Greetings from Gamescom!

We’re here at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany to share more information about our eSports agenda. In fact, we just wrapped a livestream with ESL where we put many of our eSports features on display. Hopefully, you were able to tune in – if not, we’d like to bring you up to speed.

The competitive agenda has been something that we’ve felt passionately about very early on: we allowed players to stream video from the game, we introduced CODcaster tools and special displays and views, we gave viewers the chance to “Listen In” on the action and – among other things – we introduced fans to League Play and the idea of a persistent competitive Call of Duty environment.

We went after it so hard on Black Ops 2 that we knew that we had to bring it on Black Ops 3 – here’s a little bit about what we have in store:

• Arena is the Black Ops III system for ranked competitive play, where consecutive wins earn players into progressively higher ranks up to the elite Masters Division.
• The new Bans and Protects system creates a meta-game around selection of content. With this system, each player gets one (or multiple) votes that they can use to either ban or protect a specific piece of content from Create-a-Class, Scorestreaks or Specialists. This adds a new layer of strategy to competition, while supporting the empowerment of competitive organizations and individuals to restrict content based on their own tournament guidelines.
• Specialists introduce a new dynamic to multiplayer with powerful weapons and abilities that can be earned over the course of a match. The Specialist Draft is a pre-match selection process, designed for Arenas and tournaments, in which each team is allowed no more than one of each Specialist weapon or ability, encouraging teams to plan each player’s role strategically for the mode of play.
• Black Ops III brings big changes to the CODcaster Mode for commentators and viewers.  Casters can specify which settings they want to use when the game starts in the pre-game lobby and change the settings in-game as well.  Also for casters, the new Quick Settings menu grants access to the most commonly used caster tools on the fly, allowing for speedy changes to be made right in the middle of the action.
• For spectators, watching competitive Call of Duty is about the teams. Casters can now specify team names and primary team colors - overriding the default, in-game faction names.  Additionally, the loadout widget allows casters to visually illustrate details about specific players’ loadouts and equipment configurations. Black Ops III also supports recent innovations in Call of Duty such as full-screen view and X-Ray mode.

Additionally, Black Ops III marks the return of fan favorite competitive modes including the fast and frenetic Uplink mode, where players face-off in an effort to send a satellite careening into the enemy’s goal. Additionally, perennial favorite modes Search and Destroy, Capture the Flag and Hardpoint are set to make their return as part of the Black Ops III multiplayer mix.

Finally, for fans of eSports, Treyarch and Activision will have even more exciting news about additional features, leagues and seasons in the months ahead – you won’t want to miss it.

While it’s been great to unveil these features and officially share them with everyone, we won’t rest until they’re in your hands on November 6 – we can’t wait for you to enjoy first-hand what the team has done.

See you online!

Treyarch