League Play could be coming to Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War within the next few months. On a recent livestream (clipped in the tweet below), known Call of Duty leaker Tom Henderson said that the ranked playlist will arrive "this quarter."
Call of Duty leaker @_TomHenderson_ says he was told League Play is scheduled for Q1 of 2021, between now and March📺: https://t.co/V1PwdQaHjF pic.twitter.com/XtumATvmnrJanuary 3, 2021
Henderson says that "League Play is scheduled for this quarter, so between now and March. We should get it [in] maybe Season Two - could be halfway through Season Two, and then obviously if not it'll be Season Three." He went on to say that "League Play, I was told, is for Q1 2021."
The first quarter of the year runs from the beginning of January until the end of March, meaning that if Henderson is correct, League Play will be available before the start of April. The earliest we can reasonably expect the ranked playlist to arrive is towards the end of February, when Black Ops Cold War Season One draws to an end, although as Henderson notes, there's no guarantee that the mode will arrive in Season Two.
It's also worth remembering that while Henderson's leaks have proved accurate in the past, with no official word from Activision or Treyarch, it's important to take information like this with a pinch of salt.
Black Ops Cold War's predecessor, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, didn't include League Play, adding to the community's hopes that the latest Call of Duty would include some kind of ranked mode, particularly in the wake of the debate over the game's skill-based matchmaking system.
If you've been holding out for ranked play, check out our Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War multiplayer review.
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I'm GamesRadar's news editor, working with the team to deliver breaking news from across the industry. I started my journalistic career while getting my degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick, where I also worked as Games Editor on the student newspaper, The Boar. Since then, I've run the news sections at PCGamesN and Kotaku UK, and also regularly contributed to PC Gamer. As you might be able to tell, PC is my platform of choice, so you can regularly find me playing League of Legends or Steam's latest indie hit.