Call of Duty pros have already banned the Knife from MW3 Ranked

Modern Warfare 3 Ranked isn’t scheduled to arrive for at least another month yet, but it looks like the weapon ban list is already shaping up to be quite brutal.

Such as in years gone by, MW3 Ranked will reflect the rule book used in the professional Call of Duty League, which bans weapons like RPGs and Claymores for the sake of a better quality of gameplay and a more competitively viable playing field.

But in MW3, one staple weapon has already been axed, as the pros have seemingly banned the Knife.

MW3 pros ban the knife amid TTK rise

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In the last few years, the CDL's "Gentlemen’s Agreement" list has seen the most overpowered guns be banned in Ranked. Most recently, the AK74u was banned in competitive play for its headshot multiplier in MW2. Before that, Vanguard’s snipers were on the GA list for a long time and Cold War’s M4 and AK-47 were axed.

This year, the list is already taking shape, and as a direct result of the 150-health points and increased TTK rate, the pros have banned the insta-kill knife.

The early GA list was revealed last night via CDL_Intel.

According to known journalist Jacob Hale, the players have banned the melee weapon - and everything in that class - as they believe it’s too overpowered to hold down doorways and small streets now that it takes so long to get kill an opponent with a gun.

"Been told the knife GA is because it’s “broken” for players holding doors, especially as it’s a high TTK game," Hale said on Twitter.

This will see the weapon become fully restricted, meaning you won’t even be able to pull it out to run with and gain extra movement speed, you will have to select a pistol.

Modern Warfare 3 Ranked’s ban list is already picking up pace

Alongside the Knife, pros have also banned a selection of ARs which are incredibly powerful.

The three-round burst guns like the DG-58 and FR 5.56 will be banned again (RIP the M8A1 metas of old), and the high-headshot multiplier gun Holger 556 has also been banned. 

One rule that may not be enforceable on Ranked is that all pros are currently required to run a red dot sight on Assault Rifles, although this is seemingly in a bid to counteract anyone wanting to use the fifth attachment slot to add high-velocity bullets.

Some fans have now called on the GA to be scrapped in favour of the ban and protect system, but it looks like this is a feature that will stay with Black Ops 3 and not be brought back.

So, you best get comfortable with the pistol game, as you'll be running them much more often than you'd liked in MW3 Ranked.