We’re two weeks away from the biggest annual event in Call of Duty® history and Activision have announced that a new map by the name of ‘Drift’ will be added to the map rotation for the Call of Duty® Championship event.
Why have I never heard of Drift? Some of you competitive fans may not have heard of Drift and that’s because it is a DLC map. That’s right! In order to play the map Drift, you will have to purchase the ‘Havoc DLC’.
This is the first time in Call of Duty® history, that fan will witness a DLC map implemented into competitive Call of Duty®. This announcement came as a shock to everyone, especially the players who will be competing for that $1,000,000 and the title of “World Champion”, from March 27-29 from Los Angeles.
However, not only has Drift been added to the rotation, a map or two has also been removed out of the current map selection and this is what has happened;
- Bio Lab/Capture the Flag will be replaced with Drift/Capture the Flag
- Recovery/Search & Destroy will be replaced with Drift/Search & Destroy
Following the announcement, there was a lot of controversy within the community, with some competitive Call of Duty® fans and professional players questioning whether it would have been more appropriate to remove the Ascend from the Capture the Flag map rotation and Instead of Recovery, remove Terrace from the Search and Destroy map rotation.
Nevertheless, I believe it is time to take a competitive insight into the new Drift map. Drift consists of a Rocky Mountain ski resort, featuring a traditional three-lane setup which makes it an ideal map for competitive Call of Duty®.
Layout and Structure of the Drift Map
As you can see the Drift map is very detailed with several objects and obstacles – therefore it will be interesting to see how the Capture the Flag and Search & Destroy are played, simply due to the sheer amount of detail upon the map itself.
Although you can clearly see the three-lane setup that was mentioned earlier in the article, with the combination of the new movement mechanics and innovative team tactics, we’ll have to wait for the Call of Duty® Championship to see how professional Call of Duty® players will utilise the map to their advantage.
Ultimately, it will be great for the audience at home and spectators in the venue to see new strategies and gameplay being used in competitive Call of Duty®. In addition to this, long-term competitive fans will be presented with fresh concepts they have not seen in any previous competitive Call of Duty®: Advance Warfare event.
We here at Gfinity are even more excited than ever to see how Drift will be played at the Call of Duty Championship!
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