What is the Gentleman’s Agreement in Call of Duty esports?

Every year, a subset of items in Call of Duty are not used in competitive play. These can range from attachments to perks to entire weapons. This is called the Gentleman's Agreement (GA).

The start of the Modern Warfare 2 season is just around the corner. The GA takes things away from competitive play. People focus on what things should be on the GA in the early stages of the game.

The first GA of the season was made when the Kastov-74u was removed from competitive play. This is down to the fact that it is so hard to compete with that weapon at all ranges.

Here is a list of the things that are currently restricted by GA in Modern Warfare 2 as of Nov. 27, 2022.

This season's GA list has caused a lot of controversy in the competitive Call of Duty scene. Many professional players disagree with what should and shouldn't be used in play this season.

In the space of 24 hours, pros added snipers to the GA list and then removed again. They then put smoke grenades back on the list. Current World Champion Sam "Octane" Larew thanked the Call of Duty community for causing such an uproar after snipers were added to the GA.

All this whilst the M4 remains to be used in the game, despite being one of the most overpowered and easy weapons to use in Call of Duty history.

The GA is a product of having to force a competitive scene out of a game that is specifically aimed at a casual market. The GA ensures that all competitive play in Call of Duty is as fair and balanced as possible.

This is in place to avoid any situations where one weapon or feature absolutely dominates play.

The most recent example of this happening on a professional level was when Kris "Spart" Cervantez made the Volk Assault Rifle the center of attention at Major 2 in Vanguard.

Official Call of Duty League rules do not cover absolutely everything in the game so the players take it into their own hands to govern a ruleset that works best for everyone.

Glitches are also another focus of the GA. In Vanguard, several different spots gave players the ability to be technically inside the Hardpoint area without appearing to be. The GA made players stop using those spots until developers patched them.

The majority of players have to agree to put something on the Gentleman's Agreement. Only players who play competitively have input. There are several figureheads at the top of that foodchain.

In NA, it's usually down to Austin "SlasheR" Liddicoat and Lamar "Accuracy" Abedi to finalize the GA. They have both been around in the Call of Duty League scene for years and have a lot of respect to their name.

In Europe, Lewis "LewTee" Todd is responsible for finalizing the GA. People have a respect for his position in the community. This is the reason that he the EU community trusts Todd with the role of deciding the region's GA. All 12 CDL teams give their input on what belongs in the GA.

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