Ubisoft has rolled out the mid-season patch for Year 11 Season 3 of Rainbow Six Siege, Operation Split Fire. The update went live on October 15, 2026, and it reshapes the top end of ranked play, gives one operator a major power lift, re-tunes several other operators and gadgets, and shuffles the Ranked map pool for the run-up to the end of the season.
A new tier above Champion: Legend Division
The headline addition is Legend Division, a solo-only competitive playlist that sits above Champion. It is aimed at the very top of the ladder — roughly the top one percent of players — and it is built around high-level, solo-queue competition rather than stacked teams.
Ubisoft describes the new tier in its announcement this way: “Legend Division releases as a new Solo queue competitive playlist above Champion rank.” The Legend Division season started with the update on October 15 and runs through December 1, the end of the season.
The map pool for Legend Division matches the Pro League map pool, so players chasing the top of the leaderboard will be fighting on the same rotation the pros use. Rewards are tied to where you finish: there is an exclusive profile banner that changes as your leaderboard position changes, plus an exclusive charm for the top 100 players in each region that changes based on the final ranking you earn.
Getting in is intentionally strict. To queue for Legend Division, players need Secure Boot turned on and a two-factor authentication app enabled, Champion rank in the current season, a clearance level of 200 or higher, Platinum rank or better last season, and a Reputation Standing of Level 3 or above. The leaderboard updates live and is monitored to keep the environment fair.
Ubisoft also paired the launch with a large integrity action: a ban wave covering more than 50,000 accounts aimed at account sharing, account selling, and ban evasion.
Noor gets a sizeable Horus Lance upgrade
Noor is the big winner of this balancing pass. Based on player feedback and gameplay data, Ubisoft has tuned his Horus Lance so he can do his job more reliably on the roster.
Here are the headline numbers, all phrased as old value to new value:
- Drilling time: 2 seconds down to 1.5 seconds, and that faster time applies across soft surfaces, ballistic shields, and hard surfaces.
- Guardbreak on projectile impact against ballistic-shield operators: 30 percent up to 100 percent, making the Lance a much stronger answer in shield duels.
- Equip time for the Horus Lance Launcher: 0.9 seconds down to 0.4 seconds, thanks to Quickdraw-style animations.
- Direct-impact damage against operators: 50 up to 80.
- Hitbox work to make the gadget feel more accurate and consistent overall.
Together, those changes make Noor faster to set up, harder for shield operators to ignore, and more punishing when a projectile connects directly.
More balancing across the roster
This is the second major balancing update of the season, and it touches several other operators:
- Tachanka: his Shumika Launcher gains a switch option, so you can pick whether the projectile detonates on impact or after a bounce.
- Valkyrie: she gains the Glaive-12 as an additional secondary weapon choice.
- Snake: his Soliton Radar Mk.III drops from 4 precision charges to 3.
- Capitao: the delay before his fire spreads is shortened from 1 second to 0.9 seconds.
- Clash: enemies running away from her are now slowed by 10 percent, up from 5 percent.
- Osa: her deployment limits are eased sharply — frontal from 1.1 to 0.35, vertical from 6.25 to 0.6, and behind from 0.3 to 0.005 — making placement far less restrictive.
Gadget changes: fire and barbed wire
Gadgets get attention too. Fire damage rises from 12 HP to 14 HP for fire coming from Tachanka, Goyo, Capitao, Dokkaebi, gas pipes, and Noor. Barbed wire also gets a notable interaction change: it now fully stops Ram’s BU-GI.
Ranked map rotation and a shift for next season
For this mid-season Ranked rotation, Skyscraper and Theme Park leave the pool, while Kanal, Outback, and Oregon join it. This is the final Ranked map rotation of Year 11.
Ubisoft also says the rotating system has not landed with players as well as hoped, based on community feedback. As a result, starting in Year 11 Season 4, Ranked will move to a more stable map rotation, giving players a more consistent set of maps from season to season.
Doktor’s Curse returns for Halloween
Alongside the competitive and balance changes, the fan-favourite Halloween event Doktor’s Curse is back from October 15 to November 30. It is a 5v5 Hide and Seek mode on a modified version of Clubhouse. This year, Grim and Hibana join the Hunters, while Mute lurks among the Monsters.
The event also brings a 33-item collection, with new operator bundles for Grim, Mute, and Hibana, two weapon skin bundles, and an event signature bundle. There is also a 7200 Premier Pack for Doktor’s Curse that bundles 7200 R6 Credits, a 7-day Renown Booster, and the exclusive M590A1 Masterpiece variant.
What it means
Put together, the mid-season update gives top players a new mountain to climb in Legend Division, gives Noor a clear reason to be picked more often, smooths out several operator and gadget pain points, and refreshes Ranked with three returning maps — all wrapped in a Halloween event. If you are chasing Champion, this is the patch that decides whether you can push one tier higher before December 1.
Source: Read the original announcement from Ubisoft on GamesPress here: Rainbow Six Siege: Operation Split Fire Mid-Season Update on GamesPress.
Watch the trailers
Watch the Operation Split Fire trailers below — the launch trailer, the Noor Horus Lance overview, and the CGI trailer:
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