How to slide cancel in Modern Warfare 3

It's back, baby.

CoD operators fight in MW3 on old school MW2 (2009) maps.
Image via Activision

Slide canceling has returned in Modern Warfare 3, much to the delight of movement demon Call of Duty players everywhere.

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Movement is key in MW3, so much so that it’s been a selling point that Sledgehammer Games has rolled back some of the changes made to movement by Infinity Ward in Modern Warfare 2. Yeah, they were listening, and they’ve deployed some changes to make movement in MW3 important again.

In Modern Warfare 2019, slide-canceling was kind of an unintended method of movement that players discovered while messing around, and it became key to the meta in everything from public lobbies and Call of Duty League matches to Warzone. And now, you are free to slide around the world again.

Here’s what buttons you need to press to slide cancel in MW3.

How to slide cancel in MW3

A WW3 operator using the new Tac Stance feature.
Cha-cha-slide. Image via Activision

Slide canceling in MW3 can be done simply by jumping while sliding, but there’s a slight delay that wasn’t quite there before. It didn’t take long for players to circumvent this, and and the former world champion Attach spilled the beans on how he does it on the first day of the MW3 beta.

“Say it with me,” CDL pro Attach says in the YouTube Short below. “Slide, jump, then aim in.”

We highly recommend using the Tactical button layout in the game’s controller settings to help with your slide cancelling. This will swap melee and Change Stance so that you can crouch, slide, and dive with the R3 button instead of Circle (on PlayStation). The buttons are fully customizable in MW3, though, so you can change them however you like.

To find the button layout screen in the image below, hit the options button from the menu, then navigate to the settings tab. Select controller, then scroll down to Inputs and Edit Button Layout.

A screenshot of the button layout preset screen in MW3's controller settings.
Tactical is the way to go. Screenshot by Dot Esports

The important thing is to “slide, jump, then aim in,” like Attach says. You can go into private matches and test it out to get the rhythm down yourself until you’re slide-canceling around Favela like Attach and other CDL pros.

MW3 is all about movement. Players move faster thanks to certain perks and equipment, can slide farther, mantle more quickly, and even slide cancel like they could in the old days of MW 2019 and the original Warzone.

And that’s all there is to it. Unless there’s a change in a patch that tweaks or removes this current ability, this is how to slide cancel in MW3 like your life depended on it.

Author
Image of Scott Duwe
Scott Duwe
Senior Staff Writer & Call of Duty lead. Professional writer for over 10 years. Lover of all things Marvel, Destiny 2, Metal Gear, Final Fantasy, Resident Evil, and more. Previous bylines include PC Gamer, Red Bull Esports, Fanbyte, and Esports Nation. DogDad to corgis Yogi and Mickey, sports fan (NY Yankees, NY Jets, NY Rangers, NY Knicks), Paramore fanatic, cardio enthusiast.