Scump admits he thinks Warzone “just isn’t” a competitive game

Brad Norton
Scump discussing Warzone

Despite the popularity of Warzone, Call of Duty icon Seth ‘Scump’ Abner argues that the battle royale isn’t a good fit for competitive play due to just how much is “left to chance.”

The battle royale genre is still relatively fresh in the grand scheme of the gaming industry. While the likes of Fortnite and PUBG before it found their footing with private lobbies for competitive events, Call of Duty’s take hasn’t quite found the same structure.

While custom games were introduced not too long ago, a majority of the top Warzone pros have stayed away from them. The kill-race format has become the standard and without having everyone in the same lobby, Scump doesn’t see competitive play being fair across the board.

“As much as I love Warzone and would love for it to be competitive, it’s just not,” he said during the December 29 OpTic podcast.

Warzone gameplay
Warzone has already seen millions in prizing but Scump believes the game is too RNG-based for proper competition.

“The tournaments are competitive because everyone in the tournament is really, really good,” Scump admitted. With many former pro players and popular content creators often filling out the biggest events. But in spite of the talent involved, “there’s just so much left to chance,” according to the king. “It’s literally RNG.”

Everything from the players you find in your lobby, to the loot on the ground, there’s a good amount of luck involved, as with nearly every battle royale. ““It’s literally, are you getting good lobbies, are you getting stream sniped?”

“There are so many layers of RNG and so many loopholes,” he added. “You can work the system.” Just recently, players came under fire for accusations of swapping regions to find easier lobbies. 

On top of that, but reverse boosting is also a thing.

“With skill-based matchmaking layered on top, that just adds another loophole.” Players can tank their performance for a few games before an event. Leading to much easier lobbies in their competitive run.

The relevant topic begins at the 11:30 mark below.

With all of these factors piling up, Scump can’t see a viable future for competitive Warzone. “I want it to succeed, but those tournaments man…”

Perhaps a switch to private lobbies could help the CoD BR find its footing. Though with the feature now readily available, it’s clear no one is all too eager to make that jump.

Despite millions in prizing going around every month, Warzone appears a little too luck-dependent for Scump’s liking.