I went to the Call of Duty World Championship and it completely changed my outlook on gaming
From the smell of medium rare steaks emitting from Hell's Kitchen to the sound of crashing water at the Bellagio Fountains, the taste of regret around a roulette table, and the famed lights that never sleep pointed at four worshipped celebrities on centre stage, who knew you could get this celebration of the senses from Call of Duty?
Over 100,000,000 accounts have played Call of Duty. It’s the biggest live-service gaming franchise in the world, worth $60billion. But to most, it’s an evening pastime with old buddies or a fast dopamine hit after a tiring day at work. Activision continues to deliver with new titles, legacy throwback ports, and so much more, but I’ve just found that the real beauty of gaming lies deep into its esports niche.
Thanks to Monster Energy, partners of the Call of Duty League and three of its most iconic teams, I was able to explore just what goes into producing the pinnacle event in its esports calendar, and it’s an experience that you wouldn’t expect from a gaming competition.
They say what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, but not in this case, as we go behind the curtain of the $2 million Call of Duty League World Championships finals.
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I arrived in Vegas on Wednesday, and before I’d even seen the first Elvis Presley impersonator or the lights of the Sphere, Las Vegas was abuzz with Call of Duty League World Championship fever. Nervously waiting in line for passport checks, hoping nothing had changed with my ESTA VISA, I was hit with the question of “Why are you here, Jack?”
“To watch the Call of Duty Championship.”
“OpTic or FaZe?”
The passport control guard caught me completely off-guard with a wry smile. G2 Minnesota is my choice of team if I had to pick one, but as for the favourites, I couldn’t look past OpTic.
But it was immediately apparent that the city was immensely proud to be hosting a gaming tournament of this magnitude.
Call of Duty was grabbing attention across the skyline too, with the faces of the hometown favourites being aired on billboards across the strip. Kelly Clarkson, The Backstreet Boys, Steve Aoki, Shin Lim, Penn & Teller, and Chris “Simp” Lehr. Sin City was alive, and dancing in the lights of Call of Duty icons.
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Treasure Island was to be our home for five days. Greeted by a casino singing with harmonic jackpot dings and acoustic busted sighs, it was nothing short of bizarre to see the Hangover in action. Upstairs, the 28th-floor view was dominated by the gold of Trump Tower and the setting sun over the desert cliffs.
Come the morning, a typically huge portion of breakfast filled with pastries, eggs, avocado, blueberry pancakes, and steaming coffee with the Monster Energy crew got us ready to head over to the arena, where another world awaited.
A pantheon for adored gaming heroes
Walking through the Mandalay Bay casino, adorned with steakhouses and sportsbook bars, the Michelob Arena doors swung open as our Partner passes paved the way past thousands of entering fans.
Inside, the first wave of commotion came from a meet-and-greet with OpTic Texas and FaZe Vegas as the starting players of the tournament favourites posed for pictures with a line over an hour long. These were no ordinary lads who had a talent for holding a joystick in the right direction; they were gods in the eyes of men, athletic, nutritious, unconscious of their aura.
Further down, after pushing past queues of hot pretzel stands, burger stalls, and pop-up XL soda shacks, the US Army stall had fans pumping iron and chin-ups in spectacular fashion - I hit third on the press-ups record, but that was soon eclipsed by Sunday.
The press room, typically, was stored deep underneath the action, but luckily, I was a partner, and the VIP suites beckoned.
Here, an array of treats was on tap all weekend long. Grandma's cookies, endless coffee and Monster in three flavours, buffalo chicken wings and nachos with dip, and any cocktail you could dream of (I refrained from a Modelo larger or a margarita due to being on business, but others enjoyed themselves).
Centrecourt seats aren’t a thing in professional gaming events as teams are put on a stage in the centre, but the next best seats in the house were ours as one row of VIP spots in the centre of the upper ring were given to us.
From here, the action was electric.
Of the hundreds of millions of players that Call of Duty has attracted, the World Championship features just eight teams and 32 of its elite players, and we were primed to watch the action unfold from day one, with an iced vanilla latte in hand.
Followers of the Call of Duty League circuit may be familiar with the household name of the Los Angeles Thieves - a franchised spin-off of the 100 Thieves team founded by streaming icon Matthew “Nadeshot” Haag and backed by Drake - but for those not acclimatised with the standings, they were hot favourites alongside OpTic Texas to lift the trophy. Thieves’ duo of Thomas “Scrap” Ernst and “Nium” collected the MVP and Rookie of the Year awards for the regular season phase to open the day in a celebration of their achievements throughout the year.
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Yet the arena was left stunned as the Thieves' roulette-wheel-inspired black-and-red outfits were hooked from the competition after just two games. Controllers were launched, smashed, and spiked as the MVP cried foul at a faulty PC. Even on the biggest stage of all, the typical gaming complaints persisted. These were adored icons, the top 0.001 percent of players, and they still have the same tantrums as me, hardstuck in Diamond on Ranked Play.
My day was full of interviews, getting the tea on the green room chaos courtesy of casting duo Joe “Merk” DeLuca and Clint “Maven” Evans, who were marvelling over the best series of their 12-year careers and explaining how colleague Chris Puckett was equally as invested in Katy Perry concerts as he was in the Call of Duty action. That earned him the reputation of ‘a psychopath.’
So much more than point-and-click action
Over the weekend, it was more of the same; Unearthing the nuances of Search and Destroy strategies that put an NFL playbook to shame; Upgrading my palette with Michelin-star meals; Uncovering stories of how Warzone streamer and Monster partner Ethan “FIFAKILL” Pink talked Call of Duty with Floyd Mayweather last time he was in Vegas, and how MMA star Max Holloway once threatened to beat him up if he beat the fighter in the battle royale game.
It turns out Ethan’s gaming career has taken him to Lando Norris’ paddock, Dan Bilzerian’s mansion, and so many more star-studded meet-ups, all because he’s a Warzone mogul with countless event wins under his belt.
As the finals beckoned, hometown favourites FaZe faced down legacy-hunting OpTic, looking to go back-to-back-to-back as world champions, a feat never achieved before.
But it was the Las Vegas hosts who had the aces up their sleeves, as they dipped deep into their strategy books to put team cohesion to the forefront of their playstyle to come out victorious.
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The winning moment will go down in history as one of the clutch moments ever seen in professional gaming, as Belgium-born Jordan “Abuzah” Francois used OpTic’s rowdy fan base to fake a reaction to defusing the bomb - a round-ending action in the game mode - only for the crowd to warn their players. He waited for the shouts, moved away from the bomb site, and got the final kill on an on-rushing OpTic player, thwarting the popular team’s crowd and causing an eruption of their own support.
“Don’t you know, when you come to Las Vegas, the house always wins.” - Miles Ross, finalist caster.
Celebrations burst out as pantomime villain Zach “Drazah” Jordan immediately scooped up his daughter who’d run onto the stage, as the two-time world champion shared his special moment with the apple of his eye.
It was a moment that put the whole event into reality for me. I’ve been stuffing my face in VIP suites, enjoying the hospitality of a gracious and luxurious host in Monster, and working my backside off to get interviews and features out in 16-hour work days, and carving out time to throw a few pennies on the roulette tables.
But this moment for a winner to hoist his daughter in the air over lifting his team’s trophy epitomised that professional gaming is no longer a lucrative hobby. It’s a career, viable and supportive.
If you were ever under the assumption that even professional gaming was a matter of nerdy basement dwellers sweating it out to the maximum, the Call of Duty championship defied every stereotype.
From fitness and nutrition regimes, equal status among celebrity athletes, god-like adoration from fans, and family values placed at the forefront, my appreciation of esports skyrocketed thanks to this incredible trip of a lifetime.
Topics: Call Of Duty, Esports