Call of Duty Vanguard has been out for about a month now, giving the community time to wrap their head around their feelings about the game. Now that the honeymoon phase is up, it looks like some Vanguard pro players are none too happy with the current state of the game. 

The Call of Duty Vanguard pro players are generally unhappy with the state of the competitive scene, as seen in some recent tweets that were shared across Twitter lately. It all started, though, with a tweet from Hitch of OpTic Gaming, the creative director for the organization and a content creator himself.

Hitch posted about how Call of Duty Vanguard so far has been a “complete spit in the face to competitive Call of Duty.” That is quite the bold statement from the OpTic creative director and one that certainly shows that he is none too happy with the competitive scene right now. 

He continued with his disappointment, noting that he would much rather have a press release from Activision being honest about how it no longer cares “about the future of the esport” than what we have right now. That, too, shows just how disappointed he is in the latest Call of Duty game. 

He ended his rant on Twitter by noting that this was once the “most-watched console esport in the world.” This is likely implying how far the massive annualized series has fallen, at least in terms of competitively, for this to be the case now where Vanguard is such a disappointment. 

Hitch is an important figure in the esports industry as the creative director for OpTic Gaming, one of the most exciting teams of the 2022 Call of Duty League season, but he is not currently a player. That is where the rest of the community came in as some of the most beloved CDL players noted their disdain for the latest Call of Duty game. 

It began with Octane, a current player for the Los Angeles Thieves, who posted that he would have tweeted this himself, but Activision has his “bank on speed dial.” He notes that had he publicly said something like this statement, it would have been considered breaking the rules and he would have been fined for it.

This is a common occurrence in the Call of Duty League as it is against the rules for players to talk bad about the game they are already playing, sharing that sentiment results in a penalty where they are charged money from the publisher for what they said. 

And it did not end with the fairly vocal Octane, either, as others in the industry spoke out, including the former New York Subliners pro player and current FaZe Clan content creator ZooMaa. They just said, “Preach” in response, and that was it. 

JKap, one of the best Call of Duty players and currently the lead coach for the LA Thieves, had a similar response. These personalities likely kept their responses to a minimum, likely since they did not want to get fined. 

Then there was a tweet from Abezy, the current world champ of Call of Duty over at Atlanta FaZe, who just said that “this game is depressing.” Technically, he did not say what game he was referring to, so he can probably get away with it, but we all know that it is, without a doubt Vanguard.

It did not stop there, either, as Hitch noted in a later tweet that he would give just about anything to spawn on Highrise again for a match of competitive Capture the Flag. Highrise is, of course, a classic Modern Warfare 2 map that has not been featured in too many games. 

Skyrise is the Advanced Warfare remake of the map from, ironically, Sledgehammer Games. It is also currently available in Call of Duty Mobile, so the latter is technically a place that Hitch could play it right now.

The point is that he would like to play that competitive map in Capture the Flag right now, which the timing is impeccable. Much of the discourse surrounding the Call of Duty Vanguard pro players being unhappy with the game likely comes down to some factors. 

There is the fact, for instance, that Control is all but confirmed at this point to be the third and final competitive mode for Vanguard’s CDL 2022 season and the Ranked Play. This is not unexpected but a bit disappointing for those hoping for the grand return of Capture the Flag in competitive.

The comeback of Control for the second season in a row may be a huge factor for why the Call of Duty Vanguard pro players are not happy with the state of the competitive game. This is understandable, but it could also have to do with the fact that there are myriad issues with the game.

For one, it is essentially a repeat of the Modern Warfare 2019 mechanics, which is not a great return for some. It is also the return to the World War II setting, which was already not too loved when WWII came out in 2017. There is a chance that some pro players are unhappy with that. 

And then there is the fact that Control just came out. It feels like the game’s competitive side is being haphazardly handled. After all, this is another year in which Ranked Play is not at launch, making it seem like the developers and Activision are not taking competition as seriously as they should. We will have to wait and see how it all pans out as, unfortunately, there is still much about the upcoming CDL season that is still unknown.