Ever sinceCall of Duty: Black Ops Cold Warlaunched in November, a lot of players were hankering for some kind of ranked mode. Recently, Activision and Treyarch finally provided such a mode,League Play. But, upon actually trying it out, players were left disappointed and the mode was quickly criticized for multiple reasons. Even professional players have begun airing their grievances, such as Seth “Scump” Abner.
Scump has been playingCall of Dutyprofessionally since 2012’sCall of Duty: Black Ops 2and is currently a member of the OpTic Chicago esports team. During an appearance on the heczTV podcast, he and fellow OpTic Chicago team member Matthew “FormaL” Piper spoke quite candidly about League Play, with Scump outright describing it as being random.
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“This one just randomly throws with anybody, like you can play anybody and you can have anybody in your team.”
InCall of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, a player’s ranking placement is determined not just by their own performance, but their team’s performance as well. Basically, it doesn’t matter how well an individual player may perform if their teammates end up being less skilled. The argument players have is that player rankings are therefore not exactly accurate and don’t reflect players' actual skill level.
Scump had similar complaints about battle royale gameCall of Duty: Warzoneback in December. He said that, since there are too many random elements in the game, it can’t offer a truly competitive experience. FormaL also suggested thatCold War’s less than stellar League Play could have been a result of the coronavirus pandemic affecting development, which wouldn’t be too surprising.
The question now is whether Activision and Treyarch will actively address players' complaints and improve League Play. It was updated earlier this month with new restrictions (since many felt that the game lacked any clear rules and impositions) andgame director David Vonderhaarhas acknowledged the complaints and said he is grateful for the fan input, so it does seem like Treyarch is listening and trying to make it better.
But while more competitive players take issue with it, the fact thatCold Warand theCall of Dutyfranchise as a whole continue to beincredibly financially successful for Activisionseems to show that casual players aren’t all that bothered.Cold WarSeason 2 is also set to start very soon and the planned free access week could very well attract even more players to the game. It’ll even include the brand-new Zombies expansion Outbreak.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold Waris available on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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