When thinking of our next topic for State of the Community, we thought that Call of Duty deserved some of our attention. Accordingly, with the new season and the new game, there has already been a tonne of improvement from last season. However, one issue which remains is the discussion over CoD Gentlemen’s Agreements. If you’re unaware, we’ve got an entire discussion below for you!

What is a Gentlemen’s Agreement?

According to the internet, here’s a standard definition of a ‘Gentlemen’s Agreement’:

A gentlemen’s agreement is an informal and legally non-binding agreement between two or more parties. It is typically oral, but may be written or simply understood as unspoken agreement by convention or though mutually-beneficial etiquette. The essence of a gentlemen’s agreement is that it relies upon the honor of the parties for its fulfillment, rather than in being in any way enforceable.

Webster Dictionary

Keep the above definition in mind, as it will help in understanding the entire situation.

CoD Gentlemen’s Agreements – The Good

As an esport, Call of Duty changes every year thanks to a new game with new in-game mechanics. What doesn’t change is the fact that CoD is primarily an arcade shooter. Accordingly, not every gameplay feature is entirely fair and should definitely not be involved in competitive play.

That’s where CoD Gentlemen’s Agreements come into play. Accordingly, usually the professional players get together in one shape or form and agree on certain maps, guns and in-game mechanics such as abilities which should not be used. Reasons could be due to affecting specific roles, poor viewership experience, cheap tactics and moreso. A term which is thrown around a lot is ‘competitive integrity’.

Here are a few things that CoD Gentlemen’s Agreements have helped solve for this year specifically with Cold War:

• Banning the use of the current weapons: Sniper Rifles, AK-47, XM4, KSP 45
• Disallowing attachments such as: Thermal sights, all Body attachments and others
• Setting the score of scorestreaks to higher point thresholds to prevent spamming
• Disabling settings such as Auto Tac Sprint to prevent unfair movement advantage to SMGs

As you can see, all of these have served a role to shape up how the game plays right now. With regards to maps, that is moreso entirely up to the event organizers to communicate with the players on what is and what isn’t working.

Despite how helpful they can be, there is reasonable doubts and disdain over the use of CoD Gentlemen’s Agreements.

CoD Gentlemen’s Agreements – The Bad

I’ll be presenting the points of contention through a bullet point list:

• Lack of enforcement – with hundreds of thousands of dollars on the line, the lack of enforcement definitely makes a GA more of a recommendation. While it is very rare for a professional to break a GA due to the potential repercussions, young aspiring players in lesser divisions with nothing to lose have, in the past, intentionally broken GAs in order to gain an advantage

• A lack of purely impartial decision making – think about it; if you’re an SMG player who’s finding a lot of success recently, you’ll naturally be against a particular SMG GA and if you’re a struggling AR player, you’ll be all for it. Furthermore, if your team is finding great success in a current meta, you’ll be opposed to any shifting changes which might make staying at the top harder. Since the players decide, it’s impossible to form a completely objective opinion – this is where the greatest contention lies with players accusing one another of abusing GAs to their advantage

• They shouldn’t exist – in essence, all of this discussion and arguing should not take place in the first place. Yes, while there are good intentions between the players to make a fairer game, such decisions should be in the hands of the developers and event organizers to make it fair.

Concluding Thoughts

While I’ve entirely focused on the Call of Duty side of things, I’m certain that the concept of GA’s isn’t exclusive to this scene. Regardless, the principle points remain. Indeed, the intention to make the game more ‘competitively viable’ is great, but such powerful decisions should not be taken by the same people competing for the big money.

In my opinion, a board of impartial Call of Duty experts who are not actively competing or affiliated could solve this ongoing issue.

However, at the end of the day, the community doesn’t necessarily care. All we want to do is watch the best players of the world go toe-to-toe – the details aren’t all that important.