

CompLexity won this year's Call of Duty Championship with a dominant display worthy of the $400,000 grand prize.

CompLexity is a gaming organisation that represents multiple eSports teams, providing sponsorship, management, merchandise and, more importantly, an opportunity to compete at the biggest events for the biggest prizes.

Still, while the world of big cash and corporate sponsorship is a million miles away from the majority of Call of Duty clans, entry into eSports is within every gamer's grasp.

It's a message that Activision, Major League Gaming and the pro players on the circuit are keen to communicate. After all, the bigger the sport becomes, the better it is for everybody involved.





Take Callum Swan of Epsilon eSports, for example. 'Swanny', as he's known on the circuit, made his eSports debut in the basement of an HMV store. He now finds himself competing for big cash prizes at international events and is loving every minute of it.

"I started playing competitively six years ago, and since then we've experienced exponential growth," Swan explained.

"The size [and] scale of this year's Call of Duty Championship compared to my first event in the basement of an HMV with a handful of people has increased hugely. I think we'll still see growth over the next few years."

'Swanny' believes that competitors can do their bit to increase the popularity of eSports by acting with more professionalism.

"A lot of it is down to how the players conduct themselves, how they market themselves on social media," 'Swanny' continued.



"A lot of players have begun to realise the importance of [professionalism] and are heavily established on the likes of YouTube, Twitch, Facebook, Twitter, interacting with fans.

"You see it in a lot of sports, being able to interact with fans, so it's just mainly, as players, portraying the scene in a positive light. Not just themselves as individuals, but eSports as a whole."

Activision senior community manager Tina Palacios also believes that sportsmanship and camaraderie can help the sport attract new fans and players.

"The pro players, just to see them shake hands after matches, I feel like the camaraderie is there more than ever this year. Stuff like that goes a long way, and I think it shows the fans at home that while these players are playing and competing, they're still friends and we want to have fun."

It's a far cry from last year's rage-fuelled Euro Championships (below), which painted the sport in a bad light.

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How Gfinity is tackling the eSports market in the UK

It seems that this year people are watching for the right reasons, and the support of Major League Gaming, Twitch and YouTube has seen viewing figures soar.

Working with Infinity Ward and Activision, MLG.TV broadcasters helped shape the viewer experience with the introduction of Oracle technology, an element which lets fans see enemies before players do.

According to Call of Duty: Ghosts multiplayer designer Joe Cecot, this creates anticipation and increases engagement, much like a traditional sport.



"One of the things we have now with the Oracle mode, the outline tech, is the casters at any point can flip on this outline mode which reveals the enemy position to the viewer," Cecot explains.

"What this does is it increases viewer anticipation, which increases viewer engagement.

"When you're looking through the eyes of your favourite player and you see an enemy through the wall ahead of him on the right laying prone and another enemy with his back to the player looking out of a window on the left, you start to anticipate what he can do and the moves he can make to take them both out.

"Before, you would see the guys on the other team at the same time as the player and only have little spikes of engagement."



Taking the idea of engagement one step further, Tina Palacios wants to see more interactivity between viewers and broadcasters.

"I saw that the guys from MLG put up polls during the matches and [asked] people to use hashtags," Palacios comments.

"I think that's super cool and it's something that we don't do in-game. I think if people are going to be casting from home that's something I may bring to... actually I'm going to tell the team about it when I get back from COD Champs.

"Because not only is eSports getting bigger, but social media has a huge part in that as well. People can stream the games from home and I think that's pretty crucial."

Perhaps we'll see interactive polls crop up in future Call of Duty releases.



Due to the changing nature of gaming and technology, predicting where eSports is heading is very difficult, although according to Major League Gaming co-founder and owner Mike Sepso, that's actually part of its appeal.

Sepso said: "One of the most challenging aspects of running an eSports league and being an eSports media company is the games keep changing and the consoles change. It's a challenge and it makes it more complex, but it's something we know how to deal with.

"A lot of our fans in the US think baseball is kind of boring. It hasn't changed in 100 years, the players get bigger and stronger, but that's about it.

"eSports, on the other hand, is a tremendously dynamic sport, but the great players stay on top even as the games evolve and the consoles change."

The future of Call of Duty in eSports looks safe for now. Infinity Ward worked closely with MLG and pro players on Ghosts, so it's not unreasonable to suggest that the same will happen with fellow Call of Duty studio Sledgehammer.



For now, Mike Sepso and Major League Gaming are trying to make eSports more mainstream, and having Call of Duty on the books is certainly going to help.

"It's been awesome, because it [Call of Duty] really is the biggest video game in the world. It's got the most awareness, it's an amazing title and one of the most successful franchises in history," he said.

"If we can make an impact and get eSports to become part of the mainstream pop culture in the US, it will really influence the rest of the world."

Call of Duty Championships: 7 tips to become a better player

Watch a trailer for Call of Duty: Ghosts below:

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