I think I finally know what to do. I’m going to write about my journey to get better at Call of Duty.

I’m an early-40s gamer who grew up playing video games, but I never really got heavily into Call of Duty until a few months into Modern Warfare III (2024). Before that, I would buy and play the games, but no matter what I did, I always ended up at the bottom of the leaderboard. I remember searching for tips and tricks online, but nothing ever seemed to stick.

The only advice I could recall was disabling controller vibration and experimenting with different stick and button layouts, like Tactical or Bumper Jumper. But even with those changes, I never saw any real improvement.

Then, I finally upgraded to a decent gaming setup. I replaced my aging X99-series chipset PC with an Intel 14900K and a 2080 Ti GPU. I was still using a 10-plus-year-old Dell UltraWide 34″ monitor, but at least the core of my system was solid.

I went back to searching for ways to improve and stumbled across a ton of new information. One of the first things I learned was that upgrading to a better monitor with a higher refresh rate could actually help improve my gameplay. So, I switched to a 27″ LG OLED with a 240Hz refresh rate and a 1440p resolution. The difference was immediate—I was suddenly winning more gunfights and consistently placing in the top three on the leaderboard. That was a huge surprise.

From there, I kept reading and tweaking my settings. I adjusted my field of view, controller dead zones, sensitivity, and aim assist types (Dynamic, Standard, Linear). Everything started to click. I was consistently finishing in the top three (in public matches, not ranked).

But I know there’s still so much more to learn.