On January 24th, one of the most competitive competitions ever devised in the world of Call of Duty (CoD) as an esport, when the Call of Duty League 2020 begins. This will see 12 teams from across the world, travel across the globe playing each other for weeks to come in order to take home the prestigious title of being the first-ever Call of Duty League 2020 Champion.
Despite this being its first year, it will instantly be a massively popular league for fans of Call of Duty as the action in the Cod League Calendar goes far into the year. This means there will be regular events for fans to watch and enjoy as the top Call of Duty teams in the world battle it out in various offline venues across the globe. For the players, it is a grueling competition and they need to be on top of their game consistently over its duration. However, it is well worth the commitment as there is a massive prize pool of $ 6,000,000 – the lion’s share of which will be won by the team who comes out on top of the league when all is said and done.
Let’s take a dive into the competition and see what we can expect over the next weeks and months in the Call of Duty League 2020.
How to qualify for the main event
Unlike some other prominent events in the Call of Duty and Esports Calendar, qualification for the Call of Duty League worked a little bit different as there was no qualification process, per se. It is believed instead, that teams involved in this competition qualified not respective of skill but had to pay a substantial price tag in order to be considered for the main event. According to the ESPN this amount paid by owners of the franchise’s competing was set at $25 million per team – with all 12 teams having to pay that in order to get involved in the competition.
While this has not been substantiated, it is perhaps unsurprising due to the nature of this event. Compared to other esports, Call of Duty doesn’t have the same prominence or high profile and so with this being one of the biggest ever Call of Duty esports competitions, franchises were chomping at the bit to get involved. The result of this being that the Call of Duty 2020 league will brag some of the biggest teams in the business.
Tournament Format
As the name suggests, the Call of Duty League 2020 works in a league format, with points earnt over 13 different separate regionals happening over 13 weeks, with each of the events being held in a different location. Each of these locations is home to one of the 12 participants. As such, each participating team essentially hosts its own regional event and has a home advantage of sorts.
Most of the teams are from North America, so the majority will be held in various locations across the United State states. However, there will also be two weeks (the first and second to last) that will be held in London, one week that will be held in Paris, and the final week is going to be held in Toronto. These 13 weeks also includes an All-Star Weekend event, the location of which is yet to be confirmed. It is expected that the final event in Toronto will happen towards the end of May 2020. With this considered, the Call of Duty League 2020 can very much be considered a marathon and not a sprint.
8 of the 12 teams will appear at each of these regional events, except for the opening weekend when all 12 teams will partake. At these events, there will be points up for grabs that are reflective of your standing when that event comes to an end – plus 10 CDL Points per win are awarded over the 13 weeks. The standings will be the real determiner though and where teams finish in the tournament will be huge a factor in deciding the ultimate champion. The points per finishing place are as follows:
· 50 CDL Points for 1st Place
· 30 CDL Points for 2nd Place
· 20 CDL Points for 3rd/4th Place
· 10 CDL Points for 5th/6th Place
· 0 CDL Points for 7th-8th Plac
Each of these regional events will offer a group stage followed by a bracket stage – both of which will play out in a Bo5 format. The way this will work is the top 2 teams from each group advancing to the Bracket Stage. The group stages winners advance to the semi-finals as High Seeds, while the group stage runners-up advance to the Semi-finals as Low Seeds. The outright winner of each regional event will be determined by a grand finale between the winners of the semis.
List of Teams
The 12 teams competing in the Call of Duty 2020 league are as follows:
· ATL FaZe
· CHI Huntsmen
· DAL Empire
· FL Mutineers
· LDN Royal Ravens
· LA Guerrillas
· MN RØKKR
· NY Subliners
· OpTic Gaming LA
· PAR Legion
· SEA Surge
· TOR Ultra
Schedule list
The locations per week are as follows;
Week 1 – Minnesota (Launch Weekend) – Jan 24-26
FRI, JAN 24 (All times CET)
11:30 PM
- Chicago Huntsmen VS Dallas Empire
SAT, JAN 25
12:45 AM
- Seattle Surge VS Florida Mutineers
SAT, JAN 25
2:00 AM
- Los Angeles Guerrillas VS Minnesota Røkkr
SAT, JAN 25
8:30 PM
- New York Subliners VS London Royal Ravens
SAT, JAN 25
9:45 PM
- Toronto Ultra VS Seattle Surge
SAT, JAN 25
11:00 PM
- Los Angeles Guerrillas VS Florida Mutineers
SUN, JAN 26
12:15 AM
- Optic Gaming Los Angeles VS Paris Legion
SUN, JAN 26
1:30 AM
- Atlanta Faze VS Dallas Empire
SUN, JAN 26
8:30 PM
- Paris Legion VS London Royal Ravens
SUN, JAN 26
10:00 PM
- Chicago Huntsmen VS Optic Gaming Los Angeles
MON, JAN 27
12:00 AM
- New York Subliners VS Atlanta Faze
MON, JAN 27
1:15 AM
- Toronto Ultra VS Minnesota Røkkr
London – Feb 8-9
Atlanta – Feb 22-23
Los Angeles – Mar 7-8
Dallas – Mar 28-29
Chicago – Apr 4-5
Florida – Apr 11-12
Seattle – Apr 18-19
Minnesota – May 9-10
Paris – May 16-17
New York – Jun 6-7
London – Jun 20-21
Toronto – Jun 27-28
All-Star Weekend (TBA)
Championship Weekend (TBA)
Streaming platform list
The main platform by which you can view these weekly events will be Twitch and you can guarantee you won’t miss any of the action there. The other options are YouTube, sports betting sites that offer esports, or other specialist esports streaming sites.
Streaming on esportsguide.com
One of the best sites for watching the game. The perfect guide for users that are new or already into esports. Providing an extensive list of the biggest esports together with streams for each esports match live today or upcoming matches.
Predictions
The teams featuring in the tournament despite the pay to play qualification procedure consist of some of the best quality teams in the world of esports and you will find the utmost quality here. Due to this, who is going to come out on top in 13 weeks’ time is hard to tell. This said, the tournament is dominated by the US teams and so obviously they have the advantage on numbers alone. Specifically, though, Chicago Huntsmen or Dallas Empire are looking to early favorites based on track record. However, if you want to bet on an outside, European outfit, the London Royal Ravens would be a good shout.