The Call of Duty League has been the pinnacle of COD esports for the last five years. It’s the top-most tier of the competitive ecosystem, a multi-million-dollar league backed by the biggest names in modern gaming such as FaZe, OpTic, Cloud9, and 100 Thieves. Behind the scenes, one company has worked tirelessly to bring several teams to the next level in the Call of Duty League.
Enter Adamas, a performance, leadership, and development coaching organisation that has supported more than half the teams in the Call of Duty League. This effective, invaluable group has been a secret power for many of today’s CDL squads, including those that have gone on to claim the most lucrative prizes in the competitive space.
I was recently fortunate enough to catch up with Adamas at the CDL Madrid Major, and I took the opportunity to question some of the COD League’s players about the impact this organisation has on their performance.
The Power of Adamas
I’ve been connected with Adamas for more than two years, taking a special interest in the organisation around the time that the New York Subliners went on a phenomenal run through the 2023 CDL season. The squad managed to secure two Major trophies and then won COD Champs, all while under the guidance and gravity of Adamas Esports.
In the last three years, Adamas has directly influenced the performances of the teams that have claimed seven out of 13 possible major tournaments, including the Call of Duty League Championship and the inaugural Esports World Cup in Riyadh.
At the CDL Major in Madrid, Atlanta FaZe stormed to victory just weeks after winning the first CDL Minor, all while being closely aligned with Adamas and singing the company’s praises. I connected with Atlanta FaZe’s superstar players at the Major in Spain, catching up on their impressions of Adamas.
(They have) helped us tremendously. I feel like with everything — every aspect of our team, when it comes to trusting each other, being more of a team in all those ways, I feel like (they’ve) been just insane.
They’ve done so much for us already.
– Tyler ‘aBeZy’ Pharris
Tyler went on to note that Adamas has made the team’s mentality ‘tenfold better‘.
Even those who don’t ‘believe’ in the practices that Adamas preaches eventually see the benefit in what the company offers. I caught up with Cellium, one of the best Call of Duty players in the world, to get his two cents on Adamas:
Yeah, I was going to say I’ve never really been a believer in that whole ‘thing’. (They have) definitely proved me wrong with that, because (they’ve) helped me and the team a lot.
– McArthur ‘Cellium’ Jovel
I also had a chance to chat with the LA Thieves, sitting down with Scrap and Ghosty, two of the team’s more prolific players. They shared similar sentiments about Adamas, which also acts as a performance and development resource for the 100 Thieves-backed CDL team.
I feel like it helps a lot with the team cameraderie, just being comfortable with each other, fully trusting each other, calming yourself down if you need to. Mostly the team cameraderie aspect.
We’re a brand-new team, only been playing with each other two, three months total, and speedening up the process, (they’ve) helped quite a bit with that.
– Dan ‘Ghosty’ Rothe
We’re all just a fun team to be around, we be hanging out outside of the game as well, I think we’re super comfortable on stage together. I think (they’ve) made it even better for us.
– Thomas ‘Scrap’ Ernst
From the Source
I had an extended chat with Matt ‘Fish’ Fisher, the Director of Performance at Adamas Esports and one of the nicest and most confident people I’ve ever met. He started his CDL journey with the New York Subliners, aligning himself with the industry greats like James ‘Clayster’ Eubanks and working to instil an ‘identity of athlete’ where the concept had never before surfaced.
He gave me the secret recipe for the company’s work inside the Call of Duty League:
One of our core philosophies at Adamas is that we take a human-centered approach. Regardless of the game you play, the happier and healthier you are as a human being, the better you will perform both in game and in life.
We haven’t taught a single COD player or coach how to improve their strategies or technical skills, but we have helped them recognise how optimising other aspects of their lives will have a carry-over effect to in-game.
Much of our work is in helping to establish and maintain a team culture and environment that is conducive to both wellness and performance. Our goal is to set these organisations up with a foundation that will lead to consistent performance year after year, and allow their talent to perform to their full potential.
And the results are certainly front and centre for all to see. Fish gave me critical insights into the end-to-end process, from the team-building exercises to pre-match traditions and preparations. He noted that while we were talking, the Atlanta FaZe team was ‘meditating’ backstage, suggesting that it’s a practice that might seem unorthodox or invalid to some players.
That was shortly before FaZe went on to win the first CDL Major of the 2025 season.
Last season, the Adamas folks teamed up with the LA Guerrillas, a squad that almost went dark for a while as it tussled with internal issues and a lack of funding.
The roster was made up mostly of untested talent, but as Fish put it, ‘We feel like they were able to prove that a ‘bare bones’ team with minimum investment in player salaries and staff, supported by Adamas’ expertise, could lead to results that many considered a huge ‘overachievement’.’
From the top to the bottom, Adamas supports the Call of Duty League. The organisation helps the players immeasurably, but there’s also plenty of time spent with organisation owners and general managers, with the company promoting a growth mindset that allows the key decision-makers to make the right decisions, which at the end of the day, benefits everyone.
The Call of Duty League’s 2025 season continues to unravel. From this Friday, the qualifiers are back for Major II, and beyond that, there are another five months of competitive coverage lined up.
Stay tuned to Insider Gaming for all the latest Call of Duty esports news.
For more Insider Gaming esports, check out the latest drama unfolding from the Rainbow Six Siege space
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