Call of Duty legend Scump claims Warzone “already” killed CoD multiplayer
Call of Duty League / ActivisionOne of the most famous names in Call of Duty history, OpTic Gaming’s Scump has claimed that the Warzone battle royale is not a threat to ruin the multiplayer scene in the future — it already has.
Warzone debuted in March 2020 and has taken the cultural center stage ever since. In recent weeks, following a wildly successful World Series of Warzone tournament, a number of CDL pros have discussed the game’s place in CoD’s ecosystem at length.
Most recently, James ‘Clayster’ Eubanks, a three-time world champion, dove into how Warzone “is taking the f**k over” and how its growth comes at the detriment of the Call of Duty League’s.
A central reason? That the work and money being put into Warzone would go to multiplayer otherwise.
When Hector ‘H3CZ’ Rodriguez brought up Clay’s comments on a recent OpTic Podcast, Seth ‘Scump’ Abner doubled down on his peer’s sentiment.
As H3CZ brings up Clay’s suggestion that Warzone kill CoD multiplayer, Scump quickly lays down his perspective: “I’m gonna put it as lightly as possible: it already did.”
The pro then elaborated on why saying so isn’t a fineable offense and should just be seen as an obvious truth.
“It’s not like it’s not apparent to everybody. Look at Twitch for instance, look at the player base. Cold War has like 6K viewers, Warzone has minimum 100K all the time.”
Moving to numbers beside viewership, OpTic teammate Dylan ‘Envoy’ Hannon jumps on with another angle — noting that Warzone seems to have major tournaments every other day.
Dillon we held Red Reserve Reece, no vivid, to like $30k in 3 years, and now he goes to WZ and he’s COD4 Halifax? Spencer is gonna have him replace my specific banner position too and that’ll be never ending banter L for me in regards to that sea lion.
— FaZe Crimsix (@Crimsix) June 24, 2021
This point is one that has struck a nerve with other legendary CoD players as well, such as Ian ‘Crimsix’ Porter. The Dallas Empire pro took a keener interest in Warzone after the WSOW, particularly focused on former pro Rhys ‘Rated’ Price’s earnings in Warzone.
If players like Rated are making over $200,000 in a year of Warzone winnings, it’s clear that there is big money and attention for the scene. Scump has no issue with that side of things, but does use the cash flow as an example of the battle royale’s growing grip on the CoD community.
What Scump does have an issue with is the state of the current multiplayer experience in Black Ops Cold War.
Citing issues in the ranked play system alongside map frustrations, the pro explained that MP CoD will only be able to compete with BR CoD when more work is put into the multiplayer competitive experience.