Nobody Won Call of Duty in August Because of an Ad Campaign

Warzone victors met Vanguard's Polina Petrova at the worst possible time

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More than 100 million people play Activision Blizzard’s free-to-play battle royale game Call of Duty: Warzone, competing in 150-person shootouts to be the final survivor. The victor typically gets to watch their character get carried off to safety by helicopter, the ultimate signal of a job well done.

But in late August, victors saw their digital avatars get mysteriously sniped before they could successfully fly off. The culprit was Polina Petrova, a Soviet sniper and one of the protagonists of Call of Duty: Vanguard, the World War II-era game Activision Blizzard is releasing on Nov.

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