I think all of us, Rainbow Six Siege fans, have been following RE:L0:AD 2025 in one way or another. Some out of love for the game, others to support their favorite team. But along with this came the same question: what is the format of this tournament? No Swiss system, no classic group stage. Instead, there's one huge group of 20 teams, some "bullets," cards, bonuses. And you're sitting there trying to figure out what's happening?

Previously, we explained the mechanics of the RE:L0:AD 2025 format in a separate article, so now we'll focus on something else. Namely, why this format is terrible.

Bullets, Cards, Chaos

Honestly? The idea of "bullets" is interesting. Something fresh, dynamic, seemingly even interactive. But as soon as bonus cards were introduced into the rules, everything started falling apart.

Take the third-round match: PSG Talon chose Elevate as their opponent, and they responded by placing their last three bullets and activating the "Extended Mag Card" card. After a tense victory, they earned 10 bullets (3 of their own + 6 from the card + 1 for the win). As a result, they surged to the top of the table purely because of one match and a lucky use of the mechanic.

Other teams tried similar strategies:

• PSG Talon also in a match against Elevate — but lost.
• Cloud9 against SCARZ — Cloud9 won.
• G2 against Wildcard — G2 lost.
• SSG against FearX — SSG were defeated.

Even More Confusion in Round 4

In the fourth round, it was more of the same.

• CAG Osaka used the same scheme against Liquid (who also tried, but lost).
• SCARZ against Elevate — SCARZ lost.
• Falcons against FearX — and here they shot for the stars: Falcons placed 8 bullets, activated a +6 card, and turned 1 bullet into 16. Ultimately, they made it to the top 5.
• LOUD against BDS — LOUD placed 6 bullets + 6 from the card.
• FaZe Clan against fnatic — both teams activated cards, FaZe won and earned 13 bullets.

The Controversial Playoff Qualification Rule

Here's where things really got strange. Ubisoft's official format page states: "If there is an odd number of teams in round 5, the top 4 advance to the playoffs". Sounds clear, right? Well, no. In reality, the top 5 should advance, and this rule error was corrected on Liquipedia. Most likely, the organizers just made a mistake and didn't fix it.

Who advanced after round 4:

• LOUD — 22 bullets
• CAG Osaka — 19
• Elevate — 17
• w7m — 16
• Falcons — 16

FaZe Clan (16 bullets) also contended for a slot, and here's where it got really interesting: what was the basis for choosing Falcons? At first glance, the situation seems contentious — the round difference is the same, there was no head-to-head match, and both had a 50% win rate in matches. However, it seems the deciding factor was the percentage of rounds won.

Falcons had 53.49% (23 rounds won out of 43), while FaZe Clan had 53.06% (26 out of 49). The difference is minimal, but apparently, it allowed Falcons to pull ahead and advance to the playoffs.

Whoever Has More Cards Wins - Round 5

Since round 4 already saw 5 teams advance, only three from round 5 moved to the playoffs. And who made it to the playoffs? Those who still had cards.

• Wildcard — 27 bullets
• FearX — 23
• FURIA — 22

M80 (19) and G2 (18) were very close — but didn't make it. M80 lacked the initial bullets that would have been in their reserve, and G2 didn't have a card, which prevented them from gaining an additional 6 bullets, which would have allowed them to proceed to the playoffs.

A Format for Spectacle, Not Fairness

If you're a fan of a particular team, you felt this keenly. Teams like Secret, DarkZero, and M80 go 3–1, and in a Swiss bracket, they would have long since made it to the playoffs, but they lose in round 5 and are out of the tournament with a 3–2 result. Meanwhile, CAG Osaka, Elevate, and Falcons advance to the playoffs simply because they used a card correctly in one of the early rounds. Fair?

To me, this is the most unfair format that could have been devised. Yes, it's interesting, yes, watching such a tournament is fun. But if you're rooting for a specific team and see them getting knocked out not because of poor play but because of one card, it's clear that there's something wrong with the format, and it evaluates not the quality of the teams' play, but who understood and exploited the rules best.

What Now?

How do you predict the playoffs now? How do you analyze team strength? Elevate started 0–2, won one match with a card — and burst into the top 1, almost guaranteed a playoff spot. And what will happen in BO3 against Wildcard? No analysis can predict that.

FaZe — winners of the Six Invitational 2025, and here they are knocked out because of a card and a couple of percentage points that they lacked for a tiebreaker.

Did the Format Fail? Playoffs Will Tell

It's interesting to see how CAG Osaka and Elevate will perform in the playoffs. Will they show their level, or was it indeed a format error that FaZe, M80, DarkZero, Cloud9, or G2 didn't make it to the decisive stage? We'll see in the playoffs, and to follow it and the tournament results, you can click on the link.

Why the Tournament Format is Just Terrible

In my opinion, the RE:L0:AD 2025 format is terrible for players, teams, and fans. Yes, it's spectacular and interactive, but it feels more like a lottery than a fair competition. There's a proven solution — the Swiss system: it shows the real strength of teams, all matches are BO3 or the first two are BO1 and the rest are BO3, and you can clearly see who is ready for the tournament and who is not. This is the format used in major tournaments in CS2, Dota 2, LoL, and Valorant — and it works there. Ubisoft should reconsider if they truly want a serious tournament, not just a beautiful show with cards and bullets.