Modern games are updated constantly, especially PvP focused titles. Updates can fix bugs, change unbalanced mechanics, and will generally make for a better game if handled correctly. But Call of Duty League players are up in arms about recent silent changes to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.
Now, players reacting poorly to updates is nothing new. Patches have the potential to add in more problems than they fix, something that the most recent update for Modern Warfare has certainly done. The main problem here, however, is that Infinity Ward made no mention of the current changes in any patch notes or through any official channels, causing confusion and frustration for professional players.
Ian “C6” Porter, Call of Duty League player for Dallas Empire, was less than happy with the undocumented update, describing it as “another infamous silent spawn patch”. Poor spawns have been an annoyance in many Call of Duty games, and it seems like Infinity Ward still hasn’t got them figured out.
Thankfully for regular players, spawns have only been changed on the Call of Duty League scrim servers. There’s a chance that this update could come to the live version of Modern Warfare, but it’s odd for scrim servers to be using a newer version of the game than what regular players have access to. Ian clearly found it strange too, joking that Infinity Ward are “just fucking with us at this point”.
One change that does affect all players is a potential nerf or bug with trophy systems, Dylan “MadCat” Daly making his thoughts known about this on Twitter. Nick Nolson provides some evidence of this change in a follow-up tweet, showing that the field upgrade isn’t working as it used to. Due to the lack of patch notes, whether this is an intended change to trophy systems or a bug is unclear at the moment.
A previous tweet by Dylan also highlights problems with the battle hardened perk. Its intended use according to the game itself is to “Reduce strength of enemy flash, stun, EMP and gas effects”, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. To some it’s considered the worst perk in the game, and it looks like this wont be changing anytime soon.
Relaying what changes have been made is important for the professional gaming scene, as players at that level rely on knowing the ins and outs of the games they play. In comparison to this current situation in Modern Warfare, the Overwatch League was always wary of changing version of the game mid-season.
