For all the hours I've poured into Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 since it launched, the singular mode I haven't yet touched is Ranked Play in Warzone. That's mostly because I haven't played enough to qualify, but that requirement at least is now getting easier.
The latest update to Warzone deployed two changes, one of which is that Ranked Play now only requires you to have hit the placement marks in 20 matches, not 30.
📢 #Warzone We will be deploying an update shortly with the following changes:• The cost of custom weapons in the buy station has been adjusted based on number of attachments:- 0-5: $2500- 6: $5500- 7: $6500- 8: $8000• The number of placement matches required to…December 14, 2024
Without actually saying as much, I'm pretty convinced that this change is an effort to juice up the Ranked Play lobbies. While I've not been playing myself, I have been watching a number of content creators streaming it, and their wait times are absolutely ridiculous.
A couple of days ago the team said they were investigating this issue and that in most cases it had to do with "squads having large differences in rank brackets." Simply put, though, Warzone Ranked Play needs more players to fill out the lobbies. Unfortunately, the rampant cheaters now have an easier way back in.
Placement counts as top 15 on Urzikstan (also referred to as "big map") and top 6 on the two Resurgence maps, Rebirth Island and Area 99. To simply complete your placement requirements, it's almost certainly quicker to go the Resurgence route.
The other big change made is that buying weapons from the buy stations has now been amended, and scales up based on how many attachments you have on it. If you're running a full slate of eight, you'll now have to drop $8,000 on it. Then again, you can get a loadout drop in solos or squads not a huge mark away from this, so it's unlikely to slow down the very best players, anyway.
That task will belong to the cheaters. The thing everyone really wants fixing.
