100 Thieves’ Tommey explains why Warzone private matches don’t work

Private lobbies were a highly-requested feature since Warzone launched in March, however, they haven’t quite gone over well in the community as 100 Thieves player Thomas “Tommey” Trewren explains why they’re “not great for competing.”

Since the latest Call of Duty battle royale dropped, there’s been one consistent method of competition: Kill-races. In this format, players rush to find as many eliminations as possible in a single lobby. More often than not, duos are put together, dropped in as a squad, and have to race for kills against each other in the same lobby.

While kill-races have been exceedingly popular, with dozens of high-stakes tournaments adopting the format since launch, there was always the possibility of custom games in the back of our minds. What would it look like when the world’s best players all drop into the same instance of Verdansk?

Well, a few weeks after private lobbies were added in beta form, not much has changed. Kill-races are still the go-to for comp Warzone. Tommey, one of the highest-earning competitors in the scene, has explained why this is the case.

“Warzone is very easy to play,” he said in a November 30 tweet. Comparing it to Fortnite and how the competitive scene immediately took to custom games and never looked back, Tommey outlined how the games are vastly different. “You cannot build your way through zones and outplay with crazy mechanics.”

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In Warzone, you’re stuck on the ground. There’s no lightning-fast mechanics to get you out of a pickle. As a result, “if you’re crossing anywhere in the open against any good player or team, you’re dead,” he explained. 

“It’s fun to mess around with for sure, it’s not great for competing. The best format for competitive Warzone to watch and compete is 2v2. Same lobby, same opportunities, same people to kill. It lowers the RNG. If you ask any actual top player on Warzone, they’ll agree.”

The Call of Duty League hosted a few private matches earlier in the year before the feature was available to the public. Since then, however, kill-races have remained the norm. Despite private lobbies finally coming to the game, no major tournaments outside of the CDL have utilized the feature just yet.

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“I’d have loved for customs to actually work and be exciting to play but it just simply doesn’t,” Tommey added. “There’s very little outplay potential.”

Perhaps things might change down the line with some more settings to experiment with. Everything from circle timing to loot around the map, being able to adjust all aspects of private lobbies could lead to a more enticing state of affairs.

But for the time being, it doesn’t seem like we’ll be moving away from kill-race tournaments anytime soon.