The Call of Duty League 2021 Championship Weekend is here, and players can earn various viewership rewards for watching the final stage of competitive action. Here’s how to link your account and earn an XM4 Blueprint, Calling Cards, and the chance to get the Champs Pack for free.

After months of Call of Duty’s best playing for the championship crown, it all comes down to the Championship Weekend, kicking off on August 19 and concluding on Sunday, August 22. While the pros compete for the $1.2 million prize pool, you can also earn various viewership rewards to use in Black Ops Cold War and Warzone, just for watching.

Alongside an exclusive CDL-themed XM4 Blueprint, you can earn Double XP tokens, player signature stickers, and the chance to receive a CDL 2021 Champs Pack code.

Here’s how to link your account to start earning rewards and everything on offer.

How to earn CDL Championship viewership rewards for Cold War & Warzone

Earning the Call of Duty League Championship viewership rewards is simple; the longer you watch, the more rewards you’ll earn. But you’ll need to make sure that your Call of Duty account is linked to YouTube, where the CDL will be broadcasted.

How you can earn this XM4 blueprint:

Step 1️⃣: Link your account at https://t.co/2jxUJefVsU

Step 2️⃣: Watch #CDL2021 Champs on August 19-22

DONE! pic.twitter.com/RvZoBjO6M1

— Call of Duty League (@CODLeague) August 9, 2021

How to link CoD account to YouTube

Rewards are earned by watching the CDL Championships through a YouTube account linked to Call of Duty.

• Read more: When is the next Cold War & Warzone Double XP event?

To link your account on PC and mobile:

1. Open YouTube.com or the YouTube app
2. Select your profile photo and hit ‘settings’
3. Click on ‘Connected Apps’
4. Locate ‘Activision’ and hit ‘connect’
5. Sign in to your Activision account

While signed in with your linked YouTube account, watch CDL matches on YouTube, CallofDutyLeague.com, or the COD companion app to earn the rewards.

Call of Duty League Championship stream

Above, you can find the stream for the CDL Championship weekends. As long as your Activision account is connected to YouTube, you’ll begin earning incremental viewership rewards.

All CDL Championship viewership rewards

CDL Thursday viewership rewards

• 1 Hour: 60 Minute Double XP Token
• 1 Hour 30 Minutes: Shane and Zaptius Weapon Stickers
• 2 Hours: 60 Minute Battle Pass Double XP Token

CDL Friday viewership rewards

• 1 Hour: 60 Minute Double XP Token
• 1 Hour 30 Minutes: Zed and PaulEhx Weapon Stickers
• 2 Hours: 60 Minute Battle Pass Double XP Token

CDL Saturday viewership rewards

• 30 Minutes: COD Timing Calling Card
• 1 Hour: 60 Minute Double XP Token
• 1 Hour 30 Minutes: Venom, Classic, and Vivid Weapon Stickers
• 2 Hours: 60 Minute Battle Pass Double XP Token
• Chance to earn CDL 2021 Champs Pack code

CDL Championship Sunday viewership rewards

• 15 Minutes: Sweep Emblem
• 30 Minutes: Thunderclap Calling Card
• 45 Minutes: CDL Champs 2021 XM4
• 1 Hour: 60 Minute Double XP Token
• 1 Hour 30 Minutes: Standy, Temp, and Huke Weapon Stickers
• 2 Hours: 60 Minute Battle Pass Double XP Token

What’s in the Cold War & Warzone CDL 2021 Champs Pack?

For watching the Championships on Saturday, Call of Duty will give out codes for the CDL 2021 Champs Pack to random viewers. These include Blueprints for the AK-47 and LW3 – Tundra with Gold Tracers, as well as CDL-themed Emblems, Charm, Calling Card, and Sticker.

• Read more: Best Marshal loadout for CoD: Cold War Season 5

This bundle usually costs around $18, so it’s well worth trying to get it for free by watching the CDL.

• AK-47 Champs ’21 Blueprint
• LW3 Champs ’21 Blueprint
• CDL Championship Trophy Charm
• Better On LAN Emblem
• Online Warrior Emblem
• Championship Weekend ’21 Calling Card
• CDL Championship Ring Sticker

The CDL Championships marks the end of Black Ops Cold War’s competitive season, with 2022’s being played on the upcoming Call of Duty: Vanguard game, which returns to the series’ WW2 roots.

Image Credit: Activision

Activision Blizzard Esports division appears to be taking the biggest impact from external partners over the harassment lawsuit with sponsors opting out of partnerships with the Call of Duty League and Overwatch League.

The latest sponsor to end its relations with the Call of Duty League is ASTRO Gaming (and now U.S Army).

ASTRO Gaming’s logo has vanished from the Call of Duty League site, alongside the U.S Army logo. These two logos used to appear to the left of ZENNI Gaming’s logos.

Here’s a look at the new sponsorship strip section on the CDL site, with ZENNI Gaming, SCUF, Game Fuel, and USAA still partners.

Update August 13 – 1PM ET: After we posted this article, the logo sponsorship section on the Call of Duty League site was updated again to remove the U.S Army logo. The CDL now has only four sponsors left as CDL Champs approaches.

ASTRO Gaming was a long time sponsor of Call of Duty esports, dating back to its early days. The company was the official headset sponsor of the Call of Duty League and Call of Duty Challengers.

Per Activision’s initial announcement of the CDL back in 2020, ASTRO Gaming “extends its sponsorship of Call of Duty esports through the 2022 season.”

Instead, the sponsorship has ended just before the CDL’s biggest event of the year, Call of Duty League Championship. The Championship event will take place August 19 – 22 at the Galen Center in LA.

The U.S Army started its sponsorship of the CDL with the inaugural season in 2020. The U.S Army was the presenting sponsor of all schedule related assets on the CDL site.

Their logo has now been completely removed from the site.

Activision Blizzard has declined to comment.

ASTRO had in broadcast segments for the Call of Duty League including the main ASTRO Gaming Listen In, allowing fans to hear team comms during intense moments of matches.

ASTRO also was the presenting sponsor of the Call of Duty League MVP Award, which was awarded at the end of the Champs event. Since the partnership has ended, as early as this week, the CDL’s site MVP page no longer shows the ASTRO Gaming logo.

The site before August 10th:

The site as it appears now, available to view here:

ASTRO & US Army are the latest two sponsors of the Call of Duty League to drop, after T-Mobile distanced themselves a few weeks back.

ASTRO Gaming partnered with the CDL to sell custom-designed CDL team headsets on their website. That collection has been deleted from the site.

The Call of Duty League is not the only Activision Blizzard league facing backlash. The company’s Overwatch League has lost 5 sponsors over the last two weeks, including Coca Cola, State Farm, IBM, Kellogs, and more.

The sponsorship drops comes as Activision Blizzard is being sued by the state of California for sexual harassment and diversity in-equality across the company, with many instances coming out of Blizzard’s side.

Activision Blizzard responded to the suit with Blizzard President J. Allen Brack resigning and putting Jen Oneal and Mike Ybarra as co-leaders of Blizzard.

The company still faces immense pressure from employees to change some of the practices, like removal of attribution clauses and changes to the law firm that is investigating the allegations at the company. So far, Activision Blizzard executives have not met their demands.

We’ll continue to keep everyone updated as more information on the lawsuit and sponsorships happen.

T-Mobile appears to have abruptly ended their sponsorship of the Call of Duty League and Overwatch League this past week. The company’s logo has been removed from the sponsorship section of both of the websites.

T-Mobile was one of the largest non-endemic partners of the Call of Duty League. The US wireless carrier was the Official 5G Sponsor of the League and featured weekly 5G T-Mobile Drops for fans to enter to win real life prizes.

The Call of Duty League features sponsors including the U.S. Army, Astro Gaming, SCUF Gaming, Zenni Gaming, Game Fuel, USAA Insurance, and Google Cloud.

T-Mobile’s logo was seen on the Call of Duty League site as recently as July 21 alongside the other sponsors, per the Wayback Machine, as seen in the screenshot below:

Now, visiting the Call of Duty League website and looking at the same sponsor area, T-Mobile’s logo has been removed. The other sponsor’s logos are still featured.

Another part of T-Mobile’s activation with the Call of Duty League was their 5G Weekly Drop activation, where viewers could text a code to a number to enter for a chance to win bonus items – like free controllers, phones, headsets, and even a trip to CDL Champs.

However, for the Stage 5 Major event (taking place July 29 through August 1), the official rules website says the Weekly Drop was cancelled with no explanation provided.

T-Mobile was also a sponsor of Activision Blizzard’s other major league, the Overwatch League. But on the OWL’s website sponsor section strip, T-Mobile’s logo is gone. It was there as soon as Monday, July 26. T-Mobile’s branding still appears on their site for Viewership Drops as those assets appears to have not been updated yet.

It’s not officially confirmed as to why T-Mobile has decided to end its sponsorship of both of the leagues so suddenly or if the sponsorship is truly over, but the timing seems suspicious with the recent harassment lawsuit against Activision Blizzard from the state of California.

Activision Blizzard employees staged a walk out on July 28 in protest of the company’s responses to the harassment lawsuit over a toxic, sexist workplace culture.

Activision Blizzard’s CEO Bobby Kotick responded in an email published on July 27 that the company’s responses were “tone deaf” and they would work to build a better, safer culture.

Activision Blizzard and T-Mobile both have not responded to requests for comment at the time of publication.