Call of Duty: Warzone players are racking up wins by standing still in the gulag

I can't think of a more infuriating way to lose a battle royale match than to get kills, outlast 148 other souls, and carefully maneuver to the final circle only to realize you're somehow alone on the map and die of poison gas once the circle completely closes.

Such has been the plight for victims of Call of Duty: Warzone 2's worst bug as of late. For months players have reported instances of getting stuck in the gulag, Warzone's second chance system that lets you earn your way back to land of the living by winning a 1v1. Those affected by the bug arrive in the gulag to await their duel, but the game simply forgets you're there, trapped in Call of Duty purgatory while the rest of the match happens miles away.

You could just simply leave the match, but since the game still considers you a live player, it's also possible to wait patiently in the comfortable prison until the last opponent dies a confusing death on Al Mazrah. 

Several instances of the bug I found actually happened with two players stuck in the gulag at the same time, as if they're meant to be matched in a 1v1 duel that never happens. In at least one case this led to an endurance match between two remaining gulagers that persisted long after everyone on the main map was dead.

"Been stuck in the Gulag with this random for 15 mins. It's only us two left in the game," user Matt8992 wrote on Reddit mid-match. "He's gone to take a smoke break."

We got 3rd place to 2 people stuck in the gulag at the 9th circle from r/CODWarzone

An annoying encounter for sure, but it could be worse. As far as I can tell you aren't able to deliberately trigger the bug, so jerks aren't going around gleefully ruining Warzone for other people. No, that dishonor belonged to Warzone 1's most pervasive and frustrating exploit that allowed players to infinitely heal themselves outside the zone, the infamous stim glitch.

Since the stranded gulag bug isn't nearly as disruptive (yet, at least), it doesn't appear to be on Activision's radar. The bug isn't present at all on Warzone's official known issues tracker, so it may be a while before this one's fixed.