It’s now been just over three months since Battlefield 6 launched, and unfortunately, Portal hasn’t been receiving the love it deserves. Too many unsolved bugs for key features in Godot and 30hz servers are just the tip of the iceberg. Now, Season 2 launches on February 17th, and we hope it brings a huge patch that finally lets the game live up to its full potential (which we believe is high).
Over the months of December and now January, we have continued working behind the scenes to develop and build certain things, and we will wait for Season 2 to arrive before unveiling them one by one. In the meantime, this is the perfect opportunity to continue testing before more serious events finally arrive.
Below you will find information on the modes we are working on, upcoming events leading up to Season 2’s launch, and insights into what is happening behind the scenes. Obviously, we can’t share every little thing, or we’d spoil the surprises.
The topics covered are:
- Squad Obliteration
- 16v16 Conquest Small
- ESB League BF6 Season 1
- Combat Grounds BF6 Season 1
- One More Thing
We mentioned it in our first Battlefield 6 roadmap article, but we can now confirm it: Squad Obliteration is back! We teamed up with NoNam3 once again to build this mode, just like in 2023 for Battlefield 2042. A lot of work was done studying the Battlefield 4 maps and designs for our 2042 version, and we are bringing that experience and knowledge to the Battlefield 6 version.
For those who never played it, in Squad Obliteration, the goal is to control the bomb that is then used to arm and destroy one of three enemy MCOMs. Only one bomb is active at any moment, forcing both teams to fight for its control. Teams win by either destroying two of the three enemy MCOMs or by having destroyed the most enemy MCOMs when the timer runs out. It’s an incredible mode for both players and spectators, full of strategy, area control, and centralized action.
Our goal is to release the mode and at least one first map on Saturday, January 31st, 2026, so that players and teams can start playtesting the mode and provide early feedback ahead of the first test cup the following weekend. When this happens, we will explain many of the mode’s key features in more detail and open new feedback threads on our Discord server.
The first 4v4 Squad Obliteration test cup will take place on Saturday, February 7th, 2026, for North American players, and on Sunday, February 8th, 2026, for European and South African players. We initially wanted to hold the North American event on February 8th as well, but with the Super Bowl happening almost at the same time, we felt most teams wouldn’t be available to play. Please don’t hesitate to give us feedback on this topic.
We can’t wait to see you start playing!
So far, we have supported 8v8 and 12v12 Conquest Small, but many teams have also asked to try 16v16 Conquest Small, just like in the good old Battlefield 4 days. Increased player counts, fewer restrictions, and more pure Battlefield rock-paper-scissors action are what some teams miss from back in the day. Ban what’s absolutely broken, but nothing more, and let teams figure out crazy strats and plays together.
To give teams a chance at making this possible, we’ll be hosting a 16v16 Conquest Small test cup on Sunday, February 15th, 2026. It will support full cross-play, so PC and Console players can play together in this one. The test cup is scheduled to start at 5 pm CET (11 am EST) and will be available to players from North America and Europe, with a limited number of out-of-region players per team.
We will be opening additional feedback channels dedicated to 16v16 flag layouts and vehicle balance, so we know what teams would like adjusted or changed compared to the current 12v12 setups. Our goal here is to gather feedback and release updated experience codes at least 1 weekend in advance, so teams can test them out before the event.
The initial plan was to launch qualifiers for our first Battlefield 6 ESB League season in January; however, we prefer to wait for the game’s second-season patch, which we hope will fix many issues, especially Portal-related ones, before we launch this event.
The idea now is to launch beginning of March if all goes well. We have some exciting plans for the future of this event series, and we can’t wait to slowly reveal them throughout this year.
ESB League is our most popular event series (15 seasons in the books since BF4). It features single and double-Round Robin formats, with additional single-elimination playoffs for the top teams. We look forward to showcase top players and teams and what top competitive gameplay can look like. We’re hyped to bring back detailed player stats, ESB Allstars, Player of the Week awards, and more!
Our first Battlefield 6 season will be open to players across the globe (North America, South America, Europe, and maybe more?) and will feature various formats, from 4v4 to Conquest 12v12/16v16 (we will have to pick one, as we won’t be able to support events for both formats).
We previously hinted that Combat Grounds would launch with a new story and its first Battlefield 6 season at the end of 2025, but given the current state of the game, we preferred to delay it to avoid unnecessary frustration for players. We will now launch this after Battlefield 6 Season 2 and use the feedback from the 16v16 test cup to help shape the first ruleset for this event. We want to ensure most items in the game are available, while also removing the most broken ones. The idea here is to have a few but targeted bans to improve everyone’s gameplay.
For those who don’t know, Combat Grounds is our new narrative-driven 32v32 event series in which four factions compete in weekly matches to conquer and control regions on a strategic real-world map. Over six weeks, they battle to dominate the most regions and claim victory. It uses our own tournament format, called the “Combat Map“. We suggest checking it out!
Compared to the hyper-competitive formats we usually build, this is a more accessible and less restrictive format that will be a perfect stepping stone for new players. We are incredibly hyped to see large-scale matches return to competitive Battlefield, and we hope seasoned veterans are, too.
Players can sign up alone or with a friend, ensuring that everyone gets to meet and play with new players. If you are curious about how it works, the Combat Grounds website has an in-depth “How it Works” page that explains the format in detail.
There are a lot of things we are working on behind the scenes, aside from what is mentioned above, notably new tools to improve the player experience outside the game. While that may sound vague, we look forward to unveiling some of the work we have been doing for quite some time. One thing we will mention is that we have been working on a brand-new small-scale mode, which we look forward to releasing in the near future. No further teasers just yet!
We look forward to continuing to serve the competitive community, as we have since 2012, and hope we can make Battlefield competitive again together.