The Call of Duty League has changed the competitive map pool going into the Holiday break, causing discourse throughout the community.
The new incoming map is the newly released remake of Hacienda, which will join the mapset in Hardpoint, Search & Destroy, and Control. To make room for Hacienda, a map had to be removed from both the HP & SND map pool. This is where the discourse came in, as the League removed Rewind from both modes. This doesn't just affect the CDL, but also Ranked Play.
To start, the map pool isn't great this season to begin with. If new maps being released are good, there will be more additions to the map pool as the season goes along. Rewind isn't a great, all-time map but it is better than some of the maps in the current pool, which is a sentiment shared by the teams and the fans. So why was it removed? We'll break down the reason why Rewind was removed, why the League made a mistake in their logic, which maps the teams would've removed, and how they should make these decisions in the future.
The CDL removed Rewind in both Hardpoint and Search & Destroy for the sole reason that it was the most vetoed map after the first two weeks of play. After the opening 24 matches, the League looked into the vetoes for each series. After compiling the numbers, they made the decision based on the raw data. Here are the vetos through the opening two weeks:
Hardpoint Vetoes
β Rewind x15
β Red Card x12
β Protocol x10
β Skyline x7
β Vault x4
Search & Destroy Vetoes
β Rewind x14
β Skyline x12
β Protocol x9
β Red Card x7
β Vault x6
Which, this raw data resulted in Rewind being removed in both modes.
While veto data can certainly be a data point within the decision-making, it has no right to be the sole reason a map is removed from a competitive mapset with no context at all, especially after just two weeks.
Teams veto maps for multiple reasons. I believe I'm qualified to discuss this topic due to the five seasons working with Atlanta & helping do vetoes. The main reasons a team vetoes a map are:
β Your team is bad at the map, so let's veto it
β The opposing team is very good at the map, so let's veto it
β We want to force X map as an option, let's veto a map they'd likely pick
β We want live match reps on X map, let's veto a map they'd likely pick even if it's one of our best maps
β We have a role mismatch, let's veto this map (This could be because their SMGs are better, let's not play a mixy map for example)
β They've beaten us in scrims on this map consistently, let's veto this map
β This is our auto-veto, let's just veto the map
Very rarely does a team ever veto a map because the map is horrible. That does happen, but again, very rare. This is why when you take veto data, you MUST add context to it to verify it. Just taking raw data is not analytics, it is just raw data with a very small sample size.
While we highly disagree with the tactics in determining which map to remove, maybe the teams agreed with the decision right? We polled each team asking them to rank the old map pools 1 through 5 in terms of competitiveness. This shouldn't be the end all, be all for which map should be removed but it does add context to what the teams think about each map. Here are the results of the 10 teams that responded to the poll:
The teams rank Rewind as the 2nd best competitive map in both Hardpoint and SND, where Skyline was voted the worst in each mode. Again, this isn't 100% for what should be removed but it offers good insight into how the teams view the maps and this data can be compared to the veto data. If this occurred, they would've seen that the data actually did not match up, therefore you can not solely make the decision off of vetoes.
The Call of Duty League is in a unique situation. The rules in the League are also followed in Ranked Play, Challengers, and any other competitive competition. The decisions being made have long-lasting effects that aren't just being felt by CDL players or teams. This is the reason why these decisions should be made with actual analytics & with as much information as possible so that the correct decision is made. Currently, players decide GAs on weapons, equipment, perks, and much more. That has been a major talking point in the community for weeks after the players banned snipers this season. The League solely decides on map set changes and the competitive format. Both are extremely flawed and should be changed so that the future of the esport can continue to grow & progress.
Players & teams are upset that they weren't able to have a voice in the map set changes, which is semi-ironic because that is the reason fans are upset with GAs and map set changes in ranked. The problem isn't that changes are being made, it's that one party is making the decisions that everyone has to follow. Instead, we need a competitive committee that takes into account what the players want, what the fans like to watch & play, and what the League wants. Currently, when one party is making these decisions, they are only looking at what they want. Players are thinking about what makes the game fun to play or weakening certain teams when voting on GAs, not making the esport better. The League isn't necessarily looking at what are the most competitive maps when making map set changes, just what is the most vetoed map. We need to have a committee that takes this all into account so that we can start to make compromises and get to the correct, informed decisions.
Who should be on the committee? In professional sports leagues, the competition committees consist of coaches, general managers, organizational presidents, or owners. Having retired professional players, personnel from League Ops, team general managers, and player representatives would make the most sense in forming a committee. This committee should make decisions on map set changes, and rulesets. In the future push feedback on the League format, technology, and more to ensure the League is moving in the correct path. This is NOT an article bashing the CDL or the personnel making these decisions, it is to help show that it was flawed this time around & should be improved the next time this situation arises.
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NHL Competition Committee (Hockey)
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