A major exploit has surfaced in Modern Warfare which allows players to briefly locate the entire enemy team — and professional players are furious.
The exploit is one that originally dates back to MW2, an infamous exploit coined the ‘start glitch.’ It appears to have surfaced again in 2019’s Modern Warfare, allowing players to see enemy positions after dying.
Clearly, this is problematic not only in regular multiplayer games for casual players, but has a particular impact on professional play.
What is the start glitch in Modern Warfare?
Despite all of CoD pros’ best efforts to strive for competitive integrity in Modern Warfare with GAs, it appears that an exploit that allows players to see enemy positions by opening up the ‘Start’ menu during a killcam could be giving teams an unfair advantage.
The bug, which originally plagued competitive Call of Duty back in MW2, shows enemy locations on the minimap for the entire duration of the killcam — essentially granting them the ability to call out their positioning, while their opponent is none the wiser.
Enemy kills you, you watch the killcam for 5 seconds, during the killcam you hit start button, and you essentially see what would’ve been that persons(the opponents) minimap during him killing you. So you can callout his entire team.
— PATTYP (@ACHES) July 24, 2020
Given the potential implications of the exploit, former world champ, Austin ‘SlasheR’ Liddicoat, sent out a cryptic Tweet, asking which teams had been using the bug to gain the upper-hand throughout the season.
Ahh another glorious day of MW where something new pops up… So which teams have been doing the MW2 start glitch the entire year???
— SlasheR (@SlasheR_AL) July 24, 2020
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This led to a plethora of backlash from pros, with the likes of Dallas Empire’s James ‘Clayster’ Eubanks and London Royal Ravens’ Trei ‘Zer0’ Morris venting their frustration in the thread of replies.
heard about it today and you could say im not shocked one bit
— cartier (@Trei) July 24, 2020
According to CoD veteran, Patrick ‘ACHES’ Price, the exploit has been in the game since release, meaning that players have had the opportunity to gain an unfair advantage all season long.
With teams set to compete for the largest prize pool in Call of Duty history ($4.6 million) in less than one month’s time, players will be hoping that Infinity Ward finds a way to patch this exploit, given the obvious issues it presents.
After a series of patches, tweaks and Gentlemen’s Agreements (GAs), CDL players would be hoping to be playing a finely tuned, well-balanced game — especially considering the most lucrative tournament in Call of Duty history is just around the corner.
But aside from recent change in meta following the slight nerf to the most used weapon in the CDL (the MP5) coming slap bang in the middle of the season, players have also had to contest with the logistics of online play after only playing four Home Series events on LAN.
