, but full-on silhouettes within your field of view equivalent to a wallhack.

Intel can often be a players most valuable asset, and when a team can see their opponent's exact positions, it provides an overwhelming advantage. One that's compounded by the fact that the game features destructible environments. Once you knew where an enemy was you could simply shoot them through the wall, or ceiling, or floor, in a surprise attack without having to expose yourself. Then multiply all that 3, because the EE-ONE-D could be used 3 times per round.

In a game as heavily tactical as Siege, this is simply an ability that should not be allowed, and everyone knew it as calls for nerfs were immediate. Some suggested that the number of scans allowed be reduced, but this would not solve the problem. Psychologically speaking, people tend to ignore actions that don’t affect them, but as soon as one does, that action is a problem. Players would correlate their death to the fact that they got Lion Scanned, regardless how many scans they were able to avoid before; it doesn't matter how many times you get scanned when it only takes 1.

Lion disobeyed the fundamental nature of game, giving everyone a problem that the developers didn’t know how to fix for over a year. So, they effectively removed him.

Tamed

On Nov. 30, 2018, Ubisoft released a statement announcing that Lion would be placed in a “competitive quarantine”, meaning players would not be able to pick Lion in Ubisoft’s E-Sports events. However, as this was only a “competitive quarantine”, it meant that Lion was still playable in standard online matches in the regular game. So, while the professional scene was spared, the Siege community as a whole would remain under The Lion King’s reign of terror.

It wasn't until April 16, 2019, with the release of the Y4S1.3 patch, that Lion was finally tamed in a complete rework. Along with other changes, the time enemies are highlighted was reduced, and the duration of the scan. Additionally, enemies now appear as red pings (similar to Alibi's ability) rather than what was essentially a wallhack.