Modern Warfare 2 players rejoice as new Season 2 weapon banned in Ranked Play

Luca Di Marzo
Modern Warfare 2 ISO Hemlock

Modern Warfare 2 players were delighted to discover that their calls to ban a certain overpowered Season 2 weapon in Ranked Play have been answered by the devs.

Modern Warfare 2 Season 2 delivered the highly anticipated Ranked Play mode on February 15. Since then, players have been busy climbing the Ranks and earning SR with every match.

Ranked Play has been met with a positive reception by Modern Warfare 2 players. In fact, the launch of the competitive experience has coincided with a major increase in Modern Warfare 2 Twitch viewership.

While Modern Warfare 2 players were pleased with the game’s Ranked Play experience, there was one major thorn in their side that they begged the devs to address.

Season 2 also delivered the ISO Hemlock Assault Rifle and the weapon was quickly deemed to be absolutely broken. It failed to make Ranked Play’s restricted list of weapons and according to players it quickly began to ruin matches.

ISO Hemlock banned in Modern Warfare 2 Ranked Play

Modern Warfare 2 fans can breathe a sigh of relief as the overpowered ISO Hemlock has been banned in Ranked Play as of February 22.

Luckily, it didn’t take long for the devs to take action after numerous complaints about the weapon’s performance started to emerge.

The weapon’s TTK, as well as its proficiency in long-range and close-range gunfights, is what made players call it a “toxic” weapon.

Players quickly took to Twitter to react to the Hemlock’s ban with a chorus of Ws, with one player saying: “WWWWWWWW now I can play again.”

Of course, others used the opportunity to jokingly point out that those who used the weapon to climb up the ranks are out of luck: “Now the diamond players will be back to bronze.”

The majority of Ranked Play fans are celebrating the Hemlock’s addition to the restriction list, but some players are concerned about what this means for weapon variety.

In response to the lack of weapon variety in Modern Warfare 2 Ranked Play one player explained that the ISO Hemlock was simply not the answer to that problem. As they put it, “It wasn’t a third gun, it was THE gun.”


We’ll keep you up to date with all of the changes coming to Modern Warfare 2’s Ranked Play, so stay tuned for the latest news.

For now, check out how to complete the Path of the Ronin event challenges or the best controller settings for Modern Warfare 2 Season 2.

Image Credit: Activision

About The Author

Luca is an Associate Editor at CharlieIntel. An accomplished, writer with interests in sports and gaming alike, Luca is focused on Call of Duty and FIFA as a content creator. After earning his BA in English Literature at Concordia University, he began writing for Gamelevate, OddsShark, and H4X. Luca joined CharlieIntel in 2021. You can reach Luca at [email protected], or via X @TheLucaDiMarzo.