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GamingGentle Mates Winning Will Be a Lifeline for Call of Duty League When it Really Needs it
Gentle Mates entered the Call of Duty League in 2025 with a year that everybody involved would likely prefer to forget. The 2026 roster is bringing some serious heat, though – and this should be music to the ears of COD esports fans, whether you support Paris Gentle Mates or not.
Black Ops 7 hasn’t exactly been a resounding success commercially – at least in line with what you would usually expect from Call of Duty – but the core game itself actually has a lot to offer fans of the series.
It also follows a long period, during which many fans of the esport feel that interest has stagnated. The games haven’t been the best, some of the most popular players have retired, and we’re now down to just six LAN events per season, including Champs and the Esports World Cup. But that may no longer be the case.
When rumors started to circulate about Gentle Mates getting into Call of Duty, it felt like a match made in heaven. Owner Corentin “Gotaga” Houssein is one of the most prominent creators in COD history and a well-known figure in France.
It wasn’t the first time Gotaga had been linked with joining the CDL. Just a few years ago, there were talks of him investing in the league to take over the Paris Legion franchise as part of a partnership with a major French TV corporation, but that never came to fruition. Perhaps the wait was a gift in disguise.
Gentle Mates today brings in a hugely dedicated fanbase from a region that, in many ways, has been thoroughly underserved in COD esports over recent years, as the franchised CDL system has slowly made regions that aren’t North America fade into the distance.
That’s why right now, as we head into the 2026 season, a thriving Gentle Mates, under the Paris M8 moniker, could be a vital step up for the COD League.
Fighting OpTic for Top Spot
For over a decade, OpTic Gaming has maintained a dominant presence in the Call of Duty fandom. While a huge strength for the CDL, it has also been one of its many weaknesses – one team holding that much power and support can be detrimental to the teams they compete against. It also means that certain metrics, such as viewership, can be heavily dependent on which version of OpTic you get on any given weekend.
Now, though, M8 are fighting OpTic Texas for the top spot – in more ways than one.
It’s possible to argue that the team will have an even more impressive fanbase in 2026 than OpTic, the perennial favorites of the esport. While their viewership has carried the game through some of its toughest times, there’s an easy argument to be made that Gentle Mates’ multi-title fanbase trumps it, even in COD, which OpTic have made their bread and butter for nearly 20 years.
It’s not just viewership and fans that M8 brings, though – the team is actually seriously good in Black Ops 7. The balance on the roster is truly top-tier, and placing second and first in the two kickoff tournaments before the season proper begins is testament to that.
While the argument at launch may have been “can anyone catch up with OpTic?”, it’s almost certainly now a question of whether M8 will be the ones to knock them off their perch.
Expanding the Fanbase
While we know M8 has a large fanbase, it’s important to point out that these aren’t necessarily native Call of Duty players. Some of them may already be fans of the esport, of course, but a large portion of them are followers of the organisation that simply want to join them on the journey of any esport they might enter.
This may be the most important factor of all. This is what the esport needs to grow. New eyes are vital to take the Call of Duty League up a notch, and Gentle Mates can offer that and more. They’re not a manufactured brand spawned from slapdash spray-and-pray VC investment, which has just hoped for the best. They’re a team built from the ground up, with leading creators heading up operations.
Better yet, the team looks capable of actually winning. They’re the players that stand in the way of OpTic Texas cementing a second dynasty in COD esports, dominating the esport once again as they attempt to win three world championships in a row – after becoming the first to win back-to-backs.
This rivalry, if they can make it last the duration of the season, could be one of the best Call of Duty has seen in years. We’ve already seen things getting heated, with Brandon “Dashy” Otell mocking Dan “Ghosty” Rothe after OpTic’s Map 1 win at the Kaysan Showdown preseason tournament, saying “It’s just Ghosty in finals.”
Ghosty and his M8 team went on to win four maps on the bounce to beat OpTic Texas 4-1.
The Winning Formula
While Gentle Mates were in COD last year, the interest died down pretty quickly when it became clear the team simply wasn’t capable of winning.
After the season finished, though, the organization cleaned house and brought in players who are ready and able to win here and now. If they can continue reaching finals and putting themselves toe-to-toe with OpTic in a way no other team is, this almost guarantees that fans will stick around throughout the year.
Don’t get me wrong, there are some brilliant organizations within the Call of Duty League that you can tell put their all into it. The likes of Toronto KOI, Riyadh Falcons, and Miami Heretics – although they’ve undergone some changes – certainly appear to be building competitive teams, establishing an identity, and delivering for not just their own fans but also the CDL community.
These are the kinds of teams that the CDL needs, and Gentle Mates have the potential to be the biggest of them all. Hopefully, the team will seize the moment while it’s there, and Call of Duty esports will reap the rewards.
The Call of Duty League 2026 season officially kicks off on Friday, December 5, 2025. Paris Gentle Mates open their campaign against Vancouver Surge on December 6, with more Stage 1 matches against FaZe Vegas, LA Thieves, and more.
