Following the recent Modern Warfare 3 patch by Infinity Ward, which was carried out in order to buff certain "weaker" weapons in the titles' arsenal, the decision was made to ban the M16 from the European Competitive Ruleset, Decerto.

The recent patch provided buffs to a number of the weaker weapons, with the goal of making them more commonly used and balancing out the spread of overall weapon usage. You can find a concise list of the buffed weapons below:

FAD - Increased damage and range
M16A4 - Increased damage and fire rate
AK47 - Reduced kick
UMP45 - Increased damage
MP5 - Increased fire rate
PM9 - Reduced kick

The update had since become an often talked about topic in the community, leading a Rules Council; comprised of regular faces and top players in the scene to convene and fully discuss and test whether any of these weapon buffs would have a negative impact on Competitive Play.

After extensive playtesting and a temporary ban for the recent EGL7 event, the decision has been made to remove the burst weapon from the ruleset for the rest of the Modern Warfare 3 competitive lifecycle, resulting in extremely conflicted opinions between players that wish to see it return, and those that don't feel it would be a good idea to upset the status quo of weapon balance so late into the title. Having spent a bit of time with the weapon in competitive matches in the few weeks preceeding its removal, I'm here to give a little more insight into my opinions on the M16 ban.

I actually agree with the decision by the Decerto Rule Council to instate the weapon ban, due to a few core reasons which I'll list below:

1) Modern Warfare 3 is reaching the end of its life as a competitive title, with only 3 more months for it to be played. Many of the teams competing at events have already composed their own setups, plans and counters for anything in the ruleset, but haven't accounted for a high powered burst weapon due to it not previously being available. If it were enabled, it could upset the balance that the title rather precariously manages to maintain.

2) Many haven't taken into account how powerful the M16 would be on LAN. Call of Duty is famed for its poor bullet detection and having a vast difference in gameplay between online and LAN. If we were to use the previous title in the series; Black Ops, as an example, the M16 on that title was incredibly underpowered online, but a formidable force when used at LAN events. I can see the same happening to a larger extent with MW3, causing further issues for balance issues and longevity.

3) Following the weapon buffs, the M16 is extremely similar to the currently banned Type 95. To me, it defies any real purpose to banning the Type 95 in the first place; a weapon that the vast majority of the community complained massively about, if a weapon almost on par with it were to be introduced only months later.