If you’ve ever had a teammate step in front of your line of fire mid-fight, or accidentally tossed a frag grenade that bounced off a wall and took out half your squad, you’ve probably wondered: can you get banned for teamkilling in Rainbow Six Siege? For casual and competitive players alike, friendly fire is one of the most common sources of frustration and confusion in Siege, especially since Ubisoft’s penalty system isn’t always clearly explained for new players. I’ve put in over 1,200 hours across casual, ranked, and tournament play, and I’ve seen every type of teamkill penalty from temporary suspensions to permanent account bans, so I’m breaking down exactly how the system works, what triggers penalties, and how you can avoid getting in trouble for honest mistakes.
Can You Get Banned for Teamkilling in Rainbow Six Siege? The Short Answer
The short answer is yes, but not for isolated accidental incidents. Ubisoft’s automated penalty system is designed to distinguish between one-off mistakes and intentional toxic behavior, so you won’t lose access to your account over a single misfire. I’ve accidentally killed at least 20 teammates over my years of play, usually when they dash in front of my scope as I’m lining up a shot on an attacker, and I’ve never gotten more than a single in-game warning for those incidents.
Penalties scale based on frequency and context. You’ll only face a ban if you have a consistent pattern of teamkilling across multiple matches, or if you intentionally kill teammates to sabotage games. Most first-time intentional teamkillers get temporary matchmaking bans starting at 15 minutes, while repeat offenders can face 24-hour, 7-day, or even permanent bans for extreme cases. Permanent bans are rare, but they do happen for players who rack up dozens of penalties and refuse to adjust their behavior.
How Ubisoft’s Teamkill Penalty System Works
The system uses a combination of automated tracking and human review to hand out penalties, so it’s far more nuanced than most players realize. First, you’ll face in-match penalties for repeated friendly fire in a single game: your first teamkill will trigger a small warning pop-up, your second will get you kicked from the match with no renown reward, and your third will lock you out of matchmaking for a short period.
If you have a high rate of teamkills across your last 10 matches, the system will flag your account for further review. The system looks at a wide range of context clues to determine if the teamkills are intentional or accidental, including:
- Number of teamkills in a single match and across your 10 most recent games
- Whether the teamkills happened at the very start of the round (a common sign of intentional trolling)
- Player reports from teammates and opponents for toxic or disruptive behavior
- Previous penalty history on your account, including past kicks or suspensions
- Whether teammates chose to forgive the teamkill via the in-game pop-up prompt
In-game immediate penalties are applied automatically, but longer bans (anything over 24 hours) are reviewed by a Ubisoft support staff member to make sure the penalty is justified. That means if you’re flagged for a high number of accidental teamkills from a few bad matches, the reviewer will almost always dismiss the case without applying a long ban. I’ve had this happen once after a terrible weekend of play where I accidentally killed 4 teammates across 3 matches, and I never got a suspension beyond the initial 15-minute matchmaking cooldown.
Common Mistakes That Lead to Unintentional Teamkill Penalties
While intentional trolling is the main cause of teamkill bans, there are a few common mistakes that can get you flagged even if you don’t mean to ruin matches. The biggest one is spamming explosives in tight, crowded spaces without checking your minimap first. New players often throw C4 or frag grenades to clear a room, only to realize 2 of their teammates were pushing the same space from the other side. If you do this once, you’ll probably just get a warning, but if you rack up 2-3 explosive teamkills in a single match, you’ll get kicked immediately, and it will count against your account’s penalty score.
Another common mistake is firing through soft walls without checking teammate positions. It’s easy to get caught up in a firefight and shoot through a drywall to hit an attacker, but if a teammate is on the other side holding the same angle, you’ll take them out before you even realize what happened. This is extra common on maps like Oregon and Clubhouse, where most interior walls are soft and teams often stack on the same site from both sides.
Playing area of effect operators without coordinating with your team is another fast way to rack up accidental teamkills. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen a new Fuze player deploy cluster charges on a hostage room, only to take out both the hostage and 2 teammates in one go. Even experienced Smoke players sometimes mess up their gas canister timing and catch their whole team in the toxic cloud. If you’re playing an operator with explosive or area damage gadgets, always call out your gadget use before you deploy it, so your teammates have time to move out of the way.
What to Do If You Get a Ban for Unfair Teamkilling
If you get a short temporary ban (15 minutes to 24 hours), there’s no point in submitting an appeal. Ubisoft doesn’t review appeals for these minor penalties, since they’re almost always triggered by a pattern of behavior that meets the minimum penalty threshold. You’ll just have to wait it out, and use the time to brush up on your gadget usage or play a few rounds of terrorist hunt to practice avoiding friendly fire.
If you get a ban longer than 7 days, or a permanent ban, you can submit a support ticket to Ubisoft to appeal the decision. The most important thing to include with your appeal is match replay footage of the matches that triggered the ban, if you have it saved. Replays are the fastest way to prove that your teamkills were accidental, or that you were falsely reported by toxic teammates. I had a friend who got a 7-day ban a few months ago after 3 of his teammates intentionally teamkilled each other and reported him out of spite, and he got the ban reversed in less than 24 hours after sending in the replay that showed he didn’t kill any teammates that match.
You should also avoid engaging with toxic teammates who try to bait you into teamkilling them. Some players will run in front of your gun on purpose, then report you for teamkilling to get you penalized. If this happens, don’t fire back at them, just mute them and report them for disruptive behavior after the match. Even if you’re in the right, the automated system might flag you if you have other recent penalties on your account, so it’s not worth the risk.
At the end of the day, the answer to can you get banned for teamkilling in Rainbow Six Siege depends entirely on context and your past behavior. Honest one-off mistakes almost never lead to serious penalties, as long as you’re making an effort to avoid friendly fire and coordinate with your team. If you’re a new player, don’t stress too much about the occasional accidental teamkill, just apologize, learn from the mistake, and move on. The penalty system is designed to target toxic trolls who intentionally ruin matches for other people, not players who are just trying to learn and have fun.
