Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Will Begin Testing Restricted Weapons in Ranked Play

gamerant.com:

Some currently restricted weapons may be coming to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 ranked play modes in an upcoming test. Developers Treyarch Studios and Sledgehammer games announced that a planned evaluation of various Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 weapons will take place to determine the weapons' viability in the competitive scene.

Maintaining one of the most popular multiplayer games in the world takes a lot of testing and resources, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is no exception to that rule. With vast player counts constantly competing for supremacy on the game's leaderboards and ranking systems, Call of Duty needs constant adjustment via patches and updates to keep up with the pace of players pushing at the game's limits and finding new «meta» strategies and loadouts to guarantee victory. As a matter of course, developers like Treyarch and Sledgehammer conduct limited testing on live servers to take advantage of the huge player population, using live tests to gather crucial data on any given item or strategy's impact on the competitive scene.

The latest live test planned for the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 competitive environment is what Treyarch calls a «Weapon Evaluation.» The test follows from the success of a previous «Map Evaluation,» which returned several restricted maps to the game's Ranked play rotation. The Weapon Evaluation will, according to an announcement made on Treyarch's official social media accounts, add several weapons that are currently restricted from selection in ranked play. Given that any additions or removals can shake up how players decide which weapons are the latest Call of Duty meta guns, Weapon Evaluations can have significant consequences for the competitive scene.

The weapons temporarily joining the Ranked Play loadout selection for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 as part of the Weapon Evaluation consists of three Assault Rifles and two Submachine Guns:

The selection includes weapons that are considered part of the «meta»