Now that Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 has been out for about a week, some of the game’s best and brightest are getting involved in discussions about which weapons were destroyed. These initial posts and speculative comments are crucial in establishing the game’s early meta, but one solid opinion has divided the community. Are assault rifles too good? Or maybe people need to composed down and wait until the game heats up before making such sweeping statements?
First, let’s take a look at assault rifles and why people think they are so good. Weapons like the XM4 and Model L are getting a lot of heat these days, and you can see why at a glance. As assault rifles, they are good at a variety of ranges, and with the right accessories, are straightforward to control. As a result of putting weapons in the hands of great players, they become laser beams that can quickly reach players without much effort. You can even hit them with an extended clip, and back-to-back kills become common. A quick scroll through social media or Twitch shows this to be true.
Manage cookie settings
This led to a gentlemen’s agreement between professional players in competing lobbies this will block both the XM4 and Model L. This isn’t a specific ban as there is no official body to do so and the game doesn’t have a professional scene yet as Black Ops 6 has only been out for a week. Nevertheless, some of the best players have already decided that this weapon is unfair. And hey, I’m a real fool at Black Ops 6, so who am I to judge the opinions of people much better than me.
Manage cookie settings
Your Honor, may I offer an objection: some believe select assault rifles should be set aside for now, others think this is stupid and a somewhat faint response to the emerging meta of the game. Take Clayster, an exceptionally good, world champion CoD player. He posted on Twitter in response to the gentlemen’s agreement, the following: “lmaoooooooooooooooo, same as always, go to the worst usable AR before all subs figure out routes/nads/teamwork, then halfway through the game each sub will dominate. “8 XM4” yes, no. ** because no one knows this game.”
He’s not wrong. If you spend a lot of time with Call of Duty at launch, you’ll notice that beloved weapons from the first week go out of style as people start to consider the game. Where players are on the map, what gear is best in competitive spaces, what angles to hold, etc. Especially in Black Ops 6 with its all-move system that can determine where rapid running and gun play will win. Sure, SMGS may not be the weapon of choice right now, but maybe in a month these talented gamers glued to the game will be hanging around AR.
Manage cookie settings
The problem at the heart of this debate about assault rifles in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is that these types of decisions are made so early in the game’s life. Yes, it’s true that some brilliant people crunch the numbers, determine the fastest weapon kill time, and determine the optimal weapon design to squeeze the most value out of each weapon. However, such research is only part of the equation of what the competitive scene in CoD looks like. What really needs to happen, and this happens with other games long before it’s determined which weapons require a ban, is that some competitive matches need to be played. You also have to play with them for a while. If you still see a lobby filled with XM4 after two months, talking about bans makes sense.
Let’s also not forget that we haven’t had time for an official patch from Activision yet. Yes, professional players have a unique view of high-level play that can sometimes be challenging to see for a developer looking at the statistics of the entire community. However, internal statistics are certainly being collected, as are early conclusions from the day one meta game.
But what do you think? Are assault rifles too powerful in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6? Let us know below!
