Asking a casual Call of Duty fan three years ago who the big organizations were in the esports scene would have likely resulted in OpTic Gaming, compLexity, FaZe Clan, Team EnVyUs or Team Kaliber as the answers. Rise Nation wasn't a name that would frequently come up, whether because of its relevancy or simply ranking in the top teams of the world. "Was" being the keyword there.





Rise Nation is no longer just a team that fans might know, but it's a name teams -- and fans of those teams -- fear. To truly respect and appreciate how far Rise Nation has come in Call of Duty, let's take a look at the organization's climb to the top.





Rise Nation entered Call of Duty in 2014 at the Call of Duty Championship US Regional Final with Jonathan "Pacman" Tucker, Jamal "Whea7s" Lee, Daniel "Loony" Loza and Damod "FEARS" Abney. The team only placed 5-6th but scored a major upset win against Curse LV, which fielded three of the defending and inaugural world champions.

During the rest of Ghosts, Rise made two roster changes, swapping out FEARS for Brian "Saint" Baroska and Saint for Dillon "Attach" Price. Rise's average finish at events in Ghosts was 8.2, signaling a hopeful future for an organization fielding two veterans and two up-and-coming players. But the organization would take a step backward during Advanced Warfare.





After losing Loony and Attach to Team Kaliber and Denial Esports, respectively, Rise rostered 14 different players over the course of seven lineups in Advanced Warfare. The oddest of the bunch was Patrick "ACHES" Price, former captain of the compLexity/Evil Geniuses dynasty who was undergoing a tumultuous season that year. Rise finished the season with a 9.9 average placing.





Then, at the start of the Black Ops 3 season, it all began to turn around for the organization. New rosters were created heading into the anticipated Call of Duty World League run by ESL, and Rise capitalized by welcoming back Loony and three new faces to the organization: Josiah "Slacked" Berry, Nicholas "Classic" DiCostanzo and Sam "Octane" Larew.





In the very first two events of the season, Rise already had two titles under its belt with the new lineup. Although one of them was an invitational event where the competition had no time to practice, it was still two events and $48,000 in prize winnings, almost doubling the team's winnings (excluding Call of Duty Championship) to the date. More importantly, it established Rise as the top contender to powerhouse OpTic Gaming.

The two teams would first meet in the CWL Stage 1 North America Playoffs in a classic best-of-seven series. OpTic came out on top, but a premier rivalry was laid out for fans to anticipate. Rise finished in the top three of every event except for MLG Orlando and the Call of Duty World League Championship that year, where the team placed 5-6th, by far the organization's best year in Call of Duty. Still, the team chased that illustrious title of being a CWL champion.





Heading into Infinite Warfare, Rise once again retooled its roster adding Ulysses "Aqua" Silva, Tyler "FeLonY" Johnson and Brice "Faccento" Faccento to join Loony. With Loony still captaining the team, Rise captured its first CWL title when the team defeated Cloud9 at CWL Las Vegas. The team's success would be guillotined by a drastically changed meta right after, failing to reach a grand final for the rest of the year. Rise's average placing after Las Vegas was 9.1.





It seemed like the big names would still remain supreme, with the additions of outside organizations entering Call of Duty like Luminosity and eUnited overshadowing the once impressive Rise Nation. Yet, little did fans know that a return to boots on the ground in World War II would signal Rise's unequivocal leap to the top of console's biggest FPS.





Rise switched out Faccento for returning young gun Thomas "TJHaly" Haly, signaling the first of four pivotal moves the organization would make in WWII. Rise sputtered out of CWL Dallas with a 13-16th finish before making trades two and three. Rise's next two moves would be trading Aqua to Echo Fox for Peirce "Gunless" Hillman and adding Anthony "Methodz" Zinni in place of FeLonY.





Immediately at the next event, Methodz and Gunless propelled Rise to a third place finish at CWL New Orleans, the organization's best finish in nearly a year. After more practice and refining, Rise captured its second CWL championship at CWL Atlanta. While it was just a single event win, Rise earned the respect of the community as at least a top two team in the game. One championship, though, wasn't going to solidify the organization as the best. The team would have to prove it throughout the rest of the year.





Rise failed to go back-to-back like Team Kaliber did at CWL Birmingham, and a last place finish at the CWL Pro League Stage 1 Playoffs put doubt into the collective's mind. Was Atlanta just a fluke? Was there still parity at the top of the standings? This performance led to the biggest roster change in the organization's history.





Following a string of disappointing finishes for Team EnVyUs in WWII, Austin "SlasheR" Liddicoat announced his free agency after also finishing dead last in the Stage 1 Playoffs. This move led Rise to pick up SlasheR in place of Methodz. The move alone had people considering Rise as the favorite heading into CWL Seattle considering SlasheR's reputation as arguably the best assault rifle player in the game.

Slasher to Rise Nation is a no brainer to me. It’s not a knock to Methodz whatsoever. He’s a great player. Slasher is just better imo.



Rise Nation are going to dominate or Slasher, Gunless and Loony are going to beat each other to death while TJ cries in a corner. — Clint Evans (@Maven) April 9, 2018

CWL Seattle, though, didn't instill much faith in the Rise Nation roster at the start of the event. Rise went 1-3, losing to Echo Fox, FaZe Clan, and open bracket team Lightning Pandas. Rise was heading to the loser's bracket in the new roster's first event. What happened next was simply magical.





Rise went on an insane LB run, defeating Heretics, compLexity, Team EnVyUs, Luminosity, Ghost Gaming, Echo Fox, eUnited and Evil Geniuses in two best-of-fives to win Seattle. To further exemplify Rise's run: Rise dropped nine maps in pool play, to only drop six maps en route to the organization's second title this season. It was a bracket run for the ages. But could this team find continued success?





CWL Anaheim, comparatively the ESL One Cologne of Call of Duty, started off with a similar vibe with Rise falling 0-3 to Team Kaliber. Was there going to be a repeat pool play performance from Seattle? To put it simply, no, there wasn't. Rise only dropped one map in its next three series to advance to the winner's bracket. Splyce and UNILAD were cake for Rise, sweeping both teams before coming to Red Reserve.





It was the matchup everyone was waiting for: The No. 1 seed for the event against the defending CWL Open champion. The series delivered on all fronts, going five maps (six if you count the replayed Hardpoint) with Rise closing it out 3-2. Rise later defeated Red again in the grand final in another insane series to capture its third title this season, the first team to do so in WWII.

Going into the final two major events of the year, the Stage 2 Playoffs and the CWL Championship, Rise Nation is solidified as the top team in Call of Duty. Not only that, but Rise has positioned itself with a strong roster heading into Black Ops 4. Gunless is in the middle of his best season yet, SlasheR is at the top of his game, Loony is a more than capable leader, and TJHaly is the young Search and Destroy star the organization hoped he'd be when he announced his competitive return.





Rise Nation underwent a massive transformation in World War II, asserting itself as a powerhouse in Call of Duty with a bright and promising future.





Photo courtesy of MLG/Uriel Espanoza