A significant change to the Call of Duty League map pool has been made prior to the start of CDL Major Three play, highlighted by the inclusion of two maps newly introduced in Modern Warfare 3.
In the Hardpoint category, season two map Vista and season three map 6 Star have been swapped in, while the remastered maps Invasion and Skidrow have rotated out. In Search and Destroy, 6 Star has been added while the overwhelmingly deplored Terminal has been taken out. While Invasion is out in Hardpoint, it remains in the Search and Destroy pool for the time being.
Modern Warfare 3‘s Ranked Play mode will be updated on April 10 to match the updated CDL map pool and ruleset, according to a recent post from Treyarch.
Both Vista and 6 Star now join Rio as the only newly made MW3 maps in the current CDL map pool. The Control pool still consists of strictly maps that are remasters of 2009’s MW2 maps: Highrise, Invasion, and Karachi.
The inclusion of 6 Star in two different CDL/Ranked Play modes is very interesting considering how recently it was added to the game. The map just came out last week with the season three update, and it was not featured in the most recent Ranked Play map trial session, while Vista was. One of the hardpoints in 6 Star is a pool, which has drawn some discussion among pro and ranked players.
A common response to the map pool change, though, is celebration or relief towards the removal of Terminal. Many players are torn on swapping in 6 Star for Skidrown, but most appear happy to see Terminal go.
For pro players competing in the qualifiers for Major Three, the turnaround is going to be very quick, with qualifiers starting as early as the end of this week, on Friday, April 12.
