It’s official: the next Battlefield game will be Battlefield 2042. Battlefield 2042 is set in the near future on an Earth ravaged by ecological disaster, with the United States and Russia fighting over the planet’s rapidly diminishing resources via mercenaries. Today’s trailer teased some of the upcoming game’s new features, while veterans of the franchise were treated with a reference to an old Battlefield tradition: the LoopZook.
The LoopZook is the Battlefield community’s name for the feat of looping your jet up, exiting the jet, nailing the pursuing pilot with a bazooka rocket, and re-entering your jet from the sky. You can see it at the 3:00 mark of the 2042 trailer.
This move isn’t just cool CGI for trailers. It’s been a player pastime for at least 16 years, starting with Battlefield 1942. Here’s another example from the appropriately named ZookaMan.
Then Deathdude raised the stakes with the LoopSnipe. In this clip, Deathman starts off with the loop, zooms in on an enemy using an AA gun, snipes them with a headshot, then reenters the plane before flying off in victory.
[Correction, 6/14/21, 11:50am—This article initially misstated Deathdude’s YouTube name. We regret the error.]
In Battlefield 3, YouTuber and streamer Stun_gravy wowed his viewers with similar stunts. Their video “RendeZook” was submitted for EA’s Only In Battlefield 3 contest in 2012, where fans submitted their best compilation videos for consideration. It wasn’t quite a loop, but it kept the tradition alive.
Stun_gravy topped themselves in another video, “Jet Swap.” In this one, Stun_gravy lifted his jet into a straight vertical, popped out, sniped the pursuing pilot with a headshot, and then stole their dead adversary’s jet.
To round things out, the latest popular LoopZook comes from DarkEnergy playing Battlefield V.
There are some big changes coming to Battlefield 2042. The new specialist system essentially gets rid of classes; instead, players will choose named mercenaries with two unique abilities and a customizable loadout. The game will also be shipping without a campaign.
But rest assured, if a Battlefield game has planes and bazookas, then players will keep the LoopZook alive. The more Battlefield changes, the more the LoopZook stays the same.