12 teams from around the world, based in major cities like Los Angeles, New York, Paris and London will compete in both home and away matches throughout the season, with world finals taking place in key locations throughout the year. That’s the same sense of accessibility Activision are now trying to do with Call of Duty. It also means fans can interact more directly with their favourite players by meeting them at local events, and going to home games to cheer them on. Each team has its own colour scheme, logos and skins within the game, allowing fans to identify themselves more easily with their chosen team. Whilst connecting to traditional gaming bases, this model has been considered quite inaccessible to a larger audience, as unlike traditional sports they have no reason to connect to one team in particular based on home country or city.īut the Overwatch League has worked partly because teams are based in various key cities, meaning it’s a lot easier to choose a team to follow, even as a casual fan. It’s hard to understand the reasons behind this, but if we compare it to the relative success of the Overwatch League there are a number of differences.įor starters, the CWL was embedded in traditional esports teams, with famous names such as Luminosity, OpTic Gaming and Evil Geniuses operating within the format. The tournaments themselves were well-run and got decent crowds, but it was not the success that Activision hoped it would be. Hence the CWL was formed, featuring the biggest esports teams from around the world competing on the latest CoD entry for a chance to play at a world final. The MLG began to get involved, and soon the clamour was there for a fully organised Call of Duty seasonal tournament, with the best esports teams competing to play at flagship finals around the world. As the game became the behemoth it now is, and esports took off in the west, so to did competitive Call of Duty grow exponentially. Call of Duty has been played as an esport as far back as 2006, with tournaments of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare organised at gaming events in North America and Europe.