Call of Duty temporarily disables ranked play and Zombies amid progression issues (Update)

[Update: As of 6:54PM ET on February 23, official Call of Duty social accounts have shared that a fix is on the way. The team notes that “players will continue to see progression being restored across impacted games,” and Champions Quest/Ranked Play will continue to be disabled until the progression fix is fully rolled out.]

Logging into Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 today is quite the ride. Players have seen their rank drop to level 1 overnight, in addition to the server errors being delivered in certain game modes. Particularly Zombies, but also other modes, have displayed a ‘Minot Hawthorne’ error, or just a never-ending loading screen, which prevents the player from playing. The developer is working on solutions, while temporarily disabling some modes while it’s being fixed.

Ranked multiplayer and resurgence have been taken down

As of noon on February 23, a Tweet from the official CODUpdates account indicates that ranked modes have been taken down. This includes both Modern Warfare 3‘s ranked multiplayer and Warzone‘s ranked resurgence game modes. As the Tweet says, this removal is a response to the progression issues plaguing the game right now.

Not only were players’ accounts reset to level 1, but other forms of progression aren’t working either. Battle Pass leveling, ranked mode SR gains, and even in-game challenges cannot progress. As such, players who attempt to complete challenges or level up in just about any mode will see no progress made in their menus.

Removing ranked modes temporarily will relieve a lot of the headaches for many. Playing ranked mode for no reason seems pointless, so this seems like a good temporary fix.

Call of Duty’s Zombies mode is currently unavailable

In addition to ranked modes, Call of Duty players can’t currently access Zombies mode. Another Tweet states the developers are investigating the ongoing issue with entering the game mode. I, like many others, received the ‘Minot Hawthorne’ server error upon attempting to start up a zombies lobby.

For now, players will need to stick to unranked modes and forget about killing zombies for a while. Standard multiplayer, battle royale and resurgence are playable, though you can’t make any in-game progress. Only play if you’re fine with playing just for fun, without the other incentives. Though the developers are expected to restore account progression to normal eventually, it isn’t certain that progress made during the investigations and fixes to follow will count.