As each day goes by, the Call of Duty community gets closer to professional esports action. On January 24th, Call of Duty League’s inaugural season will get underway in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
As many fans know, the Call of Duty esports season is split up into three separate sections, professional play in Call of Duty League, the path to pro Call of Duty Challengers division, and the Call of Duty League City Circuit.
Call of Duty Challengers is a league for (mostly) amateurs to face-off in esports play.
There are three different ladders in Call of Duty Challengers, North America, European, and Asia Pacific, and teams face off in online and local area network LAN tournaments throughout the Call of Duty League season, ultimately ending during the last weekend of League play.
These LAN tournaments will typically be held at a Call of Duty League event, put on by the hosting city team.
The second official LAN event has been announced! The London Royal Ravens will be hosting a 32-team bracket Challenger tournament during Week 2 of the Call of Duty League, February 8th to 9th.
https://twitter.com/CODLeague/status/1207396438419755008
Passes went on sale at 9 AM EST this morning.
https://twitter.com/CODLeague/status/1207661978237276160
For $465, Challenger teams could buy a Team Pass for the Call of Duty Challengers London Royal Ravens Open tournament. And of course, it is already sold out. Up for grabs will be a minimum of $10,000 and 10,000 Challenger Points, which is huge for the teams serious about winning the Challengers division.
The purchased pass will grant five players and one coach entry into the London Royal Ravens Open bracket. Fans will be able to tune in to watch both the Challengers and League gameplay during the Week 2 event.
The teams competing in the Challengers tournament will be amateurs as well pros that never made it onto a League team.
Since the Call of Duty League only has 12 teams with a maximum of ten spots per team, a lot of professional gamers were left out of the League.
These Call of Duty gamers have been competing in Call of Duty Challengers as that is essentially the only option for them. Challengers has been designed for amateur players to compete against eachother to gain esports experience and hopefully become pro one day. But with the high number of professionals not making a Call of Duty League roster, it isn’t exactly that.
There is a dynamic mix of amateurs and pros in Challengers, so it will be interesting to see how the league shakes out in the end.