The groups and opening matchups for the Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 tournament at the Esports World Cup have been revealed.
The tournament follows July’s Call of Duty League Championship, which saw FaZe win their first Champs in five years to deny OpTic a historic threepeat.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Esports World Cup Groups:
The sixteen-team tournament includes all 12 of the Call of Duty League’s rosters, as well as three teams from the Tier 2 Call of Duty Challengers 2026 Finals, as well as one Last Chance Qualifier. The LCQ runs on-site in Paris from July 31-August 2.
The main tournament will run from August 5-9, featuring double-elimination GSL groups where eight teams will progress to the single-elimination playoff bracket.
The Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Groups at the Esports World Cup 2026 are:
| Group A | Group B |
| FaZe Clan | OpTic Gaming |
| Movistar KOI | Team WaR |
| G2 Esports | 100 Thieves |
| Cloud9 | Boston Breach |
| Gentle Mates | Team Falcons |
| OMIT | Project Notorious |
| Carolina Royal Ravens | Team Heretics |
| Last Chance Qualifier | Vancouver Surge |
N.B.: For the Esports World Cup, the teams use the name of their parent organization over their CDL franchise names; therefore, OpTic Texas becomes OpTic Gaming, LA Thieves becomes 100 Thieves, and so on.
The Opening Matchups of the COD Bo7 EWC Groups are:
- Movistar KOI vs Carolina Royal Ravens
- FaZe Clan vs LCQ Winner
- G2 vs Cloud9
- Gentle Mates vs OMIT
- Optic Gaming vs Team WaR
- 100 Thieves vs Boston Breach
- Team Falcons vs Project Notorious
- Team Heretics vs Vancouver Surge
Six of the opening eight matches will be played on August 5, with the remaining two matches following on August 6 as the competition continues.
The $1,800,000 prize pool competition will close out the Black Ops 7 calendar, providing a final chance for OpTic to reassert themselves after their Grand Final loss at the CDL Championship. OpTic are defending champions at the event after their EWC 2025 triumph.
100 Thieves/LAT will be hoping to do the same after a humbling joint-last-place exit at the event, whereas FaZe will be looking to build on their success to create an era of their own after so much OpTic success in recent times.
Who do you think will take home the trophy in Paris? Let us know if you enjoyed it on the Insider Gaming Discord server.
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Darragh is an Esports Journalist for Insider Gaming specialising in Counter-Strike. He loves to explore how esports teams work, or why they very often do not.
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