The Call of Duty League has laid out its roadmap for the first season of Call of Duty Challengers, the amateur series of events, with a $1 million prize pool across the year.
With multiple tournaments spread throughout the season – including at both Call of Duty League and Challengers-only events – Call of Duty is aiming to give its amateur players more incentive to compete, and a better chance at making a living from the esport.
The roadmap features three major Challengers events, as well as details on the smaller $2k tournaments at weekends and when each CDL/Challengers-only event will be, including a huge tournament to see off the season.
Although certain information was already available to us – the 2k tournaments, CDL event weekends and Launch Weekend prize pool – the announcements of a big mid-season event and the tournament on Championship Weekend were news to the community.
During an unannounced league weekend in Summer 2020, Challengers will be provided a $250,000 prize pool and 25,000 points to fight for, the same as were available at the CDL Launch Weekend in Minnesota.
Not only that, but there will be a $500,000 Challengers tournament in the summer over Championship weekend, where pro teams will also be battling it out for the lion share of their $6 million prize pool.
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https://twitter.com/CODLeague/status/1224814891082698754
The $1 million total prize pool is an impressive figure and shows increasing support for the amateur scene, with the Call of Duty League’s Jack Felling saying that he’s “really proud of the program” and says that they’re “one of the few (only?) [franchised leagues] to support massive open bracket amateur events.”
I’m really proud of this program. Stoked that as part of a franchised league we are one of the few (only?) to support massive open bracket amateur events.
? Over $1M in prize pools ✈️ Top 16 travel coverage ?️ League events and every team franchise is hosting at least one ?
— JackFelling (@JackFellingX) February 4, 2020
As well as the above, the team-hosted opens, such as the upcoming one in London on February 8-9, will feature $10k prize pools and 10k pro points on the line.
The dates for Challengers-only events are confirmed to be Feb 29-March 1 (Paris), March 21-22 (Toronto) and May 21-24 (Atlanta), and people are expecting the mid-season event to fall around mid-June, between the New York and London homestands.
