Call of Duty Pro Octane Explains the Issue With Gentlemen’s Agreements in Competitive Gameplay

When there are millions of dollars on the line, the rules change completely. Competitive Esports titles like Call of Duty have a carefully curated set of rules. However, what makes it even more beautiful is the spirit and professionalism of players.

Most of the time, games and studios do not take into account the tournaments while rolling out updates. Therefore, it ends up severely affecting the competition. Moreover, there are also countless incidents when games have seen extremely powerful and unbalanced guns in the past.

To avoid unexpected changes and powerful weapons, professional Call of Duty players have an age-old tradition to maintain fairness. The ‘Gentlemen’s Agreement’ or GA is a majority vote that players take to decide if certain weapons or items are not viable for tournaments.

Based on this majority vote, they rule out such weapons and items from the competition and agree not to use them in games.

Why does Seattle Surge Octane feel GAs in Call of Duty tournaments are flawed?

The biggest flaw behind GAs is the subjectivity of the matter. Since it is the majority vote that decides whether tournaments will allow an item/weapon, there are often instances when GAs don’t present a clear picture.

For instance, the latest competitive ban on the AK-47 as a result of a GA has been hotly debated. While many believe that the weapon isn’t that powerful, a majority of professional players have snipers or SMGs as their preferred class. Therefore, a powerful AR is something they definitely don’t need in tournaments.

On the other hand, it took months to come to a GA on the 10mm ammo attachment on the MP5. Moreover, after various attachment bans, the AK-74u SMG is still able to run like an AR. Seattle Surge?Octane went over all these arguments in his recent video. He agreed that while conceptually, GAs are a boon to Call of Duty Esports, teams are not using them fairly.

While there have been some extremely crucial GAs in the past, sometimes players have also come up with some absurd ones. Octane feels the AK ban is one of them. However, he feels it is a necessary evil, or as he puts it, “a double-edged sword.” Therefore, for the time being, fans might not be able to see some of their favorite weapons in competitive Call of Duty.