Modern Warfare 3’s infamous Gaia skin—dubbed “Groot” by players—has been spotted in matches today despite Sledgehammer Games promising to disable the cosmetic.
The Groot-esque Nova skin arrived as part of the collaboration between Spawn and Call of Duty at the start of Season Six and has been wreaking havoc across servers ever since. The biggest issue the cosmetic had was visibility; it was basically pay-to-win because it remained so well hidden, leading developers to rip it from servers in a Nov. 30 update. However, less than 12 hours later, our Dot Esports writers have spotted it in online matches again.
The developers claimed in a Nov. 30 blog post that the infamous Groot skin would be temporarily removed so it could undergo some much-needed patchwork. They didn’t give a timeframe for its return, but it’s likely they didn’t mean for it to stay around in matches right after the update—which appears to be what happened.
We’re not exactly sure why it’s still around, but there is a good chance it would be because some already had it equipped pre-update. Anyone who hasn’t logged off yet (or maybe even just hasn’t changed their cosmetics) could still have it available. At the very least, any CoD gamers who didn’t have the Gaia “Groot” skin selected won’t be able to play with it from Nov. 30, just as the MW3 developers originally intended.
Members of the CoD community despised the skin for multiple reasons. Not only did people believe it was difficult to see, but players claimed it was essentially a pay-to-win cosmetic. That concern is only likely to grow after it was suggested it was gone; anyone seeing that infamous Grooty skin after today’s balance update will have a bone to pick with the devs.
