The long-awaited Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War League Play was launched last night and it is already against a number of issues affecting players.
League Play is the highly competitive part of Black Ops Cold War multiplayer that sorts players into a skills-based division and challenges them to move up a rankings.
It strips the game to 4v4 (default multiplayer is at least 6v6), and places restrictions on the load to recreate a rule used by professional players in the Call of Duty League.
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Only three game modes can be played on a limited number of cards (Control, Search and Destroy and Hardpoint). Limited items include all LMGs, tactical rifles, shotguns and launchers, with a bundle of attachments, land regions, equipment and perks also banned.
I spent four hours in League Play last night and found it to be just as cruel as you would expect from the toughest competitive mode in Black Ops Cold War.
However, fans criticized Black Ops Cold War’s version of League Play, which is very similar to the version of developer Treyarch’s previous game, Black Ops 4, because it was not far enough.
One of the main criticisms is about the ranking system. To upgrade, you must earn jewels by placing at least in the top 25 in your current division. Some rankings are considered by some to be one that rewards playing time as opposed to skill. You can earn enough jewels over a long enough period of time to achieve the highest rank by simply finishing in the Top 25 out of 50 in each League Play event. That means the 25 best players at a bronze skill level; 50 people can farm in exactly the same 30 ranks as players in the top two percent press division.
But there are many other criticisms. League Play supports custom classes, including weapon leaf prints, meaning players are able to use points, equipment and benefits that some had hoped would be banned.
Including the Tactical Smoke Grenade, the Jammer Field Upgrade, the Gearhead perk (which reduces the cooling of Field Upgrade and you can save up to two Field Upgrade costs) and the Wildbreaker Wildcard, which allows you to use any weapon class in one of the slots can equip and equip equipment from one limit category, came under fire for creating smoke grenades and field upgrade spam in matches.
League Play also executes the controversial series system of Black Ops Cold War, which does not restore the score at death. Scratch strips allowed in League Play include the RC-XD, Armor and War Machine.
Treyarch said League Play will include standard classes consisting of presets used by each team in the 2021 season, but are not currently available in the game. Some hope these presets will be the only way to play League Play.
When you start League Play, the game asks you to complete five games before placing you in an appropriate division. Some players report unexpected positions, although it is noteworthy that 50 percent of the players are placed in the division for participants. Treyarch said he used a skill rating to determine which of the five skill sections you were placed in, but it did not disclose what your skill rating is (k / d maybe?), Nor does the game reveal your skill rating. . . All the players that currently need to continue are the color-coded skill sections (bronze, green, white and purple).
There is confusion about the division for skills in the league. As mentioned, the contestants section is meant to house 50 percent of the players. The top 50 percent of players by skill are ranked in three divisions: Advanced (top 20 percent to 16 percent); Expert (top 15 percent to 11 percent); Elite (top 10 percent to three percent); and Master (top two percent).
As you probably noticed, there is a gap between the top 50 percent (below?) And the start of the advanced skills section, which houses the top 20 percent to 16 percent. Maybe Treyarch means of the top 50 percent of players by skill. Either way, it’s confusing and poorly worded.
To continue, League Play clearly has a problem with players leaving matches, or matches starting with less than four players in each team. It’s not a big deal if players leave a standard multiplayer game, but it can be devastating in League Play, which has fewer players per team and points on the line.
Treyarch said he takes match integrity seriously, “and poor sportsmanship is not tolerated.” For this purpose, players who end a League Play match will receive a Ladder Point penalty and a loss of matches, with increased penalties applied to players who quit before anyone else in their team does so. However, it appears that this penalty kick is not early enough to deter players from stopping in League Play.
There is currently a terrible bug affecting League Play, which causes a player to sometimes start a game with empty uploads – and therefore no guns. Treyarch acknowledged this issue and said he was working on a solution.
Are we serious about Treyarch? by r / CoDCompetitive
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And of course, there are earlier reports of some players cheating in League Play. It’s unclear how common this issue is, but I’ve seen some console gamers eliminate crosshairs in an effort to avoid computer fraud.
State of Legue Play we can share it from r / CoDCompetitive
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Treyarch’s David Vonderhaar reacted to the negative feedback on Twitter. Reply to one Twitter user who asked why the developer uses the same format for Black Ops Cold War League Play as for Black Ops 4 League Play, rather than the kind of ELO system you see in other competing shooters, Vonderhaar said:
“I do not have enough characters to get it right. Keywords: Scope. Accessibility. Deadlines. Franchise.
“We got some work done to do IMO to evaluate how it works after fixing some of the unpleasant bugs.”
Dan: “Won’t lie. Was a challenging year with COVID. For example, we lost our livestream studio where we would normally suggest something like this, acknowledge what people say, and what you think about it (etc. Everything).”
It sounds like Treyarch would like to start Black Ops Cold Play League Play with a video outlining the design philosophy and goals. I would think that it could somehow succeed in managing expectations.
In his introductory blog post on League Play, Treyarch said that Black Ops 4’s League Play “was by far our most played competitive mode in Black Ops series history, setting new records for the number of games played and the time the community spent invested “.
“The accessible Ladder system has made players come back for more, and the core design has solved several fundamental problems with the Black Ops 2 model by introducing a progressive ranking system, running regular events in shorter sprints and faster and healthier matches. to ensure for participants.
“This year we are building on the base and implementing a total of 30 new ranks to reach, returning to the classic 4v4 format of the Black Ops 2 days, offering players more flexibility in game rules, such as the available Scorestreak choice, compared to the complete official CDL 2021 rule set. “
In this context, it may come as no surprise to see it being used as a template for Black Ops Cold League’s League Play.
What can Treyarch change? Some players have called for the introduction of ‘GAs’. This is ‘gentlemen’s agreement’ between professional Call of Duty players and will result in a more limited rule. For example, the GAs for Black Ops Cold War ban the AK-47, sniper rifles, smoke grenades and jammers – all of which are currently allowed in League Play.
On Twitter, Vonderhaar suggested that Black Ops Cold League’s League Play is more likely to focus on fixed classes than GAs.
“It will sort itself out,” Vonderhaar said. “I hate GAs. I want to do fixed classes, so it’s not about restrictions / bans, but about choosing a class that everyone can understand / learn that does not have all the things that GAd would be. For League many others think I’m nuts. “
And will Treyarch announce the numbers behind the Black Ops Cold War League Play’s skill rating? This is another thing Vonderhaar was asked on Twitter, and he responded by saying that it might be.
“I would say that when we expose the math, it creates tension the other way around,” Vonderhaar said.
“People are going ‘crazy’, the number has not increased as much as they wanted or decreased more than expected.”
Dan: “I think it’s worth it to see if we can expose some of the math. Obviously people are asking about it. I need to think about it and talk to some people about it.”
However Treyarch responds, it’s clear the developer has a bit of work to do to get the Black Ops Cold War League Play aside.