Since 2020, fans of the Call of Duty esports scene have questioned the downsizing of the top-most tier of the competitive ecosystem. When the Call of Duty League was created, it was cut to accommodate just twelve franchised teams, which has long been a sticking point with viewers and competitors alike.
During a recent stream, LA Thieves’ Dylan ‘Envoy’ Hannon spit some home truths about the state of play in response to his chat talking about ‘expanding’ the CDL. He’s of the mindset that an expansion would just yield more ‘dogsh**’ teams and that there isn’t enough talent to flesh out a broadened COD League.
‘Even More Uncompetitive’
The Call of Duty League has long had a problem with competitive integrity or ‘balance’. The best example of this right now is the split between Atlanta FaZe and the Vegas Falcons. The former team has claimed two of two Major tournaments this year, while the latter org is yet to win a single series this season.
There are teams in the CDL that just cannot compete against the top-tier squads, and Envoy argues that adding more teams to match the days of the Call of Duty World League wouldn’t solve the problem. If anything, it’d make the situation worse.
That’s because there just aren’t enough good players coming up to fill rosters.
Expansion is not needed. That s*** is dead. You think some of the matches are boring to watch now?
The talent is just not good anymore, bro. It’s straight up. Like, some of the talent nowadays is better and the teams are structured better, but there is way less talent.
For CWL, last time there were sixteen teams, the bottom six teams were still dogsh**. These matches will be even more uncompetitive. It’s unfortunate for like, the Falcon boys and stuff. They’re obviously making switches after they tried out their roster, but like…
If you added four more teams, it would all be like that, unless you just added like — you made like a draft. It doesn’t change that all the top teams have the best budget, most resources.
(Thanks to SpawnUp for the clip)
He argued that the lowest teams in the Call of Duty League are on par with Challengers teams, which is the circuit that operates beneath the CDL.
Recently, Ubisoft’s VP of Esports went on record stating that, without new talent, esports games will die. If there isn’t enough fresh talent passing through the rotation to keep rosters stacked and the scene competitive, titles will simply die.
Do you think the COD League has a balancing issue? Let me know your thoughts in the comments or on the Insider Gaming forum.
For more Insider Gaming coverage, check out the news that Adin Ross is back on Twitch
Comments