Call Of Duty League's Silent Update Is Causing An Uproar

Call of Duty League players are up in arms over some recent updates that have been made to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. It is certainly expected that a game with a significant online and competitive presence like Modern Warfare. However, what seems to be throwing these players off is the fact that changes appear to be taking place without any official word or patch notes from Infinity Ward.

One of the longest running problems with Modern Warfare has been the inconsistent spawns and respawns. Players have discovered a glitch that makes it so that some characters will spawn sooner than others, giving them an unfair headstart advantage. Some players have found themselves being flanked and killed as the countdown clock for the match is still happening.

According to pro player C6, there have been noticeable changes made to the spawning mechanics, but they don't seem to be working correctly. They also weren't communicated to players ahead of time. 

As C6 put it, "Infinity Ward with another infamous silent spawn patch." He later added, "Minor changes like these need to be relayed through proper channels please @InfinityWard."

Another issue players have had is with the game's "Battle Hardened" perk. According to the game, Battle Hardened is supposed to "Reduce strength of enemy flash, stun, EMP and gas effect." However, pro player MadCat says it clearly hasn't been doing that at all. 

In a clip posted by fellow pro Nick Nolson, we can see him turning a corner and immediately getting blown off his feet by an enemy explosive. The timing in the clip is hilarious, but it's clearly a frustrating thing for players who have been hoping for a fix for quite some time.

MadCat also added that trophies and achievement now appear to be offline or not showing up at all. It all adds up to an almost unthinkable number of problems. As MadCat puts it, "Now trophies don't work, I'm laughing myself into tears here."

The most bizarre thing is that it appears as though many of these issues are only popping up in scrim servers used by Call of Duty League members. This led to C6 tweeting, "They're just f—king with us at this point." 

This also raises the question of why this group would see the changes first. Does this mean that there are going to be significant overhauls to competitive play in the near future, or is this just another oversight on the part of Infinity Ward?

This isn't the only example of a silent update causing a bit of an uproar within recent weeks. One of the ongoing debates among battle royale gamers is whether or not using aim assist in Fortnite and other games counts as cheating. This is exacerbated by the kind of aim assist afforded to PC players using a gamepad controller while they play. Apparently Fortnite's aim assist has continuously received little tweaks here and there from Epic Games, some of which have occurred without a formal announcement of an update. The most recent changes made to Fortnite's aim assist had to be uncovered by dataminers, who revealed that Epic had at various times lowered and lengthened the range of motion made possible by aim assist.

Even high profile streamers like Ninja have spoken out against the use of aim assist, particularly in competitive play. Back in April, Ninja compared it to hacking. He said, "I have competed in several games at a competitive level on both controller and mouse and keyboard. You cannot tell me that with 100% strength aim assist and linear settings that using a controller isn't aimbot." It's clear that this is why Epic wanted to make these changes, but the lack of an explanation or announcement didn't sit right with gamers.

That seems to be more or less where people stand on the changes made to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. While updates are normally meant to improve quality of life for gamers and the longterm meta of the game, it's always going to raise a few eyebrows when these changes are made without telling anyone. The fact that there especially doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to the latest changes to the game has obviously led to quite a but of frustration for even the most professional Call of Duty players.

Hopefully Infinity Ward releases some patch notes soon and explains what's going on. This could just be the unfortunate side effects of the game's next season being worked on. In the meantime, it seems that even the pros can expect some funky days ahead.