Rainbow Six community reacts to first openly gay operator Flores: ‘Representation matters’

Rainbow Six Siege’s first openly gay operator has been revealed – and it’s causing a stir on social media.

Flores is an attacker, billed as a master thief with an explosive drone, so expect him to have a covert style of play.

He’s also gay, according to this official page on the Ubisoft Rainbow Six website.

“In general, I’d say he’s a good mate,” says another in-game operator, Tori ‘Gridlock’ Fairous in the new character reveal.

“A bit awkward, but he listens when others speak, which is more than I can say for a lot of people. Every night he calls home to talk to his husband, but he’s very private about their relationship (with me at least). He cares about people in general, but his marriage is on another level. Even when he takes off his ring, it never leaves his person.”

Flores’ reveal has got people in the Rainbow Six Siege community talking on social media.

For some, they are glad Rainbow Six finally has its first gay character. Others have questioned the addition of such lore into the game. It seems to have divided opinion.

The full Flores and Crimson Heist reveal will happen on February 21st.

Rainbow Six Siege has been in the news recently, what with the Six Invitational being delayed.

“On January 29th, the French Prime Minister announced that the French borders would be closed to all non-EU travelers,” Ubisoft said in an update post.

“Following this announcement, Ubisoft, alongside our partner Live Nation, have been working tirelessly to find solutions to organize the physical edition of the Six Invitational 2021 in Paris, France in February, as initially planned. However, we have now learned that LAN esports events are no longer possible in today’s context, despite the strict sanitary measures put in place.”

However, some of the biggest name in Rainbow 6 esports are getting together for the Memevitational – a name coined by British caster Derry ‘Dezachu’ Holt.

Ubisoft also announced a bunch of esports updates to Rainbow Six for 2021 too. Check out our YouTube news recap here:

Dom Sacco

Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.

As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.