Should Call of Duty: Warzone introduce ranked play?
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare has been hugely successful since its release, especially with the introduction of Warzone. But many players are calling for Warzone Ranked Play after speculation that there are elements of skill-based matchmaking.
Infinity Ward has previously denied that skill-based matched making, or SBMM, has been implemented within Modern Warfare, however many professionals are claiming that the level of competition that they face in Warzone lobbies is a direct correlation to their performance; if they win the previous game, it is likely that the next lobby will have higher skilled players.
This has caused many streamers to express their concern online and call for a ranked system to reward a player for playing against more difficult players.
Would a Ranked Game Mode work in the current Call of Duty dynamics?
Ranking systems have been a popular feature in Call of Duty since it featured in Black Ops 2, which saw a completely new dynamic to the competitive scene. Having divisions that you can progress through by winning games. This meant that players played much more competitively, in the chance that they can reach the highest rank possible. League Play followed the same rules to the Call of Duty Championships which helped this feature become increasingly popular.
Black Ops’ League Play was the followed up by Call of Duty: Ghosts’ Clan vs Clan, and each CoD from then onwards featured some form of ranking divisions. The ranked game modes have suited CoD fans who wish to emulate their favourite streamers and content creators, and play in a more competitive environment.
However, this was not installed into last years’ Blackout, the first instalment of a battle royale game mode in the CoD franchise. There was no element of SBMM with completely random lobbies, which many players feel articulates the reason for a battle royale. Many see the point of battle royale as almost a dystopian battleground where people have been placed at random to fight to the death, to introduce SBMM in a normal lobby would defeat the object of battle royale. SBMM is also favourable for your lesser skilled players who will be able to find comfort in lobbies where they aren’t getting killed instantly by better players. However, it restricts the better-skilled players to much harder lobbies and therefore is despised by streamers and content creators who rely on high kill games for interesting content.
Should SBMM actually be implemented within Warzone it would leave those better players being rewarded with less content, pretty dumb right? This leaves a ranked Warzone mode as the only alternative.
Including a ranking system in Warzone will then give players the opportunity to work towards the best ranks and be rewarded when they progress in SBMM. Then having the opportunity to go into mixed public lobbies will still give content creators the chance to strive towards high kill games and records.
What other games do this?
There are multiple battle royale games that have a ranked system such as Fortnite and Apex Legends, which use SBMM. Both games have been hugely successful, and the ranking system adds a new dynamic to both games, showing that ranked in battle royale can be hugely popular.
If SBMM has been implemented in Warzone, a ranking system could very well be on its way in future updates. The higher skilled players will otherwise feel aggrieved.
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Images via Activision
