Black Ops 6 jumps the gun and drops Ranked Play early

Black Ops 6 Ranked Play goes live 24 hours ahead of schedule to give the game's most competitive players an even tougher challenge.

In previous years, the wait for Ranked Play to hit the latest Call of Duty title has been far too long, often arriving two or sometimes three months after launch. For a game with a typical shelf life of 12 months, it’s been pretty frustrating to deal with. Black Ops 6, however, is bucking that trend and has committed to launching its ranked experience within a month of the FPS game’s release date. Wanting to hammer home just how on the ball it is, Treyarch has just revealed that Black Ops 6 Ranked Play will actually be going live later today – that’s 24 hours earlier than first advertised.

While there have been a few complaints around Black Ops 6’s map design, the multiplayer experience on the whole has been very well-received so far – in my view, it’s the best and most enjoyable Call of Duty multiplayer we’ve had since Black Ops 4, which launched six years ago. While improving your K/D and calling in chopper gunners in casual multiplayer matches is all jolly good fun, dedicated and high-skill players need something a bit more competitive to sink their teeth into, and that’s where the FPS game‘s Ranked Play comes in.

Closely mirroring the same map pool, ruleset, and loadout restrictions that the professionals use in the Call of Duty League, Ranked Play is all about mastering Hardpoint, Control, and Search and Destroy in order to climb the rankings and earn unique rewards. Matchmaking is heavily skill-based, ensuring that you’re always playing against opposition that is of a similar rank and ability to yourself.

The CDL has already unveiled its initial map pool for each of the three game modes, and Ranked Play will also use this same selection – however, it is adding in a bonus Control map, Rewind, so that it can gather data from Ranked Play players and test its viability as a competitive map. Before each match, three possible maps for that mode will be presented, and each team can vote to veto one of them. Whichever map is left is the one that gets played. If two teams veto the same map, then one of the two remaining options will be randomly selected.

Among the long list of loadout restrictions, you’ll see weapons like the AS VAL, Tanto .22 banned alongside all rocket launchers, shotguns, and marksman rifles. Certain attachments are also outlawed for Ranked Play, including all suppressors, any thermal or night vision scopes, lasers, extended mags, and the Rapid Fire mod. The majority of scorestreaks, perks, and wildcards are also banned. It’s a much more pure and tactical Call of Duty experience compared to the chaos of casual lobbies.

Not wanting to keep you waiting any longer than you have to, Treyarch has just confirmed it’s dropping its competitive mode early.

Black Ops 6 Ranked Play goes live today, November 20. To unlock Ranked Play, you will need to have won 50 multiplayer matches. For the full list of rules, restrictions, maps, and more, head over to this blog post.

Expect the map pool and ruleset to evolve a lot over time as weapons get buffed and nerfed and new content is added to Black Ops 6. If getting super competitive is what you look for when gaming, you’ll find plenty of challenging titles on our lists of the best multiplayer games and the best free PC games.

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