According to a new report from the Sports Business Journal, the inaugural season of the Call of Duty League in 2020 will not feature as many events as had been originally announced.
Despite the 2020 Call of Duty League season being less than a month away from launch, Activision are still implementing last-minute changes with the hopes of making the CDL’s first season a success.
Most notably, a recent bombshell announcement revealed that the regular season would be changed to the more familiar tournament-based format that CoD fans have become accustomed to over the past decade.
However, according to a report from Adam Stern, an esports reporter for the Sports Business Journal, this massive change won’t be without any repercussions.
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In his December 31 tweet, Stern claimed to have learned from sources that the CDL is “expected to hold fewer events in 2020 than originally anticipated, as part of its switch back to a tournament model.”
'@CODLeague is expected to hold fewer events in '20 than originally anticipated, as part of its switch back to a tournament model.
➖ Move was made in part because some teams were becoming overwhelmed at the prospect of hosting both CDL and @OverwatchLeague events, per source. pic.twitter.com/j9Tdiky5lK
— Adam Stern (@A_S12) December 31, 2019
According to Activision themselves, the change back to a tournament-based format means that “fans will get to see more matches and more teams competing at each home series weekend.”
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As a result, the 12-member franchises responsible for hosting these homestands will now have to accommodate for a larger number of matches than they’d originally anticipated.
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Many of these organizations also own franchises in the Overwatch League, and as Stern’s tweet above suggests, they’re becoming “overwhelmed at the prospect of hosting both CDL and OWL events,” now that they know the CDL events will feature more matches.
What does this mean for the 2020 CDL schedule?
Activision are yet to respond to this report, so nothing conclusive has been announced in terms of what this could mean in regards to the 2020 CDL schedule.
The original plan for the schedule, revealed on November 7, planned to host 22 homestands each weekend over the course of 22 weeks, with each city getting the chance to host two homestands, one in each half of the season. The schedule also included a Midseason Weekend and Championship Weekend on May 2 and August 9, respectively.
However, Activision have since removed that schedule and the ‘EVENTS’ tab as a whole from the official CDL website, so the indication is that it could be considerably changed or even completely scrapped and redone.
As always, we will continue to bring you the latest on this developing story as more information becomes available.
