Call of Duty esports has a long and storied history, with hundreds of players at the top level that even some of the most celebrated CoD historians won’t know about. But who are some of the most underrated players we’ve ever seen?
It would be impossible to give a complete list for this, with so many who never reached the highs their talents were capable of, or simply with fans forgetting just how dominant certain players were in the past.
Within this list is a mix of world champions, as well as players who never managed to secure a LAN championship at all, these are some of the most underrated Call of Duty pros of all time.
James ‘Replays’ Crowder
Formerly Replays before adopting his surname as his go-to alias, Crowder is a name that is rarely spoken about in the Call of Duty world, despite his exhaustive success in the scene as both a player and a coach.
Crowder won a world championship in 2015 as well as two other major championships throughout his career, and helped mold a number of top talent to become the players they became. As a coach, he has excelled beyond any other with 100 Thieves and Atlanta FaZe.
Daniel ‘Loony’ Loza
Loony is currently a coach at Minnesota Røkkr, after a lengthy career winning championships as the glue guy for a number of top teams.
Like many of the other names on this list, Loony had a brain for Call of Duty that not many did, always putting himself in winning positions despite not always being the greatest slayer or most individually talented player.
Jordan ‘Jkap’ Kaplan
Having a two-time world champion and one of the most decorated CoD players of all time on this list feels a bit odd, but many fans — especially those who are newer to the scene — are somewhat ignorant to just how great Jkap once was.
In fact, considering how much success Jkap saw throughout the latter stages of his career, it’s actually the early days where he really excelled, being one of the most feared players in Modern Warfare 2 and Black Ops 1. While people might scoff at Jkap’s stats in his final seasons, he always found himself on winning teams — and that was no accident.
Jordan ‘Jurd’ Crowley
A European star whose career never really took off in the way it should, this Irishman had immense talent but it just came at the wrong time. Alongside the likes of Swanny, Tommey, and Madcat, Jurd was one of a veteran group of European players who frequently competed with North Americans and even won himself a championship in Infinite Warfare.
Of all of those players, though, Jurd always felt like he could most naturally fit into an NA side and have a successful career competing in America. If he (and the others mentioned) was 18 or 19 going into the launch of the CDL, his playstyle would have made him a highly sought-after player.
Ian ‘Enable’ Wyatt
The one-thumb phenom, Enable had a very successful Call of Duty career, but very rarely gets his flowers for it. He went to a world championship grand final in back-to-back seasons, a ‘dirty work’ type of player who wouldn’t be dropping 1.2 KDs each series but would always be doing what’s best for the team.
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He, unfortunately, found himself on a Seattle Surge team at the start of franchising in which only one player is still actively playing to this day — the rest all retired somewhat hastily either during the season or in the months following it.
Jonathan ‘John’ Perez
John, for anybody who is new to the scene, was a random Challengers player who perhaps had a bit of a backstory, that came into the big leagues to join LA Thieves and Paris Legion for a very brief, forgettable stint.
In reality, though, John was a demon for much of his career, dating all the way back to the original Black Ops 1 days. He won in almost every title he ever played until the Black Ops 4 season ended, including one world championship and a second-place finish the following year, alongside Jkap in Black Ops 3 and Infinite Warfare.
Nicholas ‘Classic’ DeConstanzo
Classic, or NickyD, the FaZe reaper as he’s come to be known in these later stages of his career, is a criminally underrated player and has been for some time.
He is someone who has regularly won championships over the years, for a very long time a supremely capable flex player that could easily go toe-to-toe with the best. He’s still competing to this day, and was even a Challengers Champs winner in 2022, showing there’s still some fight left.
Denholm ‘Denz’ Taylor
If European Call of Duty fans feel like they get a hard time in their region, it’s nothing compared to what the Australians on the other side of the world have to suffer through. Pre-franchising, there was always one team from Australia that could actually compete against the EU and NA teams, and that was Mindfreak.
Arguably the best of them all, though (and certainly the highest earner) was Denz, who also played for Reciprocity in Black Ops 4 and Paris Legion in Modern Warfare. Now, he’s the general manager of Boston Breach. If he had come from the US, could his fortunes have changed? Statistically, he was always a solid performer and showed in IW that he could compete with the best teams and place high.
Of course, there are so many other players that could be included in this list, but it would be impossible to list everyone. The likes of Nameless, Tommey, Saints, Rambo, BigTymer, and many others all deserve a mention as players who pioneered the esport in one way or another, or don’t get their flowers for having been great players once upon a time.
Often, those most underrated are the ones who weren’t making flashy plays with high KDs, so it will be interesting to see what a list like this would look like in 5 or 10 years’ time as the current crop of players starts retiring. Even better, you can compare some of these to our best CoD players of all time list.
