A low PING is the WARZONE META you can’t defeat

Описание: After dying in Call of Duty: Warzone regularly for two years in gunfights in which I appeared to win on my screen, I decided to try to get to the bottom of why this was.

So, in January and February 2022 I performed a 153-game study to measure ping and its effect on my experience - both good and bad.

My hunch appears to have been correct. In those 153 games, I died 90 percent of the time in gunfights to enemies who had a lower ping/better connection quality – and often a much lower ping.

I also layered the ping of the server into which Warzone placed me to the pings that are actually available on better servers elsewhere. Using the Netduma router to monitor ping quality at the various Activision servers in the United States, I learned several interesting realities:

53.21% of the time, Activision places me onto servers with 100+ ms ping while the average enemy I died to had a 54.79 ms ping.
66.97% of the time I have to play at 90+ ping.
Only once in 153 games did Activision place me on the nearest, best server. In that game I had a 31 ms ping - by far the best connection I was granted in a month.
Most every night during the study numerous servers were available to me that offer 20-50 ms ping, but I’m only placed on those good servers 0.65% of the time.

This video details why ping is so important in online first-person shooters and how Activision can leverage it to steer your experience.

Following is the methodology I used for the 153-game study and a few notes:

Starting in January 2022, I played 153 Warzone games and collected data from each game. The first part, or 109 games, did not include use of the Netduma gaming router, which allows you to set a ping limit at which you’re willing to play. During the first 109-game stretch I let Activision put me where it wanted to.

On Day 18, I turned the Netduma gaming router on and set a ping limit of 85 ms - and continued collecting data for nine days, or 44 games.
I generally collected data consistently from all games played. However, it was not entirely linear. For example: I used the GeForce Experience Instant Replay feature to record the previous 90 seconds after a death so that I could pull the enemy’s name and ping to include in the data. Some nights that feature didn’t work as intended and I lost that data, and thus dropped the game. Between Days 25 and 26, I took two days off and didn’t touch the game. On a few occasions, I would stop collecting data after a random number of games - largely because I performed this test at night and was often tired - and played several without recording results.

In the final results, I detailed my KD at the various pings in which I played. But Days 18 and 19 included kill totals during the Buyback Solos LTM. Typically, it’s easier to get more kills during this mode than it is during the standard mode. Stats from 20 Buyback games I played in were included in the final data and skewed my KD marginally upward for that stretch.

The pings on the various Warzone servers in January and February 2022 were generally lower across the board than as shown in the video, which showed pings available in May 2022. I included a modern-day (May 2022) look at server quality. After the Warzone Season 3 update, the connection quality at all Warzone servers has degraded. The quality was better (and the pings were lower) during the testing period.

Average Ping Without Use of the Netduma (at the mercy of Activision):
96.94

Average Wait Time to Get into a Game Without Use of the Netduma:
2.33 minutes

Average Ping While Using the Netduma - Set at an 85 ms Ping Limit:
75.8

Average Wait Time to Get into a Game Using the Netduma (85 ms ping limit):
8.56 minutes

MY PC SPECS:
Processor: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X (12-Core) 4.8 GHz Turbo
Motherboard: ASUS PRIME X570-P / MSI X570-A Pro (AMD X570) (Up to 2x PCI-E Devices) (No SLI Support)
System Memory: 32GB DDR4 3200MHz Digital Storm Performance Series
Power Supply: 850W Digital Storm Performance Series (Modular) (80 Plus Gold)
Storage Set 1: 1x SSD M.2 (500GB Samsung 980 PRO) (NVM Express)
Storage Set 2: 1x Storage (2TB Seagate / Toshiba / Hitachi)
Graphics Card(s): 1x GeForce RTX 3070 8GB (VR Ready)
Extreme Cooling: H20: Stage 2: Digital Storm Vortex Liquid CPU Cooler (Dual Fan) (Fully Sealed + No Maintenance)

NAT TYPE:
Open

MY INTERNET DOWN/UP SPEEDS:
200/12

MY CONTROLLER:
Xbox Elite Series 2
My video on it: Best WARZONE and FPS CONTROLLER in the World | Xbox Elite Series 2 Controller - YouTube

MY GAMING ROUTER:
Netduma R2
My video on it: Does the NETDUMA Give You Easier WARZONE-PACIFIC Lobbies? - YouTube

MY WARZONE PLAYER STATS AS OF MAY 16, 2022:
Lifetime KD: 1.57
Vanguard Season 1: 1.85
Vanguard Season 2: 2.55
Vanguard Season 3: 2.15
Total Wins: 172 (mostly in Solos mode)

SOCIALS:
Follow me on Twitter at: Boomer (@FPSBoomerGames) / Twitter

#Warzone #CallOfDuty #WarzonePacific #SBMM #EOMM #PING #LATENCY