Innovation in Call of Duty
I think innovation in competitive Call of Duty is slowed by the limited chance to get ideas heard and the ability to nurture long-shot ideas. I want to do something about it.
I want to reveal something: I haven’t always watched, or even enjoyed, Cod. I’m probably in the minority here but I went through high school loving old-school comp cod, Ghosts came out the year I graduated high school and I was big into Nade streams, OpTic everything. But I drifted away in college, only watching Champs every year. Now I have a job in the league and a lot of my job is trying to combine statistical techniques with traditional practices to win us more games. I was thinking the other day: how has competitive Cod changed since 2013? No doubt, the games have become more advanced, more customizable features, better accessible for competitors; but how has the process of winning games changed? What are players and teams doing now to win that they wouldn’t have dreamed of 10 years ago?
I’ll break down into 3 categories I see as most over-arching:
- Preparation (practice, mental prep, physical prep)
- Playing the game (the peripherals, supplements, communication)
- Management (coaching, team-building, scouting)
Preparation
Probably the most blatant lack of innovation comes in terms of player preparation. While products like AimLab (for aim training), Mobalytics (for computer vision-based decision-making work), and workshop modes (for creating specific training routines) are used in other games like CS:GO, LoL, or even Overwatch (an Activision title), Cod is left with shooting bots in a custom lobby to warm up and scrimming to practice decision-making. By preparation I mean only how the players themselves prepare to play, things like warmup and practice. Practice in Cod is scrimmaging. Period. The idea that more scrims = more wins is common in other esports too, but I’m focusing this on Cod. Scrims used to be much later, think 7 pm starts or later. More organized teams have pushed this time earlier over the years. Additionally, the higher salaries have allowed Cod to be a true full-time job, no need to go to school or a job before coming home to grind.
The fact remains, 10 years ago, we were loading into 2 scrim blocks a day and then playing 8s or pubs, then bed. Players still wake up, shoot bots, play for maybe 4 hours of scrims, and that is the only formal practice. Vod review has certainly risen in popularity with the addition of more orgs, coaches, and higher expectations. This is not a game-changing innovation. I think, in general, there are so many potential avenues to greatly increase the efficiency of practice and preparation.
Playing the game
I immediately think of custom controllers as the major change in the way competitive Cod is played. Controllers, primarily Scuf and Battle Beaver, allowed players to press face buttons using their fingers on the back of the controller. This allows the player to keep their thumbs on the sticks more often, allowing for better movement and aiming mechanics. However, these innovations aren’t new. The first Scuf patent that I can find detailing the use of back paddles is from 2012! Obviously, the addition of buttons over paddles has been widely accepted but, I would argue, has not changed the game in the same way paddles did. Buttons are just better paddles, the decrease in thumb use off the sticks is no different. So what else has changed about controllers? Smart triggers allow the player to fire in less time, not waiting for the trigger to press all the way down. Some players continue to use base-PS4 or Xbox controllers, however, usually, because they play claw, which allows for your index finger to press the face buttons.
There is no doubt that custom controllers have improved the state of competitive play in Cod, making playing for hours easier, shooting faster, and aiming more precise. That being said, overall advancements in controllers have been limited over the last decade to maybe one “major” development, leaving players using them pretty much the same way they did in Cod: Ghosts.
The use of supplements, meaning anything players take or use that boosts performance while using, is common in competitive Cod. Caffeine consumption is supplementation. Most players take their healthy share of caffeine and have forever. It makes sense, caffeine keeps you focused, and grinding a game requires immense focus. There are 1,000 ways to consume caffeine and other products to enhance focus, all probably tried at one point or another by the pros. Oh well, other products have popped up in the last 10 years as alternatives to straight caffeine. RESPAWN by Razer is a notable addition from 2017, using vitamins and green tea extract in combination with caffeine to, supposedly, increase mental performance. The claims are not really backed up on their site and they have since come out with a gum that doesn’t appear to make the same claims, although they’ve conveniently positioned the product alongside caffeine-laced products, making you think the gum has caffeine. But what are players actually consuming? Caffeine. GameFuel, GFuel, caffeine pills, or coffee appear to be most common.
I think I can safely say Cod gamers are getting T’d the exact same way they were in 2013.
Management
This area of Cod competitive is more grey to me on whether we are innovating, especially since this includes my current work. No doubt, a huge shift in Cod was the introduction of full-time coaches and other staff. This transition came with the transition of cod from separate tournaments to a coherent league and ultimately the CDL. Coaches help with strategy as well as inter-team discussion and being a second set of eyes on issues. Every CDL team now has a coach, while 3 years ago only a few teams had anything resembling a coach. Coaches are exclusively ex-players, and most are not far removed from competing. This is not good or bad, just how things are done currently. In other esports, we see the addition of other support staff roles like psychologists, nutritionists, and trainers. This is certainly occurring in Cod as well, although lagging behind more major esports.
Probably the area in which I personally believe innovation is needed most is team-building. Teams are basically re-created every offseason, albeit less often with the introduction of the CDL and large stakeholders. Back 10 years ago, the average lifespan of a player on a team was extremely short, much shorter than today.
“Despite how much there are team changes [now], it was even worse back then. After every monthly event there was a rostermania pretty much because of either no contracts or contracts that were just not even enforced so players were just basically moving freely” — JP
Last season, every team except Dallas and Atlanta made at least one roster move throughout the year. Being the 3rd best team basically guarantees that you will feel the need to bring in a different player. But why not keep players longer, hoping for things to click? We know that progress is not linear, change tends to happen not at all, then all at once. This is a generalization but I would say the problem is less often player skill and more often interpersonal issues. This is a problem. Failure will always cause interpersonal strain on a team. But short-term failure breaks up rosters more in Cod than most sports. One factor is player leverage, being 1 of 4 starters gives you a lot more of a say in who you play with than a single pitcher on an MLB team. I truly don’t think we will see great champions like Astralis in CS:GO, who were capable of long-term domination, until losing teams can become winning teams, instead of just making winning teams.
So what’s the one thing that you think would change competitive Cod forever? What are other sports doing that we’re not? Think big. The Scuf controller literally made everyone who used it 25% more accurate, changing the game forever. How will you change it? Remember to send me an email at Doug@kse.gg or DM me on Twitter @dougliebe if you want to submit an entry, have ideas, or just want to talk.
