CDL 2021 - What Changes Can Be Made To Save Control?
There’s no doubt that this year’s Call of Duty League (CDL) has gotten off to a flying start. The latest season has already broken the previous viewership record for a single match, with 131,000 people tuning into the OpTic Chicago vs Atlanta FaZe match that took place on the opening weekend for the 2021 season.
Some of the changes made to this year’s competition have led the tournament to evolve for the better, such as the return to a four versus four format; however, some of the latest tweaks haven’t been well received. One of the major changes made this year that hasn’t been well received by fans or competitors is the return of the Control game mode.
Control first arrived in Black Ops 4, and it was a hit. In order to win rounds of Control, teams must capture two objective points or kill the opposing team 30 times to reduce their life count to zero.
The original iteration of Control was well received in Black Ops 4, with the game’s maps catering to the objective side of the game mode well. Where Black Ops: Cold War fails to make the most of the game mode is in its maps. Maps such as Garrison and Checkmate have far too many angles that teams must cut off to try to avoid losing control of the capture point.
This leads to many of the rounds of Control, seeing both teams fighting to reduce their opponent’s life to zero as quickly as possible, with the objective side of the game mode taking a back seat for most of the game. While there isn’t anything completely wrong with this, Control was intended to be an objective-based game mode, and with the players and pros ignoring the objective to win the game, we end up with a game of Team Deathmatch with the winners requiring 30 kills to win.
Control has brought us some exciting moments this year, just probably not what we expected. OpTic were eliminated from the stage 1 major by the New York Subliners in an intense final round of control that saw OpTic struggle to even the life count in the final 20 seconds of the match. They ultimately failed to take out NYSL and lost the series three rounds to zero.
That game of Control took place on Checkmate, and the evidence was laid bare that this year’s competing teams do not enjoy the objective side of the game mode. OpTic’s final game in the stage one major saw very little objective action, and that should be a warning to the games developers that Control is in need of a rework.
The Problems
The main problem this time out with Black Ops Cold War is its map composition. Too many of the maps featured in the competitive rotation don’t suit Control. To make a success out of the objective, teams must hold the objective for a significant length of time, and the openness of some of the maps don’t cater to that.
Some could argue that the objectives take far too long to capture, considering that mode is limited to only 30 lives per team. This brings out a reluctance in teams to really push and try to hold just one of the objectives for any length of time as they are likely to lose a significant number of lives holding just one capture point, and if they fail to capture the second, then those wasted lives could come back to haunt them.
The Potential Solutions
Improvements could be made in several areas within Control, starting with the map rotation. It is currently available to pop up on Raid, Garrison, and Checkmate, with Raid the only map that is suited to the mode. If changes aren’t to be made to the map rotation, then the core mechanics of the game mode need to be looked at.
The time taken to completely take a capture point could be reduced so that there is less peril involved in taking the point. This may mean that teams are more inclined to push the points more often. It also means that most of the action could be focused on taking the objective rather than eliminating the other team.
Without touching the capture point mechanics, the developers could easily change the increase in the number of lives that both teams have. Giving teams a larger number again would promote objective focused gameplay rather than the current first to 30 kills wins situation.
A more controversial option could be to give the attacking side extra lives. This could cause some issues of its own, but again this could shift the game towards its intended capture point focus.
These possible changes would all inevitably need to be tested prior to them being implemented in the CDL, but the developers certainly need to do something to get fans and pros back on board with Control.
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