How cyber sports evolved in Call of Duty

The opening part of the series about the Second World War won worldwide popularity among the players, and critics were flattered about CoD extremely positively. The sequel was only a matter of time; however, the first part was entirely grounded for the single-player campaign, while the second part has already begun to break through the first shoots of competitive spirit. But the real face of Call of Duty has not come out yet, it will be in 2007...

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare

CoD:MW relaunched the series with a redesign. Now the war took place not on WWII battlefields, but in a more modern reality: between conditional terrorists and brave U.S. soldiers. A departure from the concept of the past somewhat untied the hands of the developers. Now they went into battle not with bayonet knives, but with modern rifles and unmanned scouts.

CoD:MW is rightly considered a turning point in the series, because it was all perfectly balanced. There was not a priori the strongest weapon, all players were in equal conditions, and he chooses of cards changed only the scene in the theater of operations.

It was in CoD:MW where the organizers first started to hold LAN-tournaments. Already in 2009 the first major tournament took place - The Major League Championship - with the first prize fund of $15.000.

But then the series took a small step backwards...

Call of Duty: World at War

The fifth part of the series returned to its roots, to World War II. But either the players were satiated with this entourage, or the balance failed, CoD:WW did not find its place E-sports.

The game was expected rather after the overwhelming success of the previous part, they expected a step forward, but it did not work out.

CoD:WW made a controversial bet on the visibility of brutality: if in Call of Duty Modern Warfare the protagonist performed a circus somersault or just "went to sleep", then in Call of Duty World at War the character had his legs, arms and so on blown off.

Betting on the pseudo-realism is not justified, because from cybersport you expect not only blood, but also new mechanics.

However, the next part of the series did not lose face...

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

On the shoulders of CoD:MW2 was the role of the savior of the series. It was this part that expanded the fan base, it was this part that was greeted well and immediately. The secret is simple: the second part took all the best from the first Modern Warfare, did not lose its charm and multiplied the in-game content by 2.

It was CoD:MW2 attracted eSports organizations, it also held the largest championship Modern Warfare MLG. And it is CoD:MW2 owes its career to many famous players of our time.

Meanwhile, the virtual Cold War has already begun to heat up...

Call of Duty: Black Ops

Once again, the change in the setting, but this time it was a good one. CoD:BO was the first part where the main focus was on the story. No one expected a twisted scenario, and Black Ops was developed by the same developers as CoD:WW. There were not too many expectations.

Call of Duty: Black Ops brought a changed balance to the game and the first serious prizes. There were already thousands of dollars at stake, as well as a fabulous $25,000 at the time.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

The next installment in the series didn't feature much in the way of gameplay changes, but it came in on the other side: they left the game almost untouched, but raised the prize money and worked on the PR campaign.

Winning $400,000 would have turned anyone's head, because that's dozens of times more than it was before, but Activision could afford it.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2

The next installment in the series didn't feature much in the way of gameplay changes, but it came in on the other side: they left the game almost untouched, but raised the prize money and worked on the PR campaign.

Winning $400,000 would have turned anyone's head, because that's dozens of times more than it was before, but Activision could afford it.

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Black Ops III и что было после…

Advanced Warfare brought a new feature to the game - vertical gameplay. Players now used Jetpacks and ran along walls. Teams had to adapt to the new mechanics. Now Call of Duty was unrecognizable.

In 2016, Activision bought out Major League Gaming. Tournaments got a winner's grid and a schedule. Tournaments came out of the basements and now proudly wore PRO status.

This title allowed the division of players into professionals and amateurs: pro players from all countries competed for titles, while amateurs honed their skills and the most nimble of them became professionals themselves.

The competition consisted of four LAN tournaments. Players competed for points, which determined a place in the leaderboard. Unlike CS:GO, where on the pro scene there was only a "bombing" mode, in CoD both "bombing" and "championship" were played, where players competed for phrases and "find and destroy". But modern CoD found itself in a different mode...

Современный E-sport в Call of Duty

The game has migrated to the most popular genre - Battle Royale, and on the most popular platform - smartphones.

In Call of Duty: Warzone players are divided into teams of 2-3 people, and then the classic "battle royale" begins. In CoD there is no third-person camera, so we have to rely only on the radar and strategic thinking, and the commentator - on the reaction speed, because now we have to watch the actions of 10 or more teams.

On smartphones, they play Call of Duty:Mobile - a kind of mixture of Modern Warfare and Black Ops II. All components of the game in the transition to iOS and Android are not affected. The prizes vary from playing for a chance to show off (ie for a "thank you") to the official tournaments from Activision with prizes of $1,000,000.