Huke has found success at a very young age © Dexerto

Cuyler “Huke” Garland is in one of the more unique positions in Call of Duty eSports. He’s a dominant player, and came seemingly from out of nowhere at the beginning of Advanced Warfare to put up insane numbers at the events he competes in. But there’s one big thing holding Huke back from competing at the highest possible levels. His age.

At just 15 years old, Huke is unable to compete at international events like Gfinity and ESWC, and most importantly, he isn’t able to compete at the Call of Duty Championship, the biggest event in CoD every year with a million dollar prize pool. He can’t compete at these events until he’s 18 due to international and prize eligibility rules.

A Bright Future

“It’s really unfortunate missing opportunities because of my age and not being able to do anything about it really sucks,” said Huke. “Regardless, I'm really happy that I am able to compete and have people who follow and support me. I always try to look at bright side.”

And there’s plenty of bright side for Huke. Throughout AW, he has consistently been at or near the top of kill/death ratios in the events he’s participated in. At the most recent event, UMG DC, he was #1 overall with a 1.21 K/D ratio and he also led the UMG Dallas event with a 1.24 K/D. These are the same events like weathered pros and champions like Scumpi and Clayster are competing at, and he’s leading the way in the slaying department.

Year in and year out, the biggest event in CoD is CoD Champs which takes place in the spring. Huke won’t be able to compete there for years, but he’s not letting it discourage him.

“I don’t really think about it too much since there’s nothing I can do about it,” he said. “Hopefully it gets lowered in the future because there’s a lot of young talent that could compete at that event.”

Huke is still able to compete at numerous events, like MLG and UMG, and that’s where he’s making a name for himself. Being at such a young age and still somewhat new to the competition, though, it’s still a learning process.

“I’ve learned the most from Enable out of all my teammates,” he said. “I teamed with him on FaZe and he taught me a lot about making smarter plays. I’ve liked all of my teammates but if i had to choose one it would be Accuracy, I didn’t team with him for too long but he always hyped up his teammates and kept a positive attitude.”

Not Quite There Yet

While Huke has been dominant at times, he hasn’t yet been able to win an event as he keeps running into OpTic Gaming and now FaZe, the two teams who have won the most in AW. He has finished in 2nd place at UMG Orlando, UMG California and now UMG DC, as well as getting the Silver medal at the X Games in June. Huke says winning is all he wants to do.

Huke (foreground) © OpTic Intel

“Everything else is cool, but at the end of the day I just want to win events,” he said. “I haven't won yet but I have gotten close multiple times, hopefully I'll be able to pull off a win in the future.”

For anyone, finding success at such a young age might create an ego or skew the bigger picture, but Huke is focused on what he can control and what’s important to him.

“I think one of my better traits is being humble,” he said. “I always have just tried to get better instead of making excuses. I'm very lucky to be able to play at this level at such a young age. I hope I can give motivation to other younger players that if they work hard they too can be successful. You just have to be consistent.”

Call of Duty is extremely popular with teenagers and young people around his age, and competing to win prize money is now a very real possibility for anyone with the amount of open events there are in the scene. Huke has one piece of advice for any other young players trying to make it big in CoD eSports.

“Keep a positive mindset and don’t quit,” he said. “I’ve known a lot of people that have quit and tried coming back, it usually never works out for them.”

Huke says he started competing because his brother was roommates with fellow CoD pro Pluto, and it sparked his interest in the scene. After that, it was a straight line to success.

“I just played a lot and always played to fix my mistakes and improve my gameplay,” he said. “I've always had a good shot so it was really about playing smart and the correct way.”

The natural talent is there. If Huke continues to improve his game by supplementing his gunskill with a growing situational knowledge, the victories will come. He’s definitely a player to watch out for going into the future of CoD eSports.