The captain of OpTic Gaming’s Call of Duty roster, Seth ‘Scump’ Abner, has summarized his feelings about Black Ops 4’s new specialist, Zero, in a short but perfectly clear manner.
Professional players discussing whether certain weapons, items or aspects of a Call of Duty game are overpowered is nothing new, but Zero, the new specialist that was added to Black Ops 4 on December 1, doesn’t even seem to require a conversation.
Zero gives players the chance to use the ‘Disruptor’ EMP grenade, which renders nearby enemy equipment useless, and the ‘Icepick’, which is widely regarded as one of the most overpowered specialist abilities ever.
Icepick is a hacking ability that allows Zero players to hack into any enemy scorestreak and take control of it – something that has both the public and competitive CoD community’s up in arms due to the fact that a player who has earned no streaks can randomly take control of an Attack Chopper.
Scump, the 2017 Call of Duty world champion and one of the most decorated professional players in the franchise’s history, gave his verdict in a short Tweet on December 17: “Zero gotta go.”
Zero gotta go
— Seth Abner (@OpTic_Scumper) December 16, 2018
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It’s unclear whether the veteran player is talking about removing Zero from the competitive rule set or the game entirely, but some pro teams already appear to be discussing gentlemen’s agreements not to use it. Given the fact that he Tweeted it after day one of the CMG ProDown, we assume that Scump was referring to competitive play.
Gentlemen’s agreements have become a common theme in Call of Duty in recent years. When players believe an item is overpowered or unfair, they will often agree not to use it, even if the rules allow them to.
Of course, there’s always a chance that Treyarch have heard the complaints of the Call of Duty community at large and that they are already working a a nerf for Zero.
If that’s the case, we could see the Scump and other pro players, as well as casual fans, find a happy medium with the controversial new specialist.