“It feels like Christmas Eve”: Jukeyz talks Warzone 2.0 release, new features, and weapons

Liam "Jukeyz" James is a competitive Call of Duty player and full-time streamer for the London Royal Ravens. He recently came in third at the World Series of Warzone, showing his immense skills in the game despite having so much going on in his personal life.

Ahead of the launch for Warzone 2.0, Jukeyz sat down with Esports.gg to discuss his experience with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 so far.

Have you been enjoying MW2?

Jukeyz: I've been loving it. I've been grinding it a lot honestly, doing pub matches and unlocking the camos. It's been fun.

How did you like the campaign compared to Vanguard's?

I was locked in. Previous games, I wasn't that interested. I didn't get as locked in. But with this one, I kept on playing it. The next day I'd go back to it because it was so much fun. This one's been interesting. It's Modern Warfare. It's meant to be similar to the game we had 13 years ago.

How do you feel about people thirsting for Ghost this time around?

He is cool. He is really cool. I'm not simping for him personally though.

There's been a debate that some people feel Ghost doesn't smile but others feel he was smirking while he delivered the "quite the opposite" line. What do you think?

I think he smiles. I think he has a bit of a personality to him this time around.

What are your thoughts on the current MW2 meta? Does it feel more balanced that previous games?

It does feel pretty balanced. I like the way there are a lot of different guns that are quite good and a lot of different attachments to make the guns better. I've played a lot of multiplayer and I can use a different gun and it's so powerful then go back to the gun I was using the day before. They're all good guns, to be honest. Some guns are harder to use than others, but if you can use them, they're all pretty good.

What are your favorite guns and attachments?

The M4 is my favorite gun at the moment. You can tune your attachments as well to make your gun better. I also like the AK74. But in competitive, it might be most broken gun in the game. Apart from that, it's still balanced.

But I use the M4 for long range. I use the 14 inch barrel, the high velocity bullets, the Komodo Heavy muzzle. There are so many attachments, I honestly can't remember. But that's a good thing. I like seeing people use the guns in different ways.

How do you like the maps?

I enjoy all the maps to be honest. I've seen Twitter moaning about the map that's a straight line [ Santa Sena Border Crossing] with traffic and cars. But when I play that map, I really enjoy it. I'm popping off on it. My chat when I'm streaming, they'll say they back out. They'll just leave. But I think it's a sick map.

There's been a lot of complaints about the footsteps and sound design. How was that for you?

Footsteps are a bit messed up, to be fair. The audio cues are a bit crazy. You don't know if someone is next to you or a few buildings down. In a house with a few floors, you don't know if they're on the same floor as you. I'll just shoot in reaction because it sounds like he's right next to me. But he's above me, one floor above me. I don't know if that will ever get sorted out and maybe we have to adapt to it. But for now, it's a bit messed up.

How do you feel about the mini map changes and the decision to not show red dots for players that have shot their weapon?

Again, I've seen a lot of people not enjoying that. But I've got my headset. It's not a big deal for me. I know where it's coming from. When it comes to gun shots, you can tell where they are and how far away they are. But footsteps, no. The red dots not showing — that's personally not a big deal for me. But I can see it affecting some people in a bad way. But I've adapted to that already.

Are you looking forward to Warzone 2.0?

More than ever. It feels like Christmas. It feels like it's Christmas Eve. I just know how much I'll be playing. I love playing a new game, for starters, especially new Warzone maps. The amount of buildings on the map, it gets me excited. How good I was in close quarter fights when Warzone came out. But it hasn't been much close quarter since. That's been putting me through a hard time. Now I'm excited to be in these buildings fighting, finessing, and doing what I do best. And when big tournaments come around, get back to winning.

What did you feel needed the most changes in the original Warzone?

Not enough buildings honestly. That's what casuals do — they load in to games and sit in a building. Just sit in a building and just chill, talk to each other, until I fly through a window and smoke them all. Then they do it again. Buildings are the most important thing ever in Warzone. Especially for me.

Buildings are important for the growth and viewership. The lack of buildings has stopped a lot of casuals from playing. People who watch me have mentioned the lack of buildings and how easy it is to die in open space. That's why they stopped playing.

What is your thoughts on the swimming?

I'm excited for that to be honest. I used to play Black Ops 4. You could shoot a machine gun under the water. Underwater was sick. I loved that. It was so fun. You could run away from teams and use the water to finesse as well. On this one, I think you can only use a pistol or throwing knife. That makes it so much more sick. It's going to be exciting to use the water. It will be used differently in Warzone than multiplayer.

How are you feeling about the new circles?

I'm excited for new circles. I think it will speed up the game. It was slow paced from when I played. That's why I like when a new game comes out. It's slow paced and it's your job to turn it into a fast game. The circles will help with that, to be honest. I've never seen anything like that before, the three different zones.

It might affect tournaments because you might be in a zone with no players and they may be in a zone with a lot. It may not be good in that sense. But in pub games, it will be fun and interesting.

How has your life been between streaming and the baby?

It's been hard to be honest. I took my foot off the pedal when it comes to being a professional. I took time to help my girlfriend look after the baby and be healthier and sleep more. I also want to connect more with my community instead of being locked in and playing Warzone. I was mostly playing tourneys and money games before. For the past year or so, I took some time off from that. It's been pretty up and down.

What is it like having so many people look up to your gameplay?

I don't think about it like that, you know? But it's amazing, isn't it? I've been blessed with such an opportunity to go live every day and people come in... It's amazing. It's a blessing, really.