CoD Vanguard’s movement has pros scared of thumb injuries & broken controllers

As Call of Duty’s movement mechanics continue being difficult, CDL pros are fearing for their thumbs and controllers — calling for a controversial change to league rules due to Vanguard’s intensity.

It was a whole thing in CoD: Modern Warfare 2019. Whether you followed the competitive Call of Duty League scene or simply browsed Google and Reddit, good movement has been mechanically intensive and the subject to much scrutiny.

For casuals, controllers broke left and right as analog sticks couldn’t keep up with the usage needed for proper slide-cancels. In the CDL, where pros agreed on Gentleman’s Agreements to ban Auto-Tac Sprint because of how easily it allowed you to slide-cancel, pros’ thumbs and controllers suffered massively.

Built on MW19’s engine, the issue hasn’t gone away with 2022’s Vanguard. And it’s gotten so rough that the game’s best are considering doing away with their ban in order to protect thumbs and sticks.

While Doug ‘Censor’ Martin isn’t currently on a CDL roster, the CoD vet raises the discussion most expansively — noting that ATS should be allowed in order to save thumbs and controllers from getting “torched.”

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And that’s not him just being an old man, either, as young stars like Anthony ‘Shotzzy’ Cuevas-Castro and Eli ‘Standy’ Bentz seem to agree that it’s time to change GA’s.

With Shotzzy, known for his unparalleled movement, complaining about his thumb after one hour and Standy, known as the best rookie SMG, calling for ATS to be allowed — the situation is interesting.

As Censor explained, Vanguard’s movement is much like MW19 and Black Ops Cold War’s in that it requires a lot of left-stick usage to perfect. With that being the case, the mechanical intensity is partially saved by ATS, which allows you to sprint without double-clicking the stick.

• Read more: CoD Vanguard players already want “annoying” Field Upgrade removed

For now, the game is still in Beta and no one knows if the movement will be tweaked by launch or the season’s start. But, if it’s not touched, pros may want to enable ATS just to give their thumbs and controllers some support.