SK Gaming has learnt that the ESL has offered promod developer Ryan 'raf1' Palmer full exclusivity over its Call of Duty 4 (CoD4) leagues and tournaments, as well as removing PAM in favour of the new mod if certain concessions over the unified ruleset are relaxed.

The ESL wants a separate watered-down version of the unified ruleset under the promod project. The proposal allows for “significantly different rulesets” in which the ESL has to use components from the unified project such as AWP style R700, M40A and the no sway fix, but the separate project allows perks to be restored. The ESL has demanded specifically that at least two perks must be enabled, C4, claymores and the grenade launcher will be reintroduced as well.

If the promod developers accept the move then it will effectively end PAM's reign over competitive Call of Duty as the 'AMmod' gives backwards compatibility with PAM and is part of the promod code meaning one competitive mod covers the entire competitive spectrum from high skilled LAN competitions to low skill ladder matches.

The promod project is in a significantly stronger position to bargain as both the Antwerp eSports Festival (AEF) and the-eXperience (TEX) LAN events have vowed to use the mod later this month, the invite community which is made up of almost every high skilled CoD4 clan is also strongly behind the project.

If they refused to co-operate with the ESL then the only way forward would be for the ESL to use the uniformed ruleset or face being boycotted by the high skilled community. If the two did co-operate then the initial workload would be increased but it would mean that the entire community would be consolidated behind one competitive mod and benefits like the no sway fix would be used by filtered down for everyone to use.

raf1 was said to be torn between the two options, while the unified ruleset remains his primary focus he could see the benefits of leagues using the mod, even if concessions had to be made in order for that to happen. “My solution was to give them a mod not branded as promod”, he was interested in bridging the gap between the high skilled community and the lower skilled one, feeling that any move which deliberately ignored the lower skilled players would be detrimental to CoD4 in the long run.

The ESL already uses CoD4 in the Major Series but as we reported earlier, they're looking into using CoD4 in the Pro Series as well. Their prerogative would be to appease every style of player as the majority of their traffic would come from the lower skilled spectrum.