Aydan, NICKMERCS, more slam rivals’ “sad” Warzone tournament tactics

Brad Norton
Warzone gameplay with NICKMERCS and Aydan+

While there’s seemingly a new Warzone tournament announced every week, the top competitors have lashed out at a “sad” tactic that gets around Kill-Death Ratio (K/D) caps.

Given the immense popularity of the Call of Duty battle royale, there are new tournaments popping up all the time. From major competitions that run through multiple weeks, to one-off events with insane prize pools, there’s always something for Warzone players to grind towards.

The free-to-play title has been available for almost seven months now and many of the biggest events promote one common feature – K/D caps.

While the format and structure of each event can differ wildly, K/D caps are almost a given across the board. They aim to keep an even playing field, rather than having a handful of the best players teaming up and dominating.

Warzone gameplay
Warzone competitions often enforce K/D caps to keep the event balanced.

However, certain members of the Warzone community have figured out a cheeky workaround, and are intentionally dropping their average K/D in order to form the ultimate squads for the biggest tournaments.

It didn’t take long for a number of the top pros to put them on blast.

“I’ve noticed so many people, even bigger content creator’s K/Ds have dropped substantially,” Aydan tweeted on October 4 to kick-start the conversation.

From Call of Duty veterans to popular personalities, Warzone competitions often feature the biggest names out there. Apparently, a good chunk from both fields have been going out of their way to drop their stats.

“Kinda sad people are doing this just to get better teammates for K/D cap tournaments,” he added. With a lower K/D, there’s a far better chance of getting picked up by those with higher K/Ds to smash through any given event.

“Buncha lil rats,” NICKMERCS chimed in. “Do anything for some cheese!”

There’s no telling who exactly Aydan was focusing on with his original statement, but given how often he competes, there’s a good chance he’s run into this issue first hand.

“I get what K/D caps are supposed to do, but all it did was favor people who solo squad and wager regularly,” TeePee responded. “Doesn’t work well for wz tournaments. People will either finesse the system or suffer for having a 5+ K/D.”

Some tried to point out skill-based matchmaking as the cause of this K/D decline. However, Aydan soon shut down that argument. “I’ve been seeing people drop like 0.4+ K/D. SBMM doesn’t hit that hard.”

Many of the biggest Warzone tournaments around the world utilized K/D caps to this day. Though perhaps the rule might soon be scrapped if enough players are gaming the system to intentionally lower their stats.

About The Author

Brad Norton is the Australian Managing Editor at Dexerto. He graduated from Swinburne University with a Bachelor’s degree in journalism and has been working full-time in the field for the past six years at the likes of Gamurs Group and now Dexerto. He loves all things single-player gaming (with Uncharted a personal favorite) but has a history on the competitive side having previously run Oceanic esports org Mindfreak. You can contact Brad at brad.norton@dexerto.com