Rainbow Six Siege teases Operation Grim Sky and its upcoming Operators

Tactical wall-smasher Rainbow Six Siege is going stereotypically British for its next update. Not only is the Hereford Base map getting a makover, complete with "high chance of rain", Operation Grim Sky brings us a London cop Defender to play as. Presumably because our island is so underwhelming, they'be balancing out all the rain and gloom with an American Attacker, fresh from the dusty streets of Kabul. While Ubisoft are being frustratingly frugal with details, we can at least try to read into what they've teased so far to carry us until the full reveal later this month.

Let's go a little bit CSI on that teaser picture - it's time to ZOOM and ENHANCE and struggle to figure out what these slightly vague pixel-blobs could be.

Alright, at least it's clear that the character on the left is our American desert-fighter. Their weapon does look rather interesting, sporting some kind of horizontal attachment and tipped with a possible blowtorch, or flamethrower pilot light, or maybe even a thermal lance. Ubisoft's description mentions that he's "legendary for his surgical precision", which makes me think it's more likely a cutting tool of some sort.

The other character is somewhat more mysterious. Obviously clad in British police gear, it's that device they're holding that's the mystery. Alice's best guess is some kind of electro-shield, given the irregular blue arcing effect on its front. Perhaps a shield that can be used to stun when pushed with? Given how Siege has been getting increasingly cyberpunk over the past few seasons, I'd not be too surprised if it ended up being more high-tech than that, but it's hard to draw conclusions from what we have now.

What we do know for sure is that the Hereford Base map is getting a rework. The old warren of training facility corridors could do with some detailing, or so I reckon, and Ubi say they're "renovating the place and making many adjustments to raise the bar for competitive play". Alongside the rebooted map and new characters are improved (and hopefully better-aligned) weapon sights and tweaks to the Operator Idle Pick system. While it sounds like these alterations are coming with Grim Sky, Ubisoft say that you can try the changes for yourself on their test server.

The full reveal of Operation Grim Sky will happen during the Six Major tournament in Paris later this month, on August 17th-19th. For those working their way up to being tournament-grade, our guides goblin Dave Irwin has been assembling some handy hints and tips for this esports hit.