Call of Duty League makes massive map pool changes ahead of Major 3 Qualifiers

After a successful trial run, the Call of Duty League will officially add two new Modern Warfare 3 maps ahead of Major 3 Qualifiers.

The Call of Duty League confirmed that Vista and 6 Star will replace Invasion and Skidrow in Hardpoint moving forward. Additionally, 6 Star is set to replace Terminal in Search and Destroy. These changes will go into effect when Major 3 Online Qualifier matches kick off on Friday, April 12.

Community members partially have themselves to thank for the change, as Modern Warfare 3 hosted a public playtest for Vista and Departures from March 25 through March 29 to test both maps in every competitive game mode. The devs explained that they would use feedback and data to determine if both maps would be added to the current map pool. There was enough positive reception for Vista to get added officially, but Departures didn’t get enough support from players or pros to make the cut. Players had plenty of time to test Vista and Departures, as they were added by Season 2, but it’s very surprising that 6 Star got added so quickly, only after just being added in the season three update on April 3.

Previously, community members didn’t think the CDL could add new maps immediately following an update after Call of Duty League senior manager Spencer Peterson confirmed that none of the season two maps could be added to the professional map pool until after Major Two, even though pros had several weeks to test Vista and Departures. Either way, community members will be happy to see that the league officials had a change of heart. Replacing Skirdrow in Hardpoint and Terminal from Search and Destroy is arguably long overdue. The second Hardpoint hill on Skidrow is one of the hardest points in the game to retake, and Terminal’s unconventional map layout strayed to far from the traditional three-lane system.