ACHES explains his biggest issue with competitive CoD in Black Ops 4

Team Envy pro Patrick ‘ACHES’ Price has revealed the one overriding issue he has with Black Ops 4 competitive play, following the most recent update on December 3.

The update brought some minor tweaks to hardpoint spawns on maps Seaside and Hacienda, as well as unrestricting certain items from the CWL ruleset.

But, ACHES has an issue with one of the core gameplay features in use across regular multiplayer and competitive play – the ‘Fog of War’.

The Fog of War paints nearby enemies on the map.

Replacing the traditional mini-map indicators, which would place a red dot on the map when an enemy player fired their weapon, the Fog of War now reveals players on the map when in a teammate’s field of view.

• More: Players highlight major issue with off-center aim for snipers and reticles in Black Ops 4

It was a controversial change, initially because it gave players 360 degree coverage, which was later reduced to a cone-shaped view in front of players only.

While complaints from the casual community have died down, ACHES still feels that the Fog of War has no place in competitive play.

He isn’t the only professional player to feel this way either, as both 100 Thieves player Austin ‘SlasheR’ Liddicoat and Red Reserve’s Trei ‘Zer0’ Morris agreed.

SlasheR points out that it is “gifting free info”, the sort of which has never been granted before in competitive Call of Duty – and is one of the main reasons scorestreaks like UAV are restricted.

However, the Fog of War is one of Black Ops 4’s signature features, one that Treyarch has been keen to show off, and so, just like specialists, it is unlikely that they relent on its use in competitive.

• More: Black Ops 4 v1.08 update dropped on December 3 – Full patch notes

Perhaps they will look to restrict its effectiveness, tailoring it to competitive play, like has been done with certain specialist abilities.

For example, Recon’s ‘Sensor Dart’ has been reduced to only one ping in competitive play, and something similar could maybe be done with Fog of War.