While Back Ops 4 brings some relative novelties to the CWL scene in terms of new specialist abilities and equipment, specialists themselves are not new to the competitive Call of Duty scene and ultimately are not unique to Black Ops 4. While Black Ops 4 may not provide novelty via its gameplay, the game has added its own original feature via the new game mode control.

Control, which joins the list of game modes added to the Call of Duty franchise over time, has also been added to the Call of Duty Pro League playlist for the 2019 season. It takes the place of gridiron, which was featured in the 2018 CWL after being introduced in Call of Duty: World War II.

Control is an entirely new game mode which pulls from aspects of past and present modes to create a multi-faceted, strategic mode that is perfect for the competitive scene. Essentially a mix between hardpoint and team deathmatch, control forces teams and players to respect the importance of each life, as they only get 30 respawns before losing the round automatically.

This forced appreciation of each life means that, unlike hardpoint where players on a team will repeatedly rush the hill to stop the opposing team from scoring points, players in control are forced to take a more strategic approach each time they attack or defend, as they are not only fighting time, but their amount of respawns as well.

This two-sided aspect of control is essentially what makes it so intense and interesting, as players are now required to think more carefully about their pushes, making the competitive game mode much more interesting to watch and analyze.

While control is novel in its approach, it is not perfect, as it is far easier to be the defending team than the team on offense. Given that in control the spawns do not flip, it is very easy for the defending spawn trap the offenders and quickly slice a hole in the amount of respawns they have for the remainder of the round.

Although the game mode has it’s fair share of problems, control has proven to be a great addition to the CWL set of game modes. Along with hardpoint and search and destroy, control is one of only three game modes that will be featured in this years CWL. Having already produced many exciting games in the CWL Qualifiers, it will be interesting to see whether Treyarch makes any changes to the mode in order to add balance.

To see control played in the most competitive settting, tune in to the CWL Qualifiers, currently taking place in Columbus, Ohio. The tournament is being live streamed on the Call of Duty Twitch channel or majorleaguegaming.com.

Image Via: Dexerto