Competitive Call of Duty has announced the switch to 5v5 via the esports reveal live stream of Black Ops 4. For the past decade the competitive version of Call of Duty has been 4v4, but that era has come to an end. Starting with Call of Duty Black Ops 4 esports will now be played 5v5 at the top level. Some believe the reason for the switch is because the game is looking to “catch up” to other esports titles. Majority of esports titles have more than 4 players on each team. For instance, Gears of War is 5v5, CSGO is 5v5, Rainbow Six competitive is 5v5 and so on. However, majority of those titles were built for esports, and build for that team size. We are yet to see how Call of Duty esports will play out as 5v5.
Official Announcement of Call of Duty esports 5v5:
Player Reactions to Call of Duty Switching to 5v5:
OpTic Scump is one of the most popular Call of Duty esports players:
5v5
— Seth Abner (@OpTic_Scumper) September 19, 2018
Aches is a veteran in the Call of Duty competitive scene who has a lot to say about the switch to 5v5:
With it going 5v5, that’s ending a 10 year era of 4v4 competitive COD. Exiting that era on top and beginning a new one. pic.twitter.com/SDj29MQYwf
— Patrick Price (@ACHES) September 19, 2018
Still annoyed that the prize pool was not significantly increased at all, it just was bumped to align with 5v5 which should’ve been done by default and no crowdfunding is again super disappointing when we’re the only title not to have it.
— Patrick Price (@ACHES) September 19, 2018
Attach is on one of the biggest Call of Duty esports teams FaZe clan:
5v5! Who’s trying to FaZe Up?
— FaZe Attach (@Attach) September 19, 2018
H3CZ is a father figure in the Call of Duty esports scene, oh & CEO of OpTic Gaming:
5V5 MAN!! JESUS, ITS ABOUT TO GET WILD.
— Hector Rodriguez (@OpTicH3CZ) September 19, 2018
Jason Lake the CEO of compLexity Gaming and long time supporter of Call of Duty esports excpresses his interest in the financial aspect of supporting a 5 player team.
With COD going 5v5 as rumored I sure hope there are plans to help teams better monetize the investment via in-game items, etc.
More meaningful efforts need to be made in this direction IMHO.#BlackOps
— Jason Lake (@JasonBWLake) September 19, 2018