Call of Duty League
H3CZ explains why Nadeshot’s LA Thieves aren’t OpTic’s biggest CDL rivals
OpTic CEO Hector ‘H3CZ’ Rodriguez explained in an interview, that the Los Angeles Thieves aren’t their biggest rivals.
There is massive hype for the matchup of OpTic and the Los Angeles Thieves in the 2021 season, but CEO Hector ‘H3CZ’ Rodriguez disagrees with fans’ claims that the two are major rivals.
Now that it’s 2021, it’s time for a brand new CoD Season where we’ll see members of the Call of Duty League compete over the course of the year. Fans are excitedly waiting to see the Los Angeles Thieves face off against H3CZ’s OpTic in the CDL Kickoff Classic.
100 Thieves owner Matthew ‘Nadeshot’ Haag is an ex-OpTic player and remains close friends with H3CZ, and they’re both extremely competitive, so it’s understandable why fans are so excited to see their first CDL showdown.
There is a lot of hype for the 2021 CDL regular season starting in February, and H3CZ gave an interview in which he disagreed with the claim that the Thieves are OpTic’s biggest rivals.
Why LA Thieves aren’t OpTic’s main CDL rival
Anthony ‘NAMELESS’ Wheeler interviewed H3CZ on January 19, and asked him “Do you think that’s going to be your team’s biggest rival this year?” This was met with a direct and blunt response: “No.”
“I get it. I get we’re trying to hype this thing up,” he admitted. H3CZ doesn’t feel like the Thieves should immediately be considered their top challenger due to their history outside of the game.
“I just don’t think Call of Duty needs the added extra,” H3CZ explained. “Storylines are going to develop from the beginning.” He made it clear that he would prefer to see rivalries develop “organically.”
He followed this by standing by a statement he made back in December: “Everyone that doesn’t say FaZe or Empire is their number one rivalry is just playing for the crowd.”
The discussion takes place at the 14:00 mark below.
OpTic is massively talented, and H3CZ wants the Chicago lineup to show how competitive they can be in 2021. “Everybody here is going after Empire, period. If you’re not gunning after the champions… I don’t know.”
H3CZ considers this supposed rivalry to be something the fans made up, and with no grounds in reality. He considers this kind of thinking to be “too WWE,” and then elaborates: “For people to be like ‘oh, it’s Nadeshot vs H3CZ,’ we’re not those dudes.”
The triumphant return of H3CZ’s OpTic to Call of Duty, along with their battle against Nadeshot’s LA Thieves, will take place on January 24. We’ll keep you informed about any new updates in the CDL Kickoff Classic 2021.
Image Credit: Activision Blizzard / LA Thieves
Call of Duty League
How to earn Call of Duty League Championship viewership rewards: Blueprints, Champs Pack, more
Here’s how to start earning exclusive viewership rewards including a CDL XM4 Blueprint for watching the Call of Duty League Championships.
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 to link CoD account to YouTube
Rewards are earned by watching the CDL Championships through a YouTube account linked to Call of Duty.
To link your account on PC and mobile:
- Open YouTube.com or the YouTube app
- Select your profile photo and hit ‘settings’
- Click on ‘Connected Apps’
- Locate ‘Activision’ and hit ‘connect’
- 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.
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
ASTRO Gaming & US Army ends sponsorship of Call of Duty League amid lawsuit controversy
The Call of Duty League has lost one of its long time sponsors just before the biggest CDL event of the year.
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.
Activision
T-Mobile reportedly no longer a sponsor of Call of Duty League & Overwatch League
T-Mobile appears to have ended their sponsorship of both the CDL and OWL after Activision Blizzard harassment lawsuits surfaced.
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.
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