Treyarch makes adjustment to sniper rifles for Call of Duty esports

Treyarch has revealed plans to remove aim assist from sniper rifles in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Ranked Play mode.

The change will mirror the rules and restrictions used in the Call of Duty League (CDL) and Call of Duty Challengers circuits.

While teams opted to restrict the use of sniper rifles in competitive play, the decision was quickly reversed after it was revealed that aim assist for the category can be switched off, creating a skill gap among players using the rifle in Search and Destroy matches.

Aim assist remains an integral mechanic of the Call of Duty franchise, helping players keep track of targets by providing automatic rotational adjustments. For Black Ops 7, changes to rotational aim assist have reduced its effectiveness, but it remains strong when using a sniper.

In addition to the CDL adopting sniper rifles without aim assist, Treyarch will make the same change to Black Ops 7 Ranked Play to ensure the mode follows the same restrictions featured at the highest level.

“We’ll be disabling sniper auto aim in Ranked to match the new CDL settings in an upcoming update,” said Lawrence Metten, Associate Director, Design at Treyarch, on social media.

With sniper rifles remaining in the weapon pool following the Season 2 update, the competitive meta remains unchanged, with players continuing to use the VS Recon alongside the Dravec 45 submachine gun and the M15 MOD 0 assault rifle.

With minimal changes to the maps and weapons used in Call of Duty esports, the community’s attention turns to the online qualifiers for the second Major of the season.

Taking place from February 13th to March 22nd, the six weeks of online qualifiers determine which of the ten teams book their places at the Major 2 LAN taking place as part of DreamHack Birmingham from March 27th to 29th.

Teams seeded seventh to tenth will compete in the Play-Ins to earn a place in the double-elimination playoff bracket, where the remaining teams compete for the lion’s share of a $365,000 (~£267,570) prize pool.