It turns out that the Call of Duty League, Activision’s massive 2020 esports tournament for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, may have been a bit too ambitious. Following Activision’s recent announcement that they would be shifting to a traditional tournament format, reports have emerged that this shift is actually an effort to scale back the League’s schedule of events. The reason, according to the report, was that many of the participating franchises felt that they were at risk of being “overwhelmed”.
Why Activision is Scaling Back the Call of Duty League
The Call of Duty League is Activision’s first official esports tournament for Call of Duty. The tournament was announced late last year, shortly after the release of Modern Warfare, with rather ambitious plans for 2020. However, on the 24th of December, Activision announced that they would be shifting the league model to a more traditional tournament format. At the time, the assumption was that this was just the result of fan feedback. However, a new report from Sports Business Journal’s Adam Stern suggests that other factors were behind the shift.
According to Stern, the shift to tournament play is more intended to reduce the load on participating franchises; of the twelve franchises affiliated with the League, nine will be hosting both Call of Duty League and Overwatch League events for Activision Blizzard. The original Call of Duty League schedule would have had every team host two weekend events each. However, those franchises who will be hosting Overwatch League events as well evidently feel that this would be too much. As such, Activision is reducing the demand to a single event each, following the shift to tournament play. (The opening weekend will still feature more events, but this won’t be the norm for the rest of the season.)
Following the change, the League is now due to begin on the weekend of the 8th-9th of February. (The first weekend’s events will be taking place in London.) A revised version of the League schedule is available here. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare isn’t the only major FPS title launching a huge esports league in 2020, however. Fans also have the Apex Legends Global Series to look forward to; a similarly huge and ambitious set of events.