Activision has announced that the upcoming Call of Duty League post-season schedule--including the Championship--will be held as a virtual tournament, not an in-person LAN event as has been the case in the past. The announcement is not a big surprise, as the regular season took place online due to the COVID-19 crisis. With the pandemic still gripping the USA and other parts of the world, this year's event has moved to an online-only setup.

"Due to continuing health risks associated with COVID-19 and our collective priority focus on protecting the safety of our teams, players, league staff, and partner personnel, the remainder of the season will be held online," Activision said in a news release. "This decision was made with great care, communication, and consideration over the course of many discussions."

To support this change, the League is giving all competitors a "universal camera setup" that will be switched on for the entirety of matches. This will give League officials the ability to ensure players are not keeping things above the line. "The cameras will provide visibility for league officials to view and check each competitor's console, controller, and monitor as needed," Activision said. "Once a match reaches an official ready check status, players will need to be seated and on camera."

Since the start of the online-only tournament this year, teams have had the ability to veto servers if they don't feel comfortable playing on them. For the post-season, teams will be able to veto a server five times for each match, which is more than during the regular season. "By adding more options, we have increased the probability of getting the best possible server for both teams," Activision said. "Additionally, with more servers in play for each match, there will also be more fallback options if there's an unexpected issue."

Finally, Activision said it is beefing up its production, technical, and officiating teams to try to be better prepared "to handle any and all issues that might crop up in an online competition environment."

More details on this new online setup for the Call of Duty League championships will be announced soon.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Warzone remain very popular, with the battle royale game just recently releasing its big Season 4 Reloaded update. A new Call of Duty game is coming this year, and it's rumored to be a Black Ops title, but Activision has yet to announce it. That's notable because this is the first time in more than a decade that Activision has not announced the year's new Call of Duty game in May or June.



Posted: Jul 07, 2020 5:39 pm
Related Forum: Call of Duty Forum

Source: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/call-of-duty-league-championship-will-be-held-onli/1100-6479335/