The long-awaited Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War League Play launched last night, and it’s already run up against a number of issues affecting players.
League Play is the ultra competitive portion of Black Ops Cold War’s multiplayer that sorts players into a skill-based division and challenges them to move up a ranking ladder.
It strips the game down to 4v4 (standard multiplayer is at least 6v6), and puts restrictions on loadouts in a bid to recreate the ruleset used by professional players in the Call of Duty League.
Only three game modes are playable (Control, Search and Destroy, and Hardpoint), across a limited number of maps. Restricted items include all LMGs, tactical rifles, shotguns and launchers, with a rafter of attachments, scorestreaks, gear and perks also banned.
I spent four hours in League Play last night, and found it to be as brutal as experience as you’d expect from the most hardcore competitive mode in Black Ops Cold War.
However, fans have criticised Black Ops Cold War’s version of League Play, which is very similar to that seen in developer Treyarch’s previous game, Black Ops 4, for not going far enough.
One of the chief criticisms revolves around the ranking system. To move up ranks you need to earn gems by placing at least in the top 25 in your current division. This ranking system is seen by some as one that rewards playtime, as opposed to skill. You can, over a long enough time period, earn enough gems to hit the top rank simply by finishing in the top 25 out of 50 in each League Play event. It means the top 25 players in a bronze skill level, 50 person division can farm the exact same 30 ranks as players in the top two per cent purple division.
But there are a raft of other criticisms. League Play supports custom classes, including weapon blueprints, which means players are able to use scorestreaks, gear and perks some had hoped would be banned.
The inclusion of the Smoke Grenade tactical, the Jammer field upgrade, the Gearhead perk (which reduces the Field Upgrade cooldown and lets you store up to two Field Upgrade charges), and the Lawbreaker wildcard, which lets you equip any weapon class in either slot and equip multiple perks from one perk category, has come under fire for creating smoke grenade and field upgrade spam in matches.
League Play also carries over Black Ops Cold War’s controversial streak system, which does not reset scorestreak upon death. Scorestreaks allowed in League Play include the RC-XD, Armour and War Machine.
Treyarch had said League Play would include default classes made up of presets used by every team in the 2021 season, but these are not currently live in-game. Some are hoping these presets will become the only way to play League Play.
When you start League Play, the game asks you to complete five matches before it places you in an appropriate division. Some players are reporting unexpected placements, although it’s worth noting 50 per cent of players are placed in the Competitor division. Treyarch has said it uses a skill rating to determine which of the five skill divisions you are placed in, but it has not revealed what determines your skill rating (k/d perhaps?), and the game does not reveal your skill rating, either. All players currently have to go on are the colour-coded skill divisions (bronze, green, white and purple).