Treyarch ended its weapon evaluation in Modern Warfare 3 Ranked Play and mysteriously removed an SMG that wasn’t included in the test period.
From April 16-23, Treyarch hosted a weapon evaluation in Modern Warfare 3 Ranked Play. The BP50, Holger 556, MTZ-556, HRM-9, and RAM-9 were tested as potential replacements or additions to the current Call of Duty League weapon pool. The devs weren’t ready to make final decisions immediately following the evaluation but didn’t rule out changes.
“The Call of Duty League, Sledgehammer Games, and our teams will discuss findings and share an update after the launch of Season 3 Reloaded,” Treyarch explained. In addition to the five weapons we already knew would only be in the game mode temporarily, the devs also removed the WSP Swarm. The fast-firing SMG has always been available in Ranked Play, but it was also removed at the end of the weapon evaluation period. Treyarch never previously hinted at this move, and it’s unclear if we will see it come back in Season 3 Reloaded.
Most players in MW3 Ranked Play and every pro in the Call of Duty League use the Rival-9 anyway, and we still don’t expect that to change regardless of what SMGs end up getting officially added in. In saying that, the WSP Swarm had its fair share of fans in Ranked Play because of the 100-round mag, which made it easy to spray down enemies. Treyarch did not give a reason for why the team decided to remove the WSP Swarm, but the extremely large magazine size is probably one of the primary reasons.
On paper, the WSP Swarm isn’t that strong of a weapon. According to stats from TrueGameData, the WSP Swarm leads all SMGs in time-to-kill speed up to five meters. But the SMG is significantly worse than every other option for any gunfight beyond that. We don’t expect this decision to have too much of an effect on Ranked Play’s meta, but players no longer need to worry about going up against enemies that are able to spray and pray.
