A few months back we converted the league to a ladder system and left behind our seasonal system for the time being. The system has been running smooth since wed the doors to the ladders and we are now focusing our time on getting our tournament system up and running as well as bringing back in our seasonal system.

We are also pleased to announce that we are teaming up with XSN to bring you the best live shoutcasting.

You can visit their site by going to XSN and from there you can get the schedule of upcoming events.

We know concerns about cheating are a big issue in the fan community right now, so we wanted to pass along the following update: Infinity Ward has signed a deal with Even Balance to include PunkBuster for Call of Duty. As more information, including timing, develops on releasing PB support for Call of Duty, we'll let you know. Thanks!

We wanted to let you all know that we're listening to your questions about the Call of Duty patch. I've spoken to the team and thought it might help to let you know that updates are definitely coming. Infinity Ward is working now to complete the first update meant to address several issues like bunny hopping, etc.. We also know that you're very concerned about cheat protection. The guys at Infinity Ward are currently considering the best way to address cheat protection. The guys are working really hard and as soon as I have more info, I'll pass it along.

To kick off the exciting event of MacWorld, I am pleased to announce some of the biggest news at Aspyr! We will be publishing Activision's Call of Duty™ for the MAC!! Development is being handled internally and it is currently at first playable. Call of Duty is scheduled to be available in early April.
Keep your eyes peeled, more information will be coming soon to the Aspyr website!

Heat of Battle, a capture and hold modification for Call of Duty, has released Beta v.25. This patch will bring HoB_Village up to final beta status and HoB_Dawnville up to revision 2. The biggest changes are related to capture timings and balancing, but there are many other alterations as well. This should be our last release until v.3 comes out in a few weeks with new maps and many new features. We are accepting map submissions from the community for the v.3 release as well. If you're a CoD mapper and are interested in having an existing map converted, or would like to build a map for HoB please visit our forums!

The interview sets a patch release for next week on FilePlanet, and does not mention what there will be for Anti Cheat in the patch.

Some highlights:

GameSpy: Can you describe the new "Headquarters" mode for us and any special new features, etc., that may be a part of it?

Zied Rieke: Headquarters is a team-based objective mode with respawning. A location in the map is randomly selected from a list of different places, and each team fights over that spot to hold it and set up their headquarters there. Once a team has set up a headquarters, they must defend it for 45 seconds. If they succeed, then they score big time, everyone respawns and they have to do it again. If they fail, then the attacking team scores points, everyone respawns, a new random location is chosen, and each team fights to set up their headquarters again.

GameSpy: What are some of the other major changes in the patch?

Zied Rieke: We've reduced how well you can bunny hop. We've made the sniper rifles more realistic to act more like how a real sniper rifle would behave. We made it so the number of grenades you start with is based on the weapon you select. We added unique player IDs, which are based on your CD key and made it so that server admins can ban players using that ID. We really changed too much stuff to list here, if you want to know more, check out the .readme.

Head on over to Gamespy to read the rest of the interview for more information on this interesting new game type.

The larger team sizes should offer a distinctly different style of play, and I know many people have been looking for a larger teamsized ladder, so head on over to TWL at http://www.teamwarfare.com to get your team signed up and in on the action.

The good thing about this map is that neither side has an advantage. BigBoyG obviously planned "Fivepoints" out well. It is sad that a lot of community-made maps get a bad rap for being unbalanced, because the few that are very well done get overshadowed by the excessive amounts of poorly made maps. But I am glad to finally see one that shines out above most.

After recently the german Call of Duty Ladders went to the start, we can present you now finally also international Call of Duty Ladders. At the beginning we start with 3 Ladders :

Call of Duty 1on1 Ladder National german Ladder is already since few weeks an absolute success and belongs to the TOP 1on1 Ladders. Over 250 players take to this part, we hope this on international level still to naturally exceed.

Call of Duty 3on3 Search & Destroy Ladder A quantity of players expressed the desire for these Ladder. In particular for small clan's which are still in the starting period should be this Ladder interesting.

Call of Duty Search & Destroy Ladder The probably most popular game mode, therefore it may not naturally be missing. Standard mode will be 6on6, but after arrangement with your opponent it is also possible the play in the 5on5, 7on7 or 8on8 mode.

Tune in and listen as two teams try to win their way into the final 16. At 9pm, 187 takes on R-Syn, and at 10pm, Ominous takes on Colon Slashers.

Both matches should be tight, so head to TsN's website at www.tsncentral.com to listen in on the action.