Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 has new competitive features for the eSport crowd

News by Stephany Nunneley-Jackson Former News Editor

Published on Aug. 5, 2015

As part of today’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 Global eSports reveal at gamescom, Treyarch detailed some of the new competitive features launching with the PS4, Xbox One, and PC versions of the game.

Black Ops 3 will introduce a re-imagined ranked play system, along with expanded control over the types of weapons, gear, and Specialists, along with numerous upgrades to CODcasting.

The game will also contain a new Arena system for ranked competitive play, where consecutive wins earn players into progressively higher ranks up to the elite Masters Division.

Below you can read up on everything there is to know about the Specialists, the new Bans and Protects system, the CODcaster Mode and the return of Uplink mode, straight from the horse's mouth.

Specialists - Introduces a new dynamic to multiplayer with powerful weapons and abilities that can be earned over the course of a match. The Specialist Draft is a pre-match selection process, designed for Arenas and tournaments, in which each team is allowed no more than one of each Specialist weapon or ability, encouraging teams to plan each player’s role strategically for the mode of play.

The new Bans and Protects system - Creates a meta-game around selection of content. With this system, each player gets one (or multiple) votes that they can use to either ban or protect a specific piece of content from Create-a-Class, Scorestreaks or Specialists. This adds a new layer of strategy to competition, while supporting the empowerment of competitive organizations and individuals to restrict content based on their own tournament guidelines.

CODcaster Mode - Black Ops 3 brings big changes for commentators and viewers. Casters can specify which settings they want to use when the game starts in the pre-game lobby and change the settings in-game as well. Also for casters, the new Quick Settings menu grants access to the most commonly used caster tools on the fly, allowing for speedy changes to be made right in the middle of the action. For spectators, watching competitive Call of Duty is about the teams. Casters can now specify team names and primary team colors - overriding the default, in-game faction names. Additionally, the loadout widget has been overhauled to allow casters to visually illustrate details about specific players’ loadouts and equipment configurations. Black Ops 3 also supports recent innovations in Call of Duty such as full-screen view and X-Ray mode.

Uplink mode - Black Ops 3 marks the return of fan favorite competitive modes including the fast and frenetic Uplink, where players face-off in an effort to send a satellite careening into the enemy’s goal. Additionally, perennial favorite modes Search and Destroy, Capture the Flag and Hardpoint are set to make their return as part of the Black Ops 3 multiplayer mix.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 will release on November 6 for PC, PlayStation 3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One.