#17 Ghosty: Top 20 Players of Black Ops 7

The #17 player of the Black Ops 7 season is Paris Gentle Mates AR, Daniel "Ghosty" Rothe.

Ghosty's season opened with a signature moment and closed with a familiar sense of what-could-have-been. He helped deliver Paris its first Major title under the Gentle Mates name in Stage I, a third career Major win for the veteran AR, but the year that followed was a rollercoaster of near-misses that never quite recaptured that early magic.

Season Review

Ghosty signed with Paris heading into the season, joining a rebuilt roster alongside Travis "Neptune" McCloud and Dylan "Envoy" Hannon at SMG and Daunte "Sib" Gray at AR. Playing under the Paris Gentle Mates name for the first time, expectations were high from the jump as the franchise rebranded coming into the year.

Those expectations only grew after a hot preseason, with Paris finishing runner-up at the Monster Energy Launch Invitational and winning Kaysan's Showdown VIII outright. That form carried straight into Stage I, where Paris topped the Major I Qualifiers with a 5-2 record and an 18-11 map count, highlighted by wins over LA Thieves (3-0) and Toronto KOI (3-2). At Major I, Paris beat Toronto 3-1 and swept LA 3-0 before running into OpTic Texas in the Winners Final and falling 0-3. They fought back through the Lower Bracket, beating FaZe Vegas 3-2, and got revenge on OpTic in a 4-3 Grand Final to claim the title, Ghosty's third career Major win and the first in franchise history under the Gentle Mates banner.

📸 Photo by @CODLeague

Stage II brought a sharp comedown. Paris stumbled to a 4-7 record in the Major II Qualifiers, good for just the 10th seed, with painful map-5 losses to all three of the league's top teams: FaZe Vegas (2-3), LA Thieves (2-3), and OpTic Texas (2-3). That result forced Paris into the Play-In bracket at Major II, where they beat Carolina Royal Ravens 3-1 and Miami Heretics 3-1 in Winners Round 1, before dropping a 0-3 decision to FaZe Vegas and a 1-3 loss to Toronto, eliminating them Top 6.

Stage III brought more inconsistency. Paris finished 6th in the Major III Qualifiers at 3-2, with losses to Miami (2-3) and OpTic (2-3) raising early concerns about the roster's stability heading into the event. At Major III in Paris, the Gentle Mates opened Pool C with a 1-3 loss to Boston Breach, forcing them into the Lower Qualification Match, where they beat Project Notorious 3-2 and Boston 3-1 to advance. The bracket run was short-lived from there, falling 0-3 to Riyadh Falcons, beating Miami 3-2 in the Lower Round, then falling 1-3 to FaZe Vegas to finish Top 6 once again.

The roster shifted ahead of Stage IV, with Envoy traded to G2 Minnesota and Estreal coming in to take his spot at SMG. Paris played just two matches in the Major IV Qualifiers, beating Carolina 3-0 before falling 0-3 to Riyadh. Shortly after, Paris acquired JoeDeceives from Toronto to replace Neptune in the starting lineup. The Minor showed little in the way of early returns, with Paris winning a single match before falling to OpTic in the semifinals. But the Joe acquisition paid dividends fast, powering Paris to a 3-2 qualifying record, the 4th seed, and sky-high expectations heading into Major IV.

The pressure was immense at the Paris Major IV. The Gentle Mates opened flat, falling 1-3 to FaZe Vegas, before catching fire in the Lower Bracket, beating New York (3-0), Miami (3-2), Minnesota (3-1), and FaZe Vegas again (3-2) to finish 3rd. Not a title, but a strong showing in the new-look roster's first LAN together.

📸 Photo by @CODLeague

With time to build chemistry, the CDL Championship was the tournament this group had to win. It started easily, with a 3-0 sweep of Toronto setting up a Winners Round 2 date with OpTic. That's where the run stalled, falling 1-3 to OpTic and dropping to the Lower Bracket. Paris beat Minnesota 3-0 to stay alive, but an unexpected 2-3 loss to Riyadh Falcons ended the run in 4th, a disappointing finish to a CDL season that had opened with so much promise.

In Paris again for the Esports World Cup, this was the chance to make things right after stumbling in Paris previously in Major IV. Ghosty and the Gentle Mates battled in Pool A, beating OMiT 3-0 and falling to G2 0-3, before beating The Pit 3-1 in the Lower Qualifier Match to advance to the playoffs. Uninspiring in pool play, the form carried warning signs into the bracket, and Paris fell 3-4 to Riyadh Falcons once again in the Quarterfinals, eliminated in the Top 8. For a roster with this much individual talent, it was a disappointing way to close out the year.

How Good Was Ghosty in 2026?

Hardpoint

Hardpoint was Ghosty's best mode this season. He finished the year with a 1.08 K/D, 24.6 kills per 10 minutes, 3,200 damage per 10 minutes, and 84.5 seconds of hill time per 10 minutes. He regressed slightly on LAN to a 1.00 K/D, though he held firm with 81.4 hill time per 10 minutes. Ghosty posted the highest single-map K/D in Hardpoint all season, dropping a 2.92 against LA Thieves in Stage I, and added a 2.50 K/D against Minnesota in Stage III, the 4th-best mark of the year. He also had the 2nd-most 100-plus hill time maps this season, hitting that mark 41 times, or in 41% of his Hardpoints, and finished with a positive K/D in 65% of his Hardpoints played, the 7th-best rate in the CDL.

Search & Destroy

SND was arguably Ghosty's weakest mode. He finished the year with a 0.97 K/D, 0.62 kills per round, 106.1 ADR, and a 48.9% opening duel win rate, adding 13 clutches on the season. He held steady on LAN with a 1.00 K/D. Even with modest individual numbers, his presence mattered: Paris went 31-11 (74%) in maps where Ghosty finished with a positive K/D, the best map win rate on the team tied to any single player's performance.

📸 Photo by @CODLeague

Overload

While Paris struggled as a team early in the year, Ghosty performed above average in Overload all season. He finished with a 1.02 K/D, 22.4 kills per 10 minutes, 2,874 damage per 10 minutes, and 76 goals. Those numbers jumped on LAN, climbing to a 1.07 K/D, 23.5 kills per 10 minutes, 2,969 damage per 10 minutes, and 1.1 goals per 10 minutes. Ghosty set the league record for kills in a single Overload map with 47 during Minor II against Toronto, in the same map posting the 3rd-highest damage total in a single Overload at 5,786. He was also the first player to score four goals in a game this season, doing so in the opening Qualifier against LA Thieves, and finished with a team-high 8 hat tricks on the year.

A Look Ahead to Modern Warfare IV

Ghosty is currently an unrestricted free agent heading into the new title, though the door remains open for a return to Paris if the opportunity arises.

He figures to be one of the most attractive AR free agents on the market, backed by three LAN titles over the past two years. Ghosty's combination of objective work and IGLing gives him real star potential in a Main AR role, and it will be worth watching closely where he ultimately lands.