The launch of Black Ops’ Cold War in League Play was nothing short of a disappointment among the fan base it created.
It was no trade secret that the release of Black Ops Cold War was a shaky one for developer Treyarch, who had to step in to end the development of Sledgehammer Games’ Call of Duty title.
With a year less before the development of their next title (two compared to the regular three), Black Ops Cold War began shakily. Unfortunately for Treyarch, the responsibilities will continue to improve with the success of Infinity Ward’s Warzone, which would also be given to them and Raven Software during the year of Black Ops Cold War.
As a result, Multiplayer in their premium title feels anything but a side issue in the bigger picture. Black Ops Cold War has all the adaptations and weapons of a standard Call of Duty title, but does nothing unlike previous titles and also does not offer much variety in launch content.
Over time, Treyarch adds more free DLC to Black Ops Cold War, which includes some remade multiplayer maps, small shootout maps, and maps for the strange “fireteam” mode. According to Fireteam, they use a similar content delivery strategy as Infinity Ward’s “Ground War” mode, which uses pieces of the much larger Battle Royale card – due to the decline in the coming months.
As you can clearly see, Treyarch has a lot of work to do – this does not include the various bug fixes and optimization for a total of five gaming platforms. (PS4, PS4 Pro, PS5, Xbox Series X | S)
Unfortunately, it became clear as a day in the newly added “League Play” mode in the Black Ops Cold War, which disappointed many fans of esports during the launch.
League Play’s failed launch
Fast forward to day 1 of the official launch of League Play, disaster is possibly the best term. ‘Playing like the pros’ has never felt worse, and the core issues with the modes and rankings were quickly brought to light by the community.
Due to the unrestricted and outdated nature of the CDL rule series, professional players have opted to play on a ‘Gentlemen’s Agreement’ or ‘GA’ system to restrict access to equipment and streaks in the game that are considered low competitive integrity .
This list includes the Jammer field upgrade, the deadly Molotov, Perks Gearhead & Gung-Ho and the Wildcard Perk Greed. The full GA list is pretty boring and large, but many players agree that a large portion of the list is acceptable to be banned in competitive play.
With the launch, all of the above items were useful in the game, which went down in a bad way from an experience.
Worst of all, scores continued between deaths – meaning all players could easily get powerful scores at least once, every game.
A terrible ranking system
The cornerstone of any effective ranking is a fair and exciting skill rating system that awards players for improvement to the game. In the Black Ops Cold War, the League Play system feels that it is against these principles.
Instead of opting for skill rankings that rise based on overall performance, players become difficult in their ranking ranks for a set number of days. These are called ‘events’ and last four days each. Players are divided into a division against 49 other players and play bodies to fight the top of their division to take a certain amount of jewels to promote their rank.
If players finish first in six separate events, they will be permanently placed in the highest diamond rankings for the season. Sounds confusing? This is because it is so. The whole system is geared towards grinding for more wins than your competitors rather than judging your individual skills. As players progress, the real competition lies at the highest level in the time played, and not in the skill of the player.
Worse, the placement games appear to be faulty or just random in nature, and some players at the professional level are placed in the Competitor League – the bottom 50% of players.
This system prioritizes quantity over quality and apparently does not take into account any player statistics other than wins and losses. For a video game with a $ 25 million esports franchise purchase, this system breaks down compared to ELO-based systems in games like Blizzard’s Overwatch and Valve’s Counter-Strike.
Simply put: you do not need a PhD in Call of Duty to understand your League Play rank, and as an individual player you should feel judged by your individual skill in the game versus your playing time. . It should not take a few weeks (events) before you reach the right rank.
Worst of all, the Black Ops Cold Play League rankings are a complete copy / paste of the unpopular Black Ops 4 system, which is another slap in the face to the competitive community.
The future of league play
With all the negative reception from players, Treyarch acted quickly to restore the competitive integrity of the playlist. Although it was refurbished within a few days, or even a few weeks, it is an unrealistic expectation – they did what they could and changed the rules.
Just one day after the launch of the mode, Treyarch banned many GAs items from League Play – including a number of territories, weapon attachments, perks and equipment.
This update does not make things perfect, but at least it works as a quick band-aid solution for the mode. While debates over the ranks were in the air, games were playable again and were not nearly as messy compared to the first day.
Unfortunately, the points that continue to die are not removed (and have yet to be removed), so expect games to be filled with RC-XDs and mid-level streaks like Napalm Strikes.
This update is definitely a gesture from Treyarch that they are determined to fix this mode and is supported by Treyarch Studio Design Director David Vonderhaar, who went to Twitter to get feedback and comments on League Play.
In response to a tweet regarding the overall ranking, Vonderhaar replied “Keywords: Scope. Accessibility. Deadline. Franchise. ”May indicate that time was partly to blame for the transfer of the Black Ops 4 League Play system. In addition, he says, “We got some work done to IMO to evangelize how it works after we clean up the unpleasant mistakes.”
Vonderhaar also brought CDL player to Dallas Empire, Crimsix for feedback on the rankings for League Play. It is unknown at this time what he will do after leaving the post, but it could be good news for the future. If it’s anything – it shows commitment to the hardcore community of a high-end developer at Treyarch.
Since Black Ops Cold War is still in the early stages of its year-long Call of Duty cycle, there is still time for League Play to receive well-deserved love. Unfortunately, with all the responsibilities on Treyarch’s board, we can wait a few months for any significant change in the core ranking system.
If you’re currently looking for a ‘competitive’ experience, League Play achieves it at least. There are still some adjustments to the rules that are needed, but once the changes are made, the ranking system will be the biggest issue for Treyarch in the future.
Image Credits: Treyarch / Activision