The launch of Black Ops Cold War’s League Play was nothing short of a disappointment among the fan base that was created to please.
It is no industry secret that the release of Black Ops Cold War was unstable for developer Treyarch, who had to step in to finish developing the Call of Duty title from Sledgehammer Games.
With a year left on his resume to develop his next title (two compared to the usual three), Black Ops Cold War had an unstable start. Unfortunately for Treyarch, the responsibilities would continue to increase with the success of Warzone from Infinity Ward, which was due to be delivered to them and Raven Software during the Cold War Black Ops year.
As a result, Multiplayer in its premium title looks like just a minor part in the bigger picture. Black Ops Cold War has all the customization and shooting of a standard Call of Duty title, but it does nothing particularly different from previous titles, nor does it offer much variety in the launch content.
Over time, Treyarch is adding more free DLC to Black Ops Cold War, which included some remastered multiplayer maps, small shooting maps and maps for the weird “fire squad” mode. It is rumored that Fireteam is using a similar strategy in delivering content for Infinity Ward’s “Ground War” mode, using pieces of the much larger Battle Royale map – which is expected to drop in the coming months.
As you can clearly see, Treyarch has a lot of work on its plate – this does not include the various bug fixes and optimization for a total of five gaming platforms as well. (PS4, PS4 Pro, PS5, Xbox Series X | S)
Unfortunately, this became clear as the day in the new “League Play” mode added to Black Ops Cold War, which disappointed many electronic sports fans at launch.
League Play launch failed
Moving on to day 1 of the official launch of League Play, disaster is possibly the best term. “Playing like the pros” has never been so bad, and the main problems with the set of rules and classification of modes were quickly brought to light by the community.
Unfortunately, due to the non-restrictive and outdated nature of the CDL league ruleset, professional players have chosen to play on a “Gentlemen’s Agreement” or “GA” system to restrict access to equipment and bursts in the game that are considered to be low competitive integrity.
This list includes the update of the Jammer field, lethal Molotov, Perks Gearhead & Gung-Ho and the Wildcard Perk Greed. The full GA list is quite boring and large, but many players will agree that a large part of the list can be banned in competitive games.
At launch, all of these previously mentioned items were usable in the game, which changed to a confusing experience, to say the least.
Worst of all, scorestreaks persisted between deaths – meaning that all players can obtain powerful scorestreaks at least once with ease, in each game.
A horrible rating system
The cornerstone of any effective rating system is a fair and exciting skill rating system that rewards players for improving the game. In the Cold War Black Ops, the League Play system seems to go against these principles.
Instead of opting for skill ratings that go up based on overall performance, players are locked in their placement rankings for a certain period of days. These are called “events” and last four days each. Players are placed in a division against 49 other players and compete in League Play to fight for the top of their division and collect a certain amount of gems to advance their ranking.
If players take first place in six separate events, they will be permanently placed at the top of the “Diamond” ranking of the season. Sound confused? It is because it is. The whole system is centered on seeking more wins than its competitors, rather than judging their individual skills. As players progress, the real competition at the top level lies in the time played, not the player’s skill.
Worse yet, placement games appear to be buggy or just random in nature, with some professional-level players being placed in the Competitor League – the worst 50% of players.
This system prioritizes quantity over quality and apparently does not take into account any metrics of the player other than victories and defeats. For a video game with a $ 25 million esports franchise buy-in, this system crumbles when compared to ELO-based systems in games like Blizzard’s Overwatch and Valve’s Counter-Strike.
Simply put: you shouldn’t need a PhD in Call of Duty to understand your League Play ranking, and as an individual player, you should feel like you’re being judged for your individual skills in the game versus your time played. It should not take several weeks (events) for you to reach an appropriate ranking.
Worst of all, the Black Ops Cold War League Play rating system is a complete copy / collage of the unpopular Black Ops 4 system, which is yet another slap in the face of the competitive community.
The future of league play
With all the negative reception from the player, Treyarch acted quickly to restore some competitive integrity to the playlist. Although reviewing the ranks in just a few days, or even a few weeks, is an unrealistic expectation – they did what they could, changing the set of rules.
Just a day after the mode was released, Treyarch banned many GA items from League Play – including some scorestreaks, weapon accessories, perks and equipment.
This update is far from making things perfect, but at least it worked as a quick band-aid fix for the mode. While the ratings debates were in the air, the games were playable once again and were not so confusing compared to the first day.
Unfortunately, scorestreaks persistent in death have not been removed (and have not yet been removed), so expect games to be filled with RC-XDs and intermediate sequences like Napalm Strikes.
This update is certainly a gesture by Treyarch that they are determined to fix this mode and is supported by the Design Director at Treyarch Studio David Vonderhaar, who accessed Twitter to collect League Play feedback and comments.
In response to a tweet about the overall rating system, Vonderhaar replies “Keywords: Scope. Accessibility. Deadlines. Franchise. “Perhaps implying that time was partly to blame for changing the Black Ops 4 League Play system. In addition, he says:” We have some work to do IMO to evangelize how it works after cleaning up some of the nasty insects. ”
Vonderhaar also achieved CDL player for Dallas Empire, Crimsix for feedback on the League Play rating system as well. It is not known if this means that he is determined to revise the League Play system, but that may be good news for the future. In fact, it shows the dedication of a Treyarch developer to the hardcore community.
With Black Ops Cold War still in the early stages of its one-year Call of Duty cycle, there is still time for League Play to receive well-deserved love. Unfortunately, with all the responsibilities piled on the Treyarch plate, we could wait several months for any significant changes to the central rating system.
For now, if you are looking for an experience “similar to competitive”, League Play at least achieves that. There are still a few more tweaks to the rule set he needs, but once these changes are implemented, the rating system will be the biggest problem in the future for Treyarch.
Image credits: Treyarch / Activision