Professional Call of Duty veteran James ‘Clayster’ Eubanks has explained why allowing mouse and keyboard players couldn’t work in competitive CoD, when compared with other esports such as Fortnite.
The debate surrounding console vs PC is showing no signs of slowing down, and continues to permeate a number of esports. While certain esports, like Fortnite, see controller players come up against mouse and keyboard (MKB), Call of Duty has been exclusively console for its professional scene since it exploded in popularity during Black Ops 2.
Clayster, two-time world champion and AR for Dallas Empire, has weighed in on the debate of controller and PC being combined, as they are in Fortnite, explaining why MKB players would possess an insurmountable advantage in Call of Duty.
Competitive Call of Duty was played exclusively on Xbox consoles, until Sony splashed out and obtained exclusive rights for PlayStation. This saw all competitive players transition to playing on PS4s, as they will continue to do in the inaugural CDL season.
On November 9, Reddit user TanaerSG asked the question: “Why is MKB not allowed to compete in CoD and why are MKB players shunned?”, pointing out that it works well in Fortnite.
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Clayster himself responded, explaining that it is mainly down to the time to kill (TTK) differences in the various titles.
“In Fortnite, you have a chance to build, have 200 HP, do any number of things to disengage and reset,” he said. “In CoD, with the TTK being so fast, M&KB players have a SIGNIFICANT advantage, not only with being able to react faster and more precise but in terms of FPS and FOV as well.”
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Call of Duty TTKs are famously fast, fitting with the respawn, fast-paced nature of the games. Infinity Ward games in particular – as Modern Warfare is – have been known to have incredibly quick TTKs.
Clayster concluded: “You give Shroud and Skadoodle a month in a competitive CoD team with a M&KB and they’ll be pulling stuff off you’ve never seen any console player do, and they’d dominate, bad.”
Shroud is an ex-CS:GO professional, often dubbed “the human aimbot” thanks to his incredible accuracy on a wide variety of games. Clayster clearly thinks if he was a professional CoD player on MKB, he would have no trouble dominating the competitive scene.
The inaugural CDL season will kick off in January 2020, seeing the newly formed franchises go head to head in an unprecedented level of competition.
Despite a few years of struggle from Black Ops 3 to WWII, Black Ops 4 saw Clayster return to the very top of pro Call of Duty, winning a world championship on eUnited. He will be hoping to replicate this level of success on Dallas, alongside new teammates Crimsix, iLLeY, Huke and Shotzzy.