Call of Duty franchise is known to the regular gamer since 2003, and even after 16 years since first release remains on the top of the industry. However, there is always a way to develop yourself, so in 2019 CoD publisher Activision Blizzard decided to “change the game” by creating Call of Duty League to expand their impact on the esports industry. This league began its way on 24th of January, 2020, so our team decided to make some investigation in order to introduce you to this new kid on the block and to support new undertakings.

The league is composed of 12 professional city-based teams representing American and European markets. Nowadays implying a traditional sports concept into the esports tournaments is a thing, like League of Legends Championship Series by Riot Games or Overwatch League.

Playing conditions

The tournament is held within a PS4 version of the CoD: Modern Warfare in a 5-on-5 team format.

Basing on the idea of traditional sports organizers provide their members with a signed contracts which include a guaranteed base salary of 50,000 $ as well as healthcare and retirement benefits. Also, players can earn additional prizes during the season. Moreover, each franchise is obliged to split the 50% of prize pool earnings with players.

Time to meet the teams

Atlanta FaZe - owned by Atlanta Esports Ventures (they also possess Atlanta Reign in the Overwatch league) in collaboration with the one of CoD’s famous organisations FaZe Clan. The roster consists of the youngest members, but it doesn’t interfere their gaming talent.

Dallas Empire - this team has won their way up to the top of the league being one of the most popular teams. Is owned by Envy Gaming and affiliated with Team Envy.

Florida Mutineers - is owned and operated by Misfits Gaming. Their ace up in their sleeve is their general manager OGRE2 who is one of the greatest console players of all time.

London Royal Ravens - these guys represent the United Kingdom and are managed by ReKTGlobal, the parent company of Rogue.

Los Angeles Guerrillas - one of the teams that represent Los Angeles. Owned by Kroenke Sports & Entertainment.

OpTic Gaming Los Angeles - second Los Angeles team, that doesn’t require any representation. OpTic Gaming has had the most powerful rosters and remains on the top of the CoD industry.

Paris Legion - this team stands for France and for c0ntact Gaming, LLC. This company also has a Paris Eternal spot in the Overwatch league.

Minnesota RøKKR - is hosted by WISE Ventures, LLC - investment fund based in Manhattan.

New York Subliners - owned by young company called Andbox, which has a top-tier Overwatch League team NYXL, and now they decided to conquer CoD industry.

Seattle Surge - debuting in January, the Seattle Surge had their first major competition, where they showed their strong potential.

Toronto Ultra - the main rival of the Minnesota RøKKR, is hosted by OverActive Media, that combines franchised team ownership with audience engagement to connect with fans. OverActive Media is also known for the ownership of the MAD Lions team, which has its own slot in the European League of Legends Championship Series.

Last, but not least - Chicago Huntsmen - owned and operated by NRG.

“Like the land we come from, we are ready for anything; rain, wind, sun or snow we’ve been through it all and have the scars to prove it. The Huntsmen are more than just the biggest names in the game. The Huntsmen are tenacious. The Huntsmen are champions.” - Chicago Huntsmen.

Spoiler alert, below you will know why they are real MVP’s of the league based on our statistics.

Viewership analytics

In order to understand current situation our team has analysed the latest event - Call of Duty League 2020 London, which was held on the last week.

As we can see, the star of the event by Average Viewers is Chicago Huntsmen team, which held the full attention of the event’s audience, basing on the fact that 4 out of 5 most popular matches include their participation, even though, the main rival of Chicago Dallas Empire has overtaken Chicago in “Hours Watched” category almost on 10%.

Despite the pressure from other teams, Chicago Huntsmen were on the 1st place basing on hours watched and average viewers categories in terms of the previous Call of Duty League Launch Weekend. Moreover, you can read our detailed statistical review in our blog.

The future of the franchise

According to the leaked CoD franchise league deck by Dexerto the company expects to boost their slot price to over $45 million in ten years by developing their suggested “traditional sports” model. It should be noted that current price tag ($25 million per slot) has led to the nonparticipation of Evil Geniuses, even though they have been a part of CoD community since 2014.

In total, the league is foreseen to expand their roster to 28 home-based teams and we will be glad to provide you with new statistics.

So, you can find out about future CoD league events by following our social pages.

GL&HF!