Call it coincidence or excellent timing, but the team at Treyarch introduced some new features for the competitive multiplayer of the upcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, giving it some similarities to the popular MOBA, Dota 2, which is currently in the middle of its fifth annual championship tournament called "The International."
In a way, it's another part of the match, not only for the viewers to interact with what's happening on the screen, but it also adds a little bit of strategy to the game. These changes come in the form of bans and protects, a Specialist draft, and editing loadouts, all before the game even starts.
With bans and protects, each player from both teams can ban a specific weapon, streak rewards, attachments, or equipment. However, a player can also protect one item in those categories, saving it from a future ban. This gives the team an idea of their opponents' preferences in the game.
In addition, Black Ops 3 includes Specialists, characters that have a unique set of weapons and abilities. With the Specialist draft, each member of your team must have a different unique weapon and ability. This ensures that teammates aren't using the same powers in a one-two punch to easily take out enemies.
After the bans and protects have been issued and the Specialists are picked, players will then finally be able to set up their custom loadouts and killstreaks. This ensures that once the map is loaded and the countdown ends to start the game, everyone starts running instead of sitting around and finishing their setups.
However, teams aren't the only ones getting upgrades. For those who are providing commentary, their screens, which are also seen by the viewers, will now have an easily accessible widget at the bottom of the display that shows each players' name, weapons, abilities and streaks. This gives commentators, or shoutcasters as they are normally called in eSports, a quick heads-up on vital information to give viewers a more detailed description of what's happening on the screen.
Although these might just sound like features only for the professional teams, casual players at home can set up their games in the same way through the lobby settings. You can toggle which new system will be used, and how much time is allotted for the voting process. If anything, it will provide a new twist in your online matches with friends, giving each player a new chance to step out of their comfort zone and try out new combinations for each game.
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