$1 Million Call of Duty World Champions Kicks Off Today

Los Angeles is the host of the Call of Duty World Champions. 32 of the most accomplished Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare multiplayer professional teams from around the world compete for the $1 million prize money.

The third annual Call of Duty Championship takes place this weekend in Los Angeles. It is the biggest eSports first person action tournament of the year.

Beginning today through Sunday, 32 of the most accomplished Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare multiplayer professional teams from around the world will compete head-to-head on Xbox One for the honor of being named the “Call of Duty World Champions,” and their share of the tournament’s $1 million total prize purse.

Gaming fans can tune-in through livestreamed coverage on Xbox Live, CallofDuty.com, and at MLG.tv, as well as select editorial partners worldwide. Culminating on Sunday, March 29th, the tournament’s final match livestream starts at 2:00 p.m. (PDT) on the Xbox Live Dashboard (in participating regions).

“We have an amazing Call of Duty community. From those who like to just have fun playing with their friends, to those who like to compete at the highest level at the Call of Duty Championship. It’s a testament to our development teams that they can create an experience, which is so fun for everyone to play and watch,” said Rob Kostich, senior vice president, Call of Duty, Activision Publishing, Inc. “Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare takes center stage this weekend, as the top players from around the globe showcase their incredible skill. The best four-player teams are here to compete head-to-head in intense objective-based game modes all weekend long, and we can’t wait to see all the action and see who takes it all.”

These 32 teams from 5 continents and 11 countries around the world have trained extensively over the past several months playing Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, winning their respective regional competitions in qualifying events conducted by the professional competitive gaming organizations of Major League Gaming (MLG), Gfinity, and the Australian Cyber League (ACL).

Teams like Exile5.T1 Dotters from Australia, European Champions, TCM Gaming from the UK and SSOF Gaming from Brazil, will compete against such notable teams from North America as Optic Gaming, Team EnVy and Team Kaliber.

The Call of Duty Championship begins with round-robin style pool play among eight groups of four teams. The top two teams from each group will advance to a 16-team double elimination bracket, where the team that places first will take home $400,000 of the tournament’s $1 million dollar total prize pool. The remaining seven teams will each take home prizes ranging from $200,000 for second place to $25,000 for eighth place.

In addition to the tournament competition, professional football players Golden Tate and Demaryius Thomas will each lead a team made up of a professional eSports player, an internet personality and a fan picked right from the audience, in an exhibition grudge match for the Call of Duty Endowment.

The teams will go head-to-head playing new maps from the upcoming Ascendance DLC pack. The winning team will have a $100,000 donation made in their name to the Endowment and its continued effort in helping veterans return to the workforce. 

Fans tuning into the Call of Duty Championship livestream on Sunday will also see the world premiere of live gameplay from the upcoming Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Ascendance DLC pack and a new trailer for Infected, the next episode of Exo Zombies.

Ascendance DLC package comes with four new multiplayer maps, the OHM directed energy light machine gun/shotgun hybrid, the OHM Werewolf custom variant, the all-new Exo Grapple ability playlist that introduces the Exo Grapple ability to multiplayer, and Infected, the latest installment of Exo Zombies. Ascendance will be available first on Xbox Live on March 31st.