Call of Duty Vanguard Ranked Play is now live following a slight delay after Treyarch discovered a “stat-breaking issue” with the WW2 shooter’s competitive mode. With the studio not giving any kind of time frame for how long the fix would take, many were concerned that the long-awaited ranked mode may be postponed for days, maybe even weeks. However, Treyarch has moved swiftly to patch things up and now competitive CoD fans can slug it out and play like the pros in the Call of Duty League.
As well as confirming that ranked was now live, Treyarch also gives some warnings to players when it comes to making their loadouts. As Ranked Play uses CDL rulesets, many weapons, attachments, and pieces of equipment that are deemed uncompetitive are banned. Currently, the Create A Class menu does not show you which of your classes contain restricted items and which are permitted – it’s only once you get into ranked that you’ll find out. Treyarch does say that this will be sorted in its next update to Ranked Play, though.
As well as the restricted items in the CDL rules, Treyarch confirms that a whole host of other loadout items will be banned too, including weapons such as the BAR, the PPSh-41, and Season 2’s new assault rifle, the KG M40.
Treyarch also appears to have learned a valuable lesson from last year’s League Play ranked mode in Black Ops Cold War, whereby newly added guns would be eligible in ranked play and then retrospectively banned. This meant that guns like the LC10 submachine gun ran riot for a period of time.
Ranked Play Beta is NOW LIVE!
Grab the latest #Vanguard update, restart your game, and start climbing. pic.twitter.com/BTzPErLEt4
— Treyarch Studios (@Treyarch) February 18, 2022
Now though, new weapons, perks, and equipment will be “evaluated for Ranked Play on a case-by-case basis, and will only be made available if deemed competitively viable and used in the CDL.” This should lead to a consistent, stable meta.
This new and improved ranked experience looks to simplify things and bring the gameplay as close as possible to that of the CDL, and that should go down a treat with competitive players.