Last week Ubisoft released Demon Veil, the first season of the seventh year for Rainbow Six Siege. As with every season that came before it, Demon Veil arrived with a slew of new changes. A new defending operator named Azami was introduced, Goyo's Volcan Shield was reworked to include just the placeable incendiary bomb, attackers can now re-select their operator during the preparation phase, and Team Deathmatch was introduced.

Out of all the new things added in Rainbow Six Siege, Team Deathmatch looks to be the most out of place. In Team Deathmatch, two teams comprised of five players duke it out to see who can get the most kills. Excluding Montagne, Clash, and Blitz, players can pick and choose any operator from the attacking or defending side (a team can even have duplicates of the same operator). These operators are outfitted with their signature weapons, a single charge of their throwable secondary gadget (excluding nitro cells and claymores), and have no primary gadget available. It's pure reactive gunplay as the two teams race to 75 eliminations within a five-minute match.

RELATED: Rainbow Six Siege Has A New Creative Director

A Good Warm-Up Needs Good Sparring Partners

rainbow six siege team deathmatch

While the main draw of Rainbow Six Siege will still be its Unranked, Ranked, and Quick Match modes, Team Deathmatch presents an opportunity for players to warm up before squadding up with their teammates. Team Deathmatch allows players to fight other actual players, which by default makes it better than Rainbow Six Siege's previous warm-up mode Terrorist Hunt (or "T. Hunt"), which pitted players against A.I.-controlled bots. Depending on the difficulty players set the bots to, T. Hunt would either be too easy or too difficult, and would rarely simulate what could happen in an actual match.

Team Deathmatch is a bare-bones mode that does away with things like gadgets, prep time, and intelligence gathering. Since getting killed in Unranked, Ranked, or Quick Match locks players out until the next match, they can't really explore the map, try new strategies, or improve their aim as fast as they would like. Team Deathmatch, by contrast, has fast respawn times. This lets players come back almost immediately after a death and get better with their respective operator's weapons and secondary gadgets. While map study is best done within the confines of a private match, players can get a lay of the land faster in a single Team Deathmatch game than a Quick Match game.

Different Tempos, Different Play Styles

rainbow-six-siege-kixstar-tribute-plaque

The speedy nature of the mode is also the downfall of Team Deathmatch when it comes to warming up. While it is good for improving a Rainbow Six players' aim and map knowledge to a certain extent, Team Deathmatch does little else to prepare players for other modes. Unranked, Ranked, and Quick Match are slower and more methodical, requiring players to use their gadgets, cameras, and properly coordinate with their team to get the upper hand.

Those who have played Rainbow Six Siege will know that the game is heavily information-based, as much as it involves reactively shooting people. Lack of information and coordination can get players killed as easily as an itchy trigger finger, which is why more traditional Rainbow Six Siege modes are slower and tactical. Since there is more at stake, players tend to spend a good portion of Unranked, Ranked, and Quick Matches to gather as much info about their enemies' operators, locations, and most importantly, their strategies as they can before engaging in a firefight.

There's still a lot to say about Rainbow Six Siege's new Team Deathmatch mode, such as how shotguns are currently dominating and how spawn points are bad (no one likes to spawn in front of an enemy). In terms of warming up, however, there are worse things than having Team Deathmatch in a tactical shooter multiplayer game. With a new map coming for the mode and changes that will address some of Team Deathmatch's most glaring issues, this could be the go-to place for Rainbow Six Siege players to get their trigger fingers ready.

Rainbow Six Siege is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

MORE: Rainbow Six Siege Joining PlayStation Tournaments Is A Good Sign For Its Longevity Beyond Extraction