Just when you thought Warzone 2.0 would be safe from an impossible-to-see skin lurking in the map’s dark corners, the in-game shop drops this monstrosity.
The official Call of Duty League has made 12 packs available for each team in the esports league, with the skins showing off their team colors. The LA Thieves’ version is currently the 18th most popular purchase on Steam at the time of publication—and it’s not because everyone is a massive LA Thieves fan. It’s likely because the skin is almost entirely matte black, save for a red ‘LA’ emblazoned across the chest. And as players of the original Warzone know, a matte black skin can make it very difficult for enemy players to see you.
Back in August of 2020, Warzone released the Rook skin for operator Roze. Available if you made it to the final tier of the 100-level battle pass, the skin featured a matte black full-body suit complete with black face mask. For months, players complained about how hard it was to see this character in-game, especially since so many wearing the Rook skin would use it to their advantage, crouching or lying prone in dark corners just to descend upon unsuspecting players. Like spiders. With guns.
After several months of getting the breaks beaten off of me by this matte black murderer, Raven Software made several adjustments to the skin to make it easier to spot—including as recently as May 2022, when it was adjusted again to fit with the lighting profile of the Call of Duty: Vanguard-themed Caldera map.
Redditors are suggesting this new CDL skin, however, marks the return of the Roze curse. I haven’t seen it in-game yet, so I can’t speak to its effectiveness, but I will say that Warzone 2.0 has improved lighting systems in comparison to the original, so attempts to take advantage of darker spaces may not be as fruitful. You can also, thankfully, see through windows a helluva lot better now, whereas in the original Warzone, a Roze skin could be standing in the middle of a room and you’d have trouble seeing her through a window. Small victories.