Call of Duty Warzone adds second Ranked mode: How will it impact esports?

The fourth seasonal update for Call of Duty: Warzone will introduce a second Ranked mode to bolster its competitive offering.

Call of Duty: Warzone Season 4 will add Ranked Resurgence alongside the existing mode, which will feature the Verdansk map.

The Season 4 update for Call of Duty‘s battle royale title is the second time it has featured Ranked Resurgence as a competitive playlist. It debuted during the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 cycle between 2023 and 2024.

Instead of focusing on the larger map, Ranked Resurgence uses the smaller Rebirth Island map in addition to using smaller player counts and the ability to respawn.

Once players are eliminated, the Resurgence timer begins ticking down. Once it hits zero, eliminated players redeploy into the action.

Teams score Skill Rating (SR) by scoring eliminations and securing high placements. Similar to other Warzone game modes, the team that is the last one standing is the winner.

Each skill division is divided by a specific amount of SR required to climb the ladder. Skill divisions start with Bronze and end with the Top 250 players in the world with the most SR.

Adding a second competitive playlist to a player base that’s already small compared to the casual community is a risk of dividing players who prefer the slower pace of Verdansk and those who want constant action on Rebirth Island.

To determine teams competing at the season-ending World Series of Warzone, Activision has utilised in-game playlists as open qualifiers for aspiring players to showcase their skills against the best players in the world.

While the launch of Ranked Resurgence could segregate Warzone’s competitive player base further, adding a second playlist could act as a pathway for new talent to compete at the battle royale’s highest level.