As part of the Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 Season 3 Reloaded update, Activision finally added a long-awaited Ranked mode. While the mode plays almost exactly like standard battle royale on Al Mazrah, it has a number of minor differences that give it an edge. Though there’s one feature in particular that stands out, as it fixes one of my biggest pet peeves in the battle royale genre.
In Ranked, players are discouraged from quitting partway through a match, giving squads a better chance of coming out on top. Placement is key in the mode, and you aren’t going to place high if your squad leaves you partway through. To support that idea, players are heavily penalized for quitting a match early. The whole premise of the mode is to climb the ranks, so it’s not worth losing Skill Rating (SR) points for quitting before the match is over.
The game doesn’t even give you the option to quit anyway. When you open up the settings menu, there is no option to quit the match. The only way to back out is if you close the application or disconnect, discouraging players from leaving their squadmates hanging.
It’s an excellent addition that actually leads to better results in-game. For example, my two squadmates were eliminated partway through a match, but both of them remained while I attempted to gather enough cash to bring them back. Eventually, after what felt like an eternity, I was finally able to buy both teammates back, and doing so led to us earning third place in the match.
If they hadn’t waited, we wouldn’t have placed so high in the match. In a normal game, players often quit as soon as they die, which leaves the remaining players in a terrible spot. Thankfully, Warzone Ranked has mitigated this pain point from standard battle royale, making it far more enjoyable for me already.
Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 is available now on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.
