Nick ‘NICKMERCS’ Kolcheff admits he has no plans to return to Warzone permanently, declaring he’s “done” with the game despite this week’s Caldera update finally giving Call of Duty’s battle royale a long-waited makeover.
Twitch fans have been begging NICKMERCS to return to Warzone for months now, after he abandoned the Call of Duty battle royale for Apex Legends.
That wait, it seems, will continue on indefinitely.
NICKMERCS is returning to Warzone this week, but has confirmed it’s only a short-term comeback. The Twitch star has made it very clear he thinks the Call of Duty battle royale is “done,” and won’t roll back his decision to jump ship for the franchise’s arch-rival, Apex Legends.
“Listen, I don’t want anyone to get mad, but I’m going back to Call of Duty again, and I want to make my intentions clear,” he explained. “I have big plans for Apex Legends. I’m just playing Warzone this week.”
Caldera — Warzone’s new Vanguard map — may be luring Kolcheff back, but he’s made it clear it’s an “in-and-out” return, not a permanent stay.
“I do want to go back and play Call of Duty again. I miss playing with Cloakzy and Tim, all those guys, and it’s really fun playing CoD in general too,” NICKMERCS said.
“It’s a great game. The cheating’s out of control, that’s a big issue, yeah, but in general, Warzone is a beautiful game. I’m really excited for the island map [Caldera] and I really, really want to go try it. So I’m going to go do that. It doesn’t mean I’m not done with it beyond that though.
“I’m going to play some Warzone, yes, for a couple of days. Don’t think for a moment that means I’m going back to play CoD though, every day. That’s not what it’s going to be. There’s too many issues there for that to last.
“I want to be very transparent, before we open doors back to Call of Duty. I’m going to play what I want to, what I’m actually f**king into. And that’s not Warzone.”
NICKMERCS then turned his attention to his Twitch fanbase, and their near-constant demands for him to go back to Verdansk in the half a year since he quit.
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“It’s crazy man, motherf**kers don’t want you to play what you want to enjoy anymore,” Twitch’s superstar streamer said. “If you pop off on a game, they expect you to play that game, just that game, for the rest of time.
“It’s such an odd thing about gaming communities.
“I used to be all Warzone, yes, and we all know that. But that game, I think, is done. I also used to be all Fortnite too, and all Gears of War before that. Heck, before that it was Uno and Monopoly,” he continued, laughing. “There’s been so many chapters to this stream, I don’t know how y’all think it goes.
“You can’t stay in eighth grade forever, you have to graduate. I don’t plan on returning to Warzone. I don’t want to play one game for the rest of my life.”
Related segment begins at 2:07 in the video below.
The biggest argument against NICKMERCS sticking with Apex Legends long-term and avoiding Warzone has been that his Twitch numbers would take a hit.
The 31-year-old says none of that matters to him.
“I’ve always been a guy that, I don’t live and die by my numbers, but I’m proud of my numbers. Some people don’t give a f**k. I definitely care… When Warzone was at its max, viewership was crazy for everybody, not just me. We were hitting 80,000 viewers playing pubs with Tim. 80k was a normal Tuesday.
“Apex is just point blank not as popular [as Warzone]. It’s not as big as Call of Duty,” he added. “And so, viewership may be down, yes, but we’re still crushing it.”