Call of Duty League’s inaugural season commences on January 24

Activision Blizzard has announced that its franchised Call of Duty League will kick things off on January 24th, 2020 at the Minneapolis Armory.

WISE Ventures Esports’ franchise Minnesota RøKKR will host the league’s inaugural event, with each of the 12 franchises competing.

RELATED: Minnesota RøKKR to compete in Call of Duty League

The three-day event will not only host all of the 12 franchises, but it’ll play home to the season’s inaugural Call of Duty Challengers Open too. The event is the start of the league’s inaugural season, which utilises a home & away format where each franchise hosts ‘home series’ weekends.

Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard discussed the launch in a release: “We are thrilled with the continued growth of the Call of Duty esports footprint as an international, city-based league with 12 teams in 4 countries, all of which deliver epically entertaining competition to millions of fans around the world. Building on our city-based model’s success in esports first established by the Overwatch League, we are excited to unite the historic passion for the Call of Duty franchise with city-based fandom to create a league to rival the very best leagues in traditional sports in recognizing, celebrating and rewarding our players.”

RELATED: Brett Diamond explains Minnesota RøKKR’s branding

At the time of writing, nine of the 12 franchises have been officially announced. This includes Minnesota RøKKR, London Royal Ravens, Dallas Empire, Los Angeles Guerrillas, New York Subliners, OpTic Gaming Los Angeles, Toronto Ultra, Atlanta FaZe, and Florida Mutineers. Chicago, Paris, and Seattle are the only franchises left to announce.

Jonathan Wilf, President and Ownership Partner of WISE Ventures Esports commented on hosting the event: “It is an honor to host the inaugural weekend of the Call of Duty League and welcome our ownership partners, players, and most importantly, our fans. We have been craving an esports event of this caliber in Minneapolis-St. Paul. With the success this community has in hosting world class events, we are excited to put on an incredible fan experience to launch the Call of Duty League.”

Esports Insider says: It’s good to finally have a date out in the open for the league’s beginning – between that and the franchise announcements, Call of Duty fans can finally get excited.

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