Secret slide canceling buff found in Black Ops Cold War Season 3 Reloaded update

Black Ops Cold War’s Season 3 Reloaded update came with a surprise buff to slide canceling, as players have quickly discovered that the movement mechanic is back in its original form.

Slide canceling has been bar none the most significant movement mechanic over the past few years in Call of Duty. Players are able to blitz across any given map much faster than usual by triggering a slide and canceling the animation part-way through.

As one of the more crucial elements to competitive play, it came as a huge surprise when Treyarch nerfed slide canceling back in April. Despite reverting the Cold War adjustments, the mechanic was noticeably different for the following month.

With the Season 3 Reloaded patch, a secret change has now come through, tweaking the slide cancel function once again. Now, it appears to be back in its original form and just as efficient as before.

Competitive veteran Christopher ‘Parasite’ Duarte was among the first to notice a secret change in the new update. Upon jumping into his first games on May 19, he soon realized that “slice cancel is instant again.”

In the official patch notes, however, there was no mention of any buffs for the mechanic. If anything, the only section on movement changes outlined a minor nerf. “The time it takes to crouch has been increased by 20ms,” Treyarch seemed to make clear in the hefty changes list.

Despite what was pushed through the notes, things are evidently different in-game. Eli ‘Standy’ Bentz of the Minnesota ROKKR also felt the difference when streaming on May 20.

• Read More: Warzone Season 3 Reloaded patch notes

“It’s how it used to be,” he said on the topic of slide canceling. “It’s the same slide, but instead of coming out into a crouch, you just stand up faster.”

The previous nerf was intended to cut down the mechanic, forcing players to complete the slide animation each time around. With this surprise change now in effect, that nerf is no longer relevant. 

• Read More: All buffs & nerfs in Black Ops Cold War Season 3 update

There’s no telling why this wasn’t addressed directly in the patch notes, or indeed if it ever will be either. However, there’s plenty that the devs did go into detail on. Be sure to brush up on the entire list of changes right here.