While Call of Duty‘s biggest appeal in the past has been its esteemed multiplayer, Treyarch’s newest addition to the Black Ops series is taking a considerably different approach. Although Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 will still keenly focus on its multiplayer aspect, Blackout, its expansion into the battle royale genre, is clearly receiving the majority of the game’s publicity. Similar to arguably the two most popular battle royales thus far, Fortnite and PUBG (Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds), Blackout drops players onto an island as they duke it out so that only one may survive.
Interestingly enough, with a month left until the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, the first Blackout tournament has already been announced. Dubbed the ‘Doritos Bowl’, this tournament will be held during TwitchCon on October 27. Despite the lack of details concerning the tournament, earlier today Doritos did, however, tweet out the four team captains and their selected teams. Professional streamers Tyler Blevins (Ninja), Jack Dunlop (CouRageJD), Michael Grzesiek (Shroud), and Ben Lupo (DrLupo) have been selected as the four team captains.
Our Doritos Bowl teams are getting their first taste of the Blackout mode in Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 to prepare for the big showdown on October 27. Watch them play the Beta RIGHT NOW, and see full team rosters at https://t.co/kStyxlPppl pic.twitter.com/74MLD2nbJf
— Doritos (@Doritos) September 14, 2018
Of all the streamers, the selection of Ninja as a captain makes the most sense. Having broken multiple Twitch records, there is little that can go wrong when inviting him to compete in the Doritos Bowl. Since Ninja’s name is so highly revered in the Twitch and battle royale community, this event is sure to introduce many new players to the game. While he played Halo competitively years ago, some, if not most, of Ninja’s success is owed to the success of Fortnite, and vice versa.
The introduction of a battle royale game mode is a risky move by Treyarch. Although the battle royale genre is trending right now, the cost of adding Blackout is the lack of a campaign, for the time being. After the announcement of Blackout, however, the developers did mention the possibility of a post-launch campaign.
Initial backlash was and is to be expected, yet Treyarch appears to be handling it well. Ultimately, the amount of long-lasting backlash will come down to whether Blackout is worth playing. Judging by player reactions and beta feedback, the general consensus has shown it is relatively satisfied with the beta so far. This is a good sign for Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 and Treyarch, but there can be no final verdict until the game fully releases in a month.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 releases for PS4, Xbox One, and PC on October 12, 2018.
Source: VentureBeat