ZooMaa column: Why Gentlemen\u2019s Agreements keep CoD esports competitive New York SublinersThe first thing I\u2019ll say about GA\u2019s (Gentlemen\u2019s Agreements) is that pros just want the game to be as competitive as possible. Bans are aimed at widening the skill gap, delivering a game that is more enjoyable to watch and play. Every team has a captain (or leader, or whatever you want to call it), so there\u2019s a captain\u2019s chat where everything is talked about\u2014what\u2019s overpowered, what\u2019s cheap, and what\u2019s whack. Players voice their opinions and come to an agreement with a vote, or, if we can\u2019t come to an agreement, things stay the same. It looks like the #CDL2020 is finally acknowledging Gentlemen’s Agreements after years of being against them \ud83d\udc40 pic.twitter.com\/ulGCEfehl7 \u2014 Dexerto Esports (@DexertoEsports) June 12, 2020 So far, the three big bans have been Merc Foregrip, Auto Tactical Sprint, and Snaking\u2014each posing unique problems. Already, with Merc Foregrip out of the picture, there\u2019s more variety with the MP5\u2014everyone using different attachments based on different playstyles. That\u2019s the kind of impact we hope for with GA\u2019s, making the game even more exciting, entertaining and competitive. Merc Foregrip We didn\u2019t want to use Merc because you don\u2019t have to aim. It makes hipfire really overpowered \u2013 people were hitting first shots without even aiming in across the map. It was reducing the skill gap and making the game a lot easier, when obviously we want the professional competitions to always need the highest level of skill. And it just wasn\u2019t fun to watch, it doesn\u2019t show you who the most talented players are and was getting to a point where people abusing it made the game feel very random and sporadic. Especially with smoke grenades being so prominent, you could slide into smokes, shoot erratically, and just hope for the best. Like, my little cousin can do that, you know? People don\u2019t always agree, but pros are into positioning and outplaying opponents so Merc was a definite \u201cgotta go.\u201d Anything that allows you to not aim your gun should be gone. Automatic Tactical Sprint Auto Tac is a setting that performs a mechanic for you. The problem is, when you\u2019re in a competitive game and there\u2019s a broken mechanic like slide canceling, automation just exacerbated the problem, until everyone in the game was just spamming said broken mechanic. Our boy @ZooMaa switching lanes. \ud83d\ude98 #NYSL pic.twitter.com\/NTFFlCRhNm \u2014 Subliners (@Subliners) May 21, 2020 People don\u2019t like slide cancel, it probably shouldn\u2019t be in the game. But it is what it is, that\u2019s how the game was made and everybody is going to use it because it\u2019s there and available. They could have nerfed the slide canceling or gotten rid of it completely, but they didn\u2019t\u2014so the Auto Tac ban was mostly just to get rid of the fugaze. The less fugaze, the better. Snaking Snaking has been in Call of Duty for years and it\u2019s never gone away. It\u2019s worse in some games than others, but it\u2019s prominent this year, in particular, because it makes you very hard to kill. If you lay down and stand up over and over again behind cover, it\u2019s going to break the \u2018cameras\u2019 a little bit and make it harder to hit you. So GA\u2019ing something like that is tricky, because we\u2019ve been playing CoD for years and are habituated to dropping behind cover when weak and standing back up when full health. That\u2019s not \u201csnaking,\u201d pros just don\u2019t want it abused. \ud83c\udfc7 @ZooMaa is NASTY!#NYSL | #CDL2020 pic.twitter.com\/6uXT3nmUam \u2014 Dexerto Esports (@DexertoEsports) May 23, 2020 Fans accused me of snaking against the Seattle Surge during their home series. But even Surge players like Apathy said I didn\u2019t. I wasn\u2019t sitting on the head glitch and saddling up and down, abusing the mechanic\u2014I got a kill, was one shot, so went down and then stood up with health, snaked the head glitch, got another kill, and laid back down because I was weak again. That\u2019s just playing the game, I\u2019m not going to stand on the desk and ask to die. At this point, it\u2019s muscle memory that we\u2019ve been honing for years. Players can try everything to change that, but actually removing snaking from the game will require action from the developers (slowing the movement or taking longer to ADS after standing). The meta moving forward Merc was so overpowered that it made no sense to not use the MP5, but now it\u2019s gone and players\u2019 eyes are opening up to different things. Some have even started running the Uzi sometimes, like Envoy during the Minnesota Rokkr Home Series. Dylan on the Uzi\u2026 that’s the tweet. pic.twitter.com\/X6iWe5QTZz \u2014 OpTic Texas (@OpTicTexas) June 13, 2020 You\u2019ll still mostly see MP5 and M4A1s, but players are experimenting and trying different guns out. And nobody knows what\u2019s good or bad yet, so everyone is running different attachments too. The new Vector (Fennec) could come into play a little, as it\u2019s really good up-close, or even the Grau, especially to get picks in SND or on maps with long sightlines like Azhir Cave or Petrograd. As far as bans or meta changes, I don\u2019t think you\u2019re going to see any more throughout the year. The league is almost over, we\u2019re on the final stretch. Most of what would change are things people have been complaining about all year. So there\u2019s no point in complaining, I\u2019m just going to play the game, slide cancel, and do what I gotta do. At this point, we\u2019re just focused on grinding everyday to make sure we\u2019re the best that we can possibly be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ZooMaa column: Why Gentlemen\u2019s Agreements keep CoD esports competitive New York SublinersThe first thing I\u2019ll say about GA\u2019s (Gentlemen\u2019s Agreements) is that pros just want the game to be as competitive as possible. Bans are aimed at widening the skill gap, delivering a game that is more enjoyable to watch and play. Every team has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35109\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}