Last year, rumors started circulating about Spacestation Gaming potentially entering the Call of Duty League. It came around the time that traditional esports organizations were snapping up spots left and right, with brands like Team Falcons, Cloud9, G2, and Gentle Mates all finding a place in the top tier of Call of Duty’s esports scene.
Spacestation was one such organization expected to enter the vertical, but the move never materialized. In a new statement posted on social media, the CEO of Spacestation, Shawn Pellerin, explained what happened.
Why Didn’t SSG Enter Call of Duty Esports?
In a post on social media, Pellerin, the CEO at SSG, explained:
What we found after deep diving into the economics is that the license, which would be “transferred” at a cost, was more of a liability than an asset. The real value is the brands attached to the license, making it hard to justify a heavy cost to obtain it.
The cost to operate vs revenue potential would also make it impossible to be competitive in the current ecosystem.
The other issue entering as a new organization was the lack of available talent to build around. Challengers does its job cycling new talent to the CDL teams but lacks purpose for a Challenger teams to improve with limited opportunities to compete against the best.
It’s a little bit of a condemnation against the Call of Duty League. Recently, the General Manager of the CDL, Daniel Tsay, sat down with Insider Gaming and revealed that the League is more financially stable than ever before, but that doesn’t mean it’s lucrative. It’s just stable.
The lack of talent circulation in the Call of Duty space has long been an issue, and it’s why the same core group of players is recycled from organization to organization with each passing year, bar a few. The rise of promising players through the Challengers circuit has become more commonplace in recent years, but it’s still the only avenue into the CDL, and that restricts global talent surfacing.
There’s a reason why the Call of Duty League is so strongly dominated by North American players.
Do you think Pellerin is right and there are inherent issues with the Call of Duty League? Let us know your thoughts on the Insider Gaming Discord server.
For more Insider Gaming coverage, check out the recent CDL issue with awful servers
Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
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