Five Questions We Have Before The Call of Duty State of the Union
With only a few more days until the Esports Business Summit, one of the panels we’re most excited for is the Call of Duty State of the Union from Activision Blizzard. We’re only months away from the launch of the Call of Duty League, and we still have many questions. These are the things that we’re most hoping to hear about.
1. We’d like to learn more about the commissioner
Johanna Faries is the commissioner of the Call of Duty League, and we still don’t know a ton about her when it comes to esports. She’s a former Vice President for the NFL, having managed club business development. She was then the product head for Call of Duty at Activision. Now she steps in as the head honcho of the Call of Duty League.
While she seems to have a good mind for the game, it’ll be interesting to get an idea of what her priorities will be for the competitive scene. Much like the Overwatch League was built on the back of Nate Nanzer, Call of Duty League will be built on the back of Johanna Faries.
2. What will be changing from the CWL format?
Call of Duty is a very old esports scene. Aside from games like Counterstrike and Starcraft, Call of Duty is one of the oldest esports that is still running. With that comes a lot of expectation for how the game will run as an esport. Nevertheless, a franchised, week over week league will require significant shifts in how the game is presented. Hopefully, we’ll get an outline of how the weekly scoring and match ups will work.
3. Will more teams be announced?
So far, we have seven teams announced for the Call of Duty League. I don’t think anyone believes that there’s only going to be seven teams in the league. It would be exciting if a new team were unveiled at the esports business summit, but I’m hopeful that we at least get an idea of how many total teams they’re looking for. Overwatch League ran 12 teams their first season, and expanded to 20 in season two. Call of Duty League may look to do something similar.
4. Where will teams be playing?
Along with finding out who is in the league, we’re hopeful to find out where they’re going to be playing. Overwatch League is scheduled to begin home and away match-ups every week as they move into season 3. However, every report is that Call of Duty League will start off with home and away matches. Many teams in OWL still haven’t announced their venues, so this event could provide that opportunity. Nevertheless, with only months left before these leagues begin, we need to start getting an idea of where the players will be playing.
5. What happens when new Call of Duty games come out?
This is always one of the hot button issues with Call of Duty games. A new one comes out almost every year and not every Call of Duty game is created equal. Some are well received and beloved, others are not. Unlike League of Legends and Overwatch, Call of Duty League may well have to stake its popularity on how good the most recent entry in the franchise is.
Another option would be to settle on a well liked game and just keep running with that, but that has its drawbacks as well. It’ll be interesting to see how Call of Duty League plans to manage new entries in the franchise. Hopefully, we’ll get some answers to these questions and more when Johanna Faries and Katie Bedford take the stage on Wednesday at 11:30. As always, stay tuned to Checkpoint XP for the latest.