CWL
Nine Open Events. Dozens of GameBattles Pro Point Tournaments. Thousands of Pro Point ladder matches. Two Stages of the Global Pro League. Three Last Chance Qualifiers. Those hundreds of thousands of hours of competitive Call of Duty will all lead to one World Championship event that will determine the best team in the world.
Out of the hundreds of teams who have competed throughout the season, only 32 across the North American, European, and Australian-Pacific regions are left standing in the fight for the 2017 Call of Duty World League Championship.
Here is everything you need to know about the event:
Dates: Aug. 9-10 (Closed to Public), Aug. 11-13 (Open to Public)
Location: The Amway Center in Orlando, Florida
Tournament Structure:
The CWL Championship is a two-stage tournament, with a Pool Play stage set to be held from Aug. 9-10, followed by the Championship Bracket stage on Aug. 11-13. Each of the eight pools will consist of four of the 32 eligible teams. Within each pool, the four teams will compete in a round-robin stage, where they will play a best-of-five series against one another.
The top two teams out of each group will move onto the double elimination Championship Bracket stage. If teams are tied in series win percentage at the end their group, the tiebreaker will be settled by map win percentage, followed by head-to-head win percentage if there is still a tie.
Group Draw Rules:
Stage 2 of the Global Pro League is a crucial factor into determining which teams end up in Groups A-H, and will take place every weekend through the month of July over on mlg.tv/callofduty.
Whoever wins the Stage 2 Playoffs in the Global Pro League will be placed into Group A, and the runner-up will be placed into Group B. The third and fourth placed teams of the will be slotted into Group C and Group D respectively.
The teams who finish in fifth and sixth at the Stage 2 Playoffs will be randomly drawn into Groups E & F, while the seventh and eighth placed teams will be randomly drawn into Groups G & H.
Those who did not make the Stage 2 Playoffs will be at the mercy of a larger random draw, with the third place team from each Stage 2 Group being randomly drawn into Groups E, F, G, and H. As for the fourth placed teams in each Stage 1 Group, they will be randomly drawn into Groups A, B, C, and D.
After the Stage 2 teams are distributed among the groups, the Last Chance Qualifier teams are then drawn. The top-four North American Last Chance Qualifier teams, and the top-four European Last Chance Qualifier teams (Millenium, Team MRN Black, Team Infused, and Supremacy), will all be randomly drawn into each group. Finally, the top two Australian-Pacific Last Chance Qualifier teams (Tainted Minds and Mindfreak Black), the fifth and sixth placed European Last Chance Qualifier teams (Opulent eSports and Team Vitality), and the fifth through eighth placed North American LCQ teams will be randomly placed in each group.
There is one more rule to consider when the teams are drawn, and that directly relates to each teams’ region. A team cannot be placed into a Group until all Groups have an equal amount of teams from that team’s respective region. If all Groups have an equal number of teams from that chosen team’s region, then that team can be placed into any Group. If a team is drawn into a Group that breaks the region rule, then the team will be placed into the next eligible Group.
This is to ensure equal representation of each of the three regions as best as possible, even though there are an uneven amount of teams competing from each region.
Here is an example of that rule in action:
Mindfreak is randomly drawn into Group A. Later in the Group Draw, Tainted Minds selected first for Group A, but is placed into Group B to avoid having two teams from the APAC region in one group.
Where to Watch:
You can watch all the action at mlg.tv/callofduty, or if you want to watch it on other platforms, you can tune in on the official MLG Facebook page, on the official MLG Twitch Channel, or on the official MLG YouTube channel.
If you want to find out the final eight teams that will head down to Orlando for the CWL Championship, then don’t miss the North American Last Chance Qualifier on July 27. Live from the MLG Arena in Columbus, Ohio, the top-16 non-Global Pro League teams across North America will have to survive a grueling double elimination tournament against each other if they want a shot at the 2017 Call of Duty World League Championship.
You can also see every Championship Bracket game live in the Amway Center from Aug. 11-13. Tickets are still on sale on ticketmaster.com for both general admission as well as VIP passes.
Note: Those who are age 13-15 years old and want to attend the CWL Championship live must be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian, as well as present a signed parental consent form. Those who wish to attend and are 16 and 17 years old must present a signed parental consent form, but do not need to be accompanied by a parent or guardian.
This World Championship will be the grand finale of the competitive Call of Duty season, so make sure you don’t miss a second of the action!