Call of Duty League
eSports and Ghosts: How Infinity Ward is supporting competitive Call of Duty for 2014
Treyarch pushed the boundaries on how a Call of Duty game should support and be part of eSports with Black Ops 2. Competitive Call of Duty went from a subtle notice with MW3, to be one of the biggest games in competitive scene with Black Ops 2. But how will Infinity Ward continue this success?
With Call of Duty: Ghosts, Infinity Ward and Activision have already committed to bringing the Call of Duty: Championship back in 2014. The Call of Duty: Championship 2013 was a huge success; it had the biggest viewership out of any competitive Call of Duty scene ever. They’ve also confirmed that Call of Duty: Ghosts will be the exclusive FPS for all MLG Pro Circuit events throughout 2014, starting with MLG Columbus in Nov 2013.
The support with events is confirmed, but what about the features in-game? In Black Ops 2, Treyarch added new features including in-game live streaming, CODCasting mode for casters, full support of LAN lobbies, and more.
Infinity Ward’s MW3 didn’t have any support for eSports. It took them over 5 months to add the basic feature of competitive LAN settings. By that time, MLG didn’t bother to add MW3 to the competitive scene.
For Ghosts, Infinity Ward appears to be on the right track. They’ve added a new ‘spectator mode’ (it’s different from CODCasting as CODCasting won’t return), which allows casters to see the game, change player views, see scoreboards, and more. Infinity Ward has removed the live streaming feature, but as the competitive scene will be played on Xbox One, that won’t be a big problem.
Infinity Ward has added a new playlist – which will replace League Play – called ‘Clan vs. Clan’ playlist. This playlist will allow you to play with other members of your clan against other clans. Mark Rubin said that they plan to use the leader boards of the Clan vs. Clan playlist to determine some, not all, of the qualifiers for the 2014 Championship.
Infinity Ward has also added new game modes, including Search & Rescue and Blitz, which should help increase viewership of the competitive Call of Duty scene by adding new gameplay and tactics from pro players.
It looks like Infinity Ward has chosen the right path with how to approach the eSports scene of Call of Duty. They’ve kept the features that are a must – competitive LAN, spectator mode – and added new modes to help diversify the competitive scene.
What do you think about Infinity Ward’s approach to Call of Duty eSports? Let us know in the comments below!
The Call of Duty League has announced a massive change for the 2021 season and the future of the league itself.
The league announced on September 14 that the 2021 season will be played with controllers on PC.
All Pro players who are part of the CDL will be required to compete on PC platform using a league sanctioned controller. A list of allowed controllers will be announced in the near future.
The League is announcing it will move pro team competition to PC + Controller beginning with the 2021 season. This means that all pro matches will be played on PC and all pro players must use a League-approved controller of their choice.
As part of this transition, Call of Duty League competition will maintain exclusive use of controllers for the upcoming season. This change provides players with expanded choice of controller, allowing them to select the League-approved controller style that works best for their game. More details and rules pertaining to peripherals will be released at a future date.
This marks the first time Call of Duty esports will not be played on a console. Activision’s first real sponsored esports event was the 2011 Call of Duty XP, which was played on Xbox 360. Call of Duty esports went on to play on the Xbox console for through 2015.
Call of Duty transitioned to PlayStation as the premiere partner of esports in 2015 with Black Ops 3, and all league matches have been on PS4 since then.
Call of Duty Challengers
Activision has also announced a big change for the Call of Duty Challengers division.
Call of Duty Challengers will be switching to crossplay, which means players on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC can all compete in online Challenger events in the 2021 season.
For the first time in Call of Duty esports history, competitors will be able to compete online in Call of Duty Challengers on their platform of choice across console and PC. We will continue to test platform hardware and make restrictions if necessary.
Players are required to use controllers. Mouse and keyboard peripherals will not be allowed.
Any LAN Challengers event that takes place during the season will be played on PC. Competitors may plug in their League-approved controller of choice.
More information on the 2021 season schedule to come. Stay tuned.
SOURCE: Call of Duty League
The Call of Duty League does not plan to expand beyond the 12 teams for the 2021 season, according to ESPN Esports.
ESPN reports that sources tell them the Call of Duty League made the decision to hold expansion for now because they want to work on showcasing the power of bringing the league to LAN. The 2020 season was switched to online due to the pandemic.
The Call of Duty League Commissioner has stated that there’s a lot of interest from new city owners to join the league, but they don’t plan to expand for the 2021 season.
In a press conference, Johanna Farris, Commissioner, said:
“We continue to see great demand for CDL coming in from a lot of different places which is always exciting to see,” Call of Duty League commissioner Johanna Faries said Friday. “Breaking the viewership records that we’ve had with our playoffs run shows what the possibilities are for us in this nascent stage. However, our heads are currently down and focused on our 12 teams that have been with us since the beginning. We were oversubscribed with demand when we settled on our 12, and will do right by that demand at the appropriate time.”
ESPN reports that the league intends to expand to new cities and markets for the 2022 season with new team sales set to begin in summer 2021.
It’s not clear at this time which cities are interested in joining the league. So far, 11 cities are part of the league with 4 countries represented.
Activision Blizzard did not respond to request for a comment.
SOURCE: ESPN
The Call of Duty League has announced that the league will return to the 4v4 format for the 2021 season.
The news was announced in a teaser video posted to the CDL social channels titled “Season 2 Intel.”
The 2021 season going back to 4v4 marks a return to the traditional Call of Duty esports format. The format was changed to 5v5 with Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 in 2018. Treyarch wanted to blend casual with competitive, and matched the standard game experience to esports.
In a post on the CDL site, the company confirms this decision was made after consulting the teams, players, and management.
With a new season comes new announcements across many fronts. Today we shared that we will be transitioning to starting roster sizes of four players per team for Season 2, marking a kind of ‘return to our roots’. This decision was made in close collaboration with our teams and players, and it was not made lightly. We know that this transition also brings new implications for both pro and amateur players with rostermania season fast approaching. Over the course of the offseason, we will share more news regarding plans for the 2021 Season — including details on maps, modes, formats, schedule, and more.
More news on the 2021 season to come. Stay tuned.
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