With Modern Warfare 2 Ranked Play players and CDL pros desperate to see Al Bagrah Fortress Control removed, will Season 2’s Himmelmatt Expo map be added to the rotation? Here’s everything we know.
With Modern Warfare 2 Season 2 Reloaded arriving after Toronto Ultra secured the win following a dominant winner’s bracket run at CDL Major 3, players have been looking at the brand-new Himmelmatt Expo map to replace the ever-controversial Al Bagra Fortress, particularly in Control.
With how easy it is to spawn trap in Al Bagra Fortress, the defending side almost always comes out on top and we even saw attacking teams who had secured overtime defense remaining in spawn so as not to give the other team Killstreaks.
Both CDL pros and Modern Warfare 2 Ranked Play players are desperate to see Fortress removed from the map pool, so will it be replaced by Season 2 Reloaded’s Himmelmatt Expo?
Is Himmelmatt Expo coming to Ranked Play & CDL?
Right now, there’s no guarantee that Himmelmatt Expo will arrive in Modern Warfare 2 Ranked Play, but the competitive community is currently testing the Season 2 Reloaded map to see if it’s viable.
Atlanta FaZe coach James ‘Crowder’ Crowder tested out the Himmelmatt Expo map with a handful of those involved in the CDL scene such as CoD pros, retired players, and talent.
After playing Himmelmatt across all three modes for a few hours, the general consensus is that Himmelmatt Expo is much better than Fortress for Control. Across the games, spawn traps were much less prominent and there was much more of a balance between attacking and defending round wins.
After watching the games on stream, Crowder said Himmelmatt Expo is “really good for Control, in the sense I think it’s 100% a no-brainer in Control. I think Search and Destroy is definitely worth a conversation and more testing.”
While he likes it for Hardpoint, he doesn’t think HP is as “down bad” as the other modes. So he thinks “two really good teams” need to try it out to know more.
Former OpTic Texas coach Ray ‘Rambo’ Lussier was involved in the testing, and he said, “I think we have a suitable replacement for Fortress Control and Fortress SND.” While it’s “good for Hardpoint,” he doesn’t think it’s worth replacing another Hardpoint map for it.
While early impressions were positive, it’ll be down to the pro players and whether they want to see the map added to the regular rotation. Since Ranked Play follows the same maps, modes, and restrictions as the Call of Duty League, Himmelmatt Expo will only arrive if it joins the CDL map pool.
For more on Modern Warfare 2’s Ranked Play, be sure to check out the best loadouts, all of the rewards you can earn, and all of the current restrictions.
Image Credit: Activision
