As of the 7th of February, Rainbow Six Siege Year 2 officially started with the Velvet Shell rollout. This is the fifth expansion ever since it was released and the first of four that will be released for 2017. What everybody got excited about the Operation Velvet Shell is the introduction of two more operators, new customization options as well as a new multiplayer map. Apart from that, the release also came with fixes to bugs that affect the playing experiences of gamers.

The two new operators are from the G.E.O. of Spain or the Grupo Especial de Operaciones which does counter-terrorism and VIP protection. The first operator, called “Jackal”, is a tracker equipped with a mobile tracking device which can detect breadcrumbs to trace the enemy player. The other operator, “Mira” who is a Defender, can put one-way bullet-proof windows into walls. The defenders, using the one-way window, can see the enemy without being detected and they can pop-up the window to get a clearance to shoot.

These operators are immediately unlocked for Season Pass owners, who get a headstart of 7 days with these characters which are then released globally on the Valentine’s day for those with Renown or R6 Credits.

As for the multiplayer map that will go with the Velvet Shell rollout, it is called “Coastline” and is located in Ibiza, Spain. It looks like the multiplayer battle will happen in the world-famous party place, at a place called La Perla Blanca and thus, there will be intense close quarters combat along pools, bars, and dance floors.

The User Interface of the game also gets an update with challenges, news, and boosters available in one place. The full menu will be available for players to use while waiting for matchmaking, allowing them to do other activities as they search for matches to participate in.

Coming with the UI update also are the options for customization, with players now able to check the new skins called Chupinazo, El Dorado, León Furioso and Crossfader.

With the release of the Velvet Shell update, there also plans by Ubisoft to further increase the roster of operators. For now, there are a total of 28 operators, with 8 scheduled for release this year. Instead of adding new game modes, the roster of operators will be increased from around 50 to 100 over the years. If Ubisoft will be pushing hard for eSports for Rainbow Six Siege, then having this big pool of operators for players to play with is a good move.