The Call of Duty League will not pursue expansion in 2021 according to a report by ESPN Esports. Following initial reporting by Sports Business Journal’s Adam Stern that the league has seen interest from prospective buyers in expansion franchises, ESPN’s Jacob Wolf writes that the league hopes to showcase its original city-based event model, which was forced to shift away from live events this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Following a year of city-based competition in 2021, the league will look to expand in 2022, and will likely seek a higher sum from expansion franchises than the $25M USD buy-in for the inaugural 12 teams.
Additionally, the CDL today revealed that Season 2, which will be played on the next iteration of the CoD franchise, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, will return the esport to a four-versus-four competition model – which was more commonly utilized in Call of Duty competition historically and separated the game from the more common five-person teams of most top-level esports. This will mean that each CDL franchise will need to release one starting member from its roster, likely leading to a substantial shakeup for each team going into the league’s second season.
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