Call of Duty League 2023: Events, Schedule and History

There are no tournaments in the space bigger than the Call of Duty League. It’s the most impactful, valuable, and impressive COD tournament in the business, and every year, millions of dollars go on the line, ready to be won by some of the most talented esports players on Earth. It’s a lengthy competition that spans several months, punctuated periodically by Major events, and capped off with a Championship Weekend that crowns the ultimate victor of the season – and the Call of Duty League 2023 season is set to be electric.

It’s a predominantly North American league, but there have been (and continue to be) European teams competing in the CDL. As a franchised league, the CDL boasts remarkable financial backing, and it’s organised and run by Activision Blizzard directly, so when in-person events take place, they’re typically fantastical, wondrous events that are attended by tens of thousands of fans.

In this guide, we’ll breakdown everything that you could possibly need to know about the Call of Duty League 2023 season. There’s plenty to learn, so make sure you’re paying attention!

Watch Call of Duty League Live:

For the delivery of the CDL schedule (2023), Activision Blizzard has opted to move towards a dual-capacity model, streaming the competition on both Twitch and YouTube. However, there are many more benefits to checking out the gameplay on Twitch, the least of all being the drops that you’ll receive for doing so. When the Call of Duty League 2023 season went live on Twitch, for the first time in years, record-breaking viewership figures were achieved with ease.

Here’s the link you’ll need to watch the Call of Duty League live:

Modern Warfare II is The Home of the CDL

If you’re interested in Call of Duty League betting, then you’ll need to know about the game that the tournament is being played on. Typically, the Call of Duty esports scene will always follow the latest release, and that’s certainly the case for the Call of Duty League 2023 season. In October 2022, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II was released, and within a matter of weeks, the best Call of Duty pro players were neck-deep in the game, actively competing on the platform.

It was actually the fastest turnaround between seasons in history, with there being just a couple of months between seasons and almost no time between the game launching and the competition kicking off. It proved to be a winner with fans, though – the viewership numbers at the start of the 2023 season were higher than ever before.

Call of Duty League 2023 Schedule

The full CDL schedule (2023) can be seen below in a handy, one-shot graphic, but a key change has taken place since it was released:

Image Credit: Activision Blizzard

So, what’s changed?

Owing to a delay and a change of venue, Major IV will no longer be hosted by the New York Subliners between the 13th and the 16th of April. Now, it’s an independent LAN event that’ll take place without an in-person crowd, and it’ll take place in Columbus, Ohio between the 20th and the 23rd of April. That’s the only real change made to the Call of Duty League 2023 schedule, and at the time of writing, the Championship Weekend is still yet to be detailed.

There are no dates for the Championship Weekend, nor a location, but there are a few being touted:

• Las Vegas, Nevada
• London, England
• Miami, Florida
• Seattle, Washington

What Modes Are in the Call of Duty League?

Hardpoint

Hardpoint is, without a doubt, the bread and butter of the Call of Duty League, making for some of the most exciting match-ups. There’s a tradition of trying to ‘one hundred club’ opponents, which is a practice that sees one team dominate the match so effectively that the other team cannot secure more than one hundred points. This will traditionally be the first game mode played by competitors during a series.

In this age-old, iconic mode, teams have to fight for control of a rotating objective area on the map. Each team gains a point for each second spent on the active objective while it is uncontested. There are no extra points awarded for kills in this game mode, but that doesn’t stop some players from slaying out.

Every 60 seconds (points), the objective rotates to a new area on the map, which is what makes this game mode so interesting to watch, as it can create some very nice turns. The winner of the mode is the team that first reaches 250 points or the team that has the most points when the timer runs out, but that’s extremely rare.

Search & Destroy

Search and Destroy is a legendary mode, famous in Call of Duty and in other titles, like CSGO. It essentially sees one team defend two objectives while the other team attempts to destroy one of them. There’s another way to win a round of Search and Destroy, and that’s to effectively kill every player on the opposing side. It’s a tactical, intense game mode that gives players just one life per round, and it can make for some exciting situations in the Call of Duty esports scene.

It can be the longest mode in the series, especially if it’s pushed to the absolute limit. At the most, a round of Search and Destroy can feature eleven individual rounds before a winner is decided, and that’s something that happens way more often than you’d think, given that some teams are very well balanced against one another.

Control

Control is a unique game mode, and it’s essentially a mix of Hardpoint and Search and Destroy. It’s by no means a fan favourite, and over the years, followers of the Call of Duty League have called for the mode to be replaced with something more traditional, like Domination or Capture the Flag.

In Control, there’s an attacking team and a defending team. It’s the goal of the attacking team to secure two regions on the map by sitting on them and remaining uncontested, while the other team simply tries to keep them off the objective until a) the timer runs out, or b) one team has been killed enough times to deplete the finite number of respawn tickets.

Call of Duty League Betting

Every year, the CDL acts as the main point of contact for those looking to place a few wagers on their favourite teams and players. During the Call of Duty League 2023 season, that remains a fact, as from far and wide, punters come around to place wagers on the CDL as it unfolds. It’s the Championship Weekend that draws in the biggest crowd, but throughout the season, the esports betting markets remained stacked and dynamic.

For new esports bettors, placing wagers on the Call of Duty League is honestly one of the easiest ways to get started. It’s an accessible, simple ecosystem that requires very little previous knowledge to understand it. As a game, Call of Duty is about as simple as it gets, and while there are a few mechanics that may be tricky to understand, it really is a basic title that can be appreciated in just a few minutes.

If you need a little more help, consider checking out our esports betting guides.

Call of Duty League 2023 Teams

Image Credit: Atlanta FaZe

Which teams are competing in the Call of Duty League 2023 season? Before we move on to detailing the history of the League, let’s take a look at the competitors on the board this year.

• Atlanta FaZe
• Boston Breach
• Florida Mutineers
• London Royal Ravens
• Los Angeles Guerrillas
• LA Thieves (reigning champion)
• Minnesota ROKKR
• New York Subliners
• OpTic Texas
• Seattle Surge
• Toronto Ultra
• Vegas Legion (was Paris)

It’s a stacked deck as always, and it’s tough to call a straight winner for the season ahead. However, some teams certainly have an edge over others. For instance, Atlanta FaZe has proven to be the Call of Duty League’s most consistent team in recent years, but it’s starting to be challenged by other sides. Recently, Toronto Ultra has started gaining traction, and OpTic Texas, representing one of the biggest brands in gaming, is forever a thorn in FaZe’s side.

There’s also an intense underdog spirit in the Call of Duty League, and no team can ever really be counted out. There will be occasions when the bottom-seeded team will dominate the number-one contender for the championship with ease. So, take that into consideration when you’re figuring out your Call of Duty League bets.

CDL History

Below you can find seasonal info about each current and previous Call of Duty League Season to date.