u/Andysullivino

The cancellation of Gauntlet in favour of a cheap knock off of Call Of Duty’s Resurgence is once again another example of abandoning anything unique and special about Battlefield in pursuit of the “COD Market”

First it was the cancelling of Server Browser and Persistent serves in favour of a more COD-like randomised, algorithmic matchmaking that essentially nuked the vast majority of the community aspect of Battlefield and has left us playing our matches full of bots.

Then it was the launch of Battlefields Battle Royale, which is essentially another copy of Warzone. It’s nothing new, nothing unique, it’s been done a bunch of time’s before, it’s simply chasing the COD market.

This arguably affected gameplay aspects like Weapon Balancing on multiplayer, TTK and potentially the amount of resources dedicated to the main game.

Then they launch Gauntlet, an awesome, innovative Game Mode that is completely unique to Battlefield. It should never have been lumped into REDSEC with the BR, it has nothing to do with Battle Royales. It should have been part of multiplayer with multiplayer maps.

What do they do to nurture this mode? Nothing. All their efforts go into the BR and copying Warzone. Infact they they make decisions that actively harm the mode like leaving Gas in there for months, breaking the point scoring system and adding a bugged sniper for weeks.

After these actions slowly bled the player base they decide to remove it to push as many players towards their copy of Resurgence.

It’s the story of a game that had a loyal player and instead of nurturing and building on their own game and own identity, they instead sacrifice everything that makes Battlefield special and unique in pursuit of a rival.

They changed the point system from getting 3 points for a kill in a tank to getting 3 points for opening a trailer.

Now instead of having a tank battle, you have people racing around the map trying to open as many trailers as possible all round.

It's completely wrecked the mode.

Had this come up on my Youtube timeline, a 100k Gauntlet Tournament that was hosted 8 months ago.

It's absolute cinema to watch. There's clutches, there's comebacks, there's master squad play, there's individual brilliance, there's drama, there's stakes....all the ingredients needed for a phenomenal competitive mode.

What did DICE do to build upon this phenomenal mode they created?

The answer is absolutely nothing.

No more tournaments, No Ranked, just stupid little gimmicks like gas and dirt bike racing.

Instead they pour all their resources into being the 42nd Battle Royale on the market.

Massive Fumble.

EA created two "competitive modes" for RedSec, BR and Guantlet. One is a brand new unique game mode, the other is a copy of other BR's that have been around since 2017.

EA has clearly chosen the BR as it's primary vehicle for competitive Battlefield to date. They've funded multiple cash tournaments and have implemented a full ranking system. As for Guantlet they've done pretty much nothing.

I get why they chose BR, they thought they could capture the large BR market out there and get them to migrate over to Battlefield, but it's the wrong decision and here's why:

BR Hype is on the Decline, many people are tired of BR's. They've been around for years and people aren't flocking to them like they once were. In many ways Battlefield has missed the boat in this regard.

The bigger and and more important reason, it's not unique to Battlefield. It's just another BR. If you're gonna create a competitive mode, create something new, pioneer something, make it an experience you can only get from playing Battlefield.

They've done this with Guantlet, it's a fantastic squad game that requires skill, good tactics and teamwork. It encourages the full battlefield experience of playing with multiple classes and vehicles. The mode is right there for them but they've done nothing to nurture it.

Long Term you want to have your own mode, unique to YOUR game that competitive matchplay is played around. This builds lasting loyalty for your community and not just people hopping from BR to BR. It's something that people who are good at the multiplayer can easily build a squad around if they want something with higher stakes.

Counter Strike had it's 5 v 5 Bomb Plant/Defusal, COD has it's 4v4 mode, PUBG had BR, Battlefield has the opportunity to have Guantlet, it only needs to nurture it.

Side Note: I have no problem that they created a BR, I think it's a good BR and it's fun to play, I just don't think they should be driving it as their primary competitive vehicle. They should be driving Guantlet instead.

There's a large group of squads and players who mainline Guantlet. It's a competitive game mode by design where squad and individual skill as well as tactics are critical to success.

I've noticed over the last couple of months that alot of regular squads have slowly disappeared. They haven't moved to other game modes, they've disappeared entirely from BF6.

This is no surprise because once you've smashed through a bunch of wins you don't have much more to play for. In a competitive mode if there's not a competitive measurement metric eventually you'll lose interest.

The fact that BF6 has built an incredible competitive game mode and then just done nothing to nurture it is disappointing. Really hope they get it together and put a ranked mode together for Guantlet in the next couple of seasons.

As much as I love Fort Lyndon, we're heading towards the 1 year anniversary of BF6 and I would love to play on some different terrain.

Is there any news or talk about another REDSEC map being released?

A bit of context to start out with, I'm not endorsing the current Matchmaking, for the purposes of an online multiplayer game it's not effective. Multiplayer should be against other players and I think we need a server browser and persistent servers to resolve this.

However, I kinda dont mind(even come to enjoy) the Bots at a start of a match. It kinda starts out as Casual Conquest and slowly turns into a full blown sweatfest.

The matches start out a bit slower, you can move around more freely, can get your eye in against a few Bots, farm some kills and then it gets more and more intense as the lobby fills up.

If they were putting together a Ranked System for BR I can't understand why they couldn't just simultaneously put one in place for Gauntlet. It falls under the RedSec banner so it could have largely been a copy paste with some nuances specific for Gauntlet.

The mode is clearly highly popular, having 190 Million matches played in Season 1 alone. Lobbies are always full with games running continuously throughout the day into the early hours of the morning 7 days a week.

It's custom built for competitive squad play and I've seen so many people put regular squads together to play this mode. They simply need to put the structures in place to nurture this.

It's also great for smaller regions where they've cut BR servers. It only requires 32 players as opposed to 100 so far easier to fill matches and build a competitive scene around.

The biggest reason in favor of Ranked Gauntlet, which I'm shocked the developer fails to see is that it's a mode completely unique to battlefield. BR's are everywhere and players like to hop between various ones whereas Gauntlet is only available in Battlefield.

Surely you would nurture and try grow a mode that people can only play in your game?