Call of Duty’s map pool is a divisive subject, but Reverse Sweep’s Enable, Pacman and Katie Bedford all agree on one thing: bringing back classic maps is good for competitive CoD and the CDL.
With Modern Warfare, people complained about the map pool and doorway mechanics endlessly. Map concerns happen with every CoD and 2020’s Black Ops Cold War is no exception, leading the Call of Duty League to make some map pool adjustments already.
Nuketown is a beloved multiplayer map for casuals, while both Raid and Express – both originally released in 2012 – have been added to the CDL’s map rotation.
Emboldened by just how much people are loving the inclusion of these older maps, Enable and Pacman emphasized just how important it is to keep adding “classic maps,” breaking down which maps should come back and why.
Why every Call of Duty game should bring back old maps
Considering how well Express and Raid play in Black Ops Cold War, nearly a decade after their debuts, the crew takes things a step further. As Pacman explains, “Call of Duty should always, always release all of these classic maps … Standoff, Raid, Slums, whatever it may be, Terminal, all these maps should be on every game.”
This is a point Enable agrees, and elaborates on, specifying their competitive value: “Re-skinning old maps, old classic maps … the best competitive maps from past CoD titles. I think that’s actually good for the scene.”
While some of these maps might not work as well on each new CoD (e.g. Slums playing poorly on Black Ops 4, despite being great on BO2), the Reverse Sweep gang thinks the negatives are outweighed by the positives.
Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates on Esports, Gaming and more.
As Pacman concludes, Counter-Strike has been successfully using that same sort of model for a long time: “They’ve been playing Dust 2 for 74 years. People love the map, it’s still there. Give Call of Duty fans that option.”
Why the CDL needs more classic maps
Focusing on the CDL’s 2021 season, the gang argued for more classic maps getting added. While they agree that the new map, Apocalypse, is “very good” (and could be even better, if they adjust the P2 hill), the same sentiment doesn’t carry over to BOCW’s other new maps.
As Pacman colorfully reveals, “Checkmate SND is the worst thing I’ve ever seen in my life. It’s horrible.” And that leads directly into a point they all agree upon, which Enable summarizes concisely: the CDL “need a much bigger map pool.”
Although the SND map pool isn’t a disaster, the entire Reverse Sweep crew agrees that more maps are needed for Hardpoint. Considering how hard it is to create new competitive maps, they conclude that bringing back older, beloved maps would be a win-win for the CDL and casual community alike.
If you want to see more Reverse Sweep content from Enable, Pacman and Bedford — check out our Reverse Sweep page and YouTube channel.
