Call of Duty Championship 2015 – Everything You Need to Know

The big day has arrived! After months of intense qualification and anticipation, the annual Call of Duty Championship 2015 eSports event is finally upon us.

32 teams have fought their way to the competition, players and spectators have arrived in Los Angeles, CA, and the stage for the weekend’s showcase is set. To help you get prepared for all of the action, we’ve compiled all the information you need to know in this one handy article.

What

Since its inception in 2013 with Black Ops 2, the Call of Duty Championship is an annual eSports event officially sponsored by the game’s developers and publishers. Hundreds of teams from around the world have competed in regional qualification events, but only 32 have made it to this weekend’s grand finals. Beginning today and concluding on Sunday, players will battle it out on Advanced Warfare with the ultimate goal in sight of taking home a large prize of money and bragging rights as Call of Duty World Champions of 2015. All teams who finish in the top 8 will be guaranteed a share of the $1 million prize pool, but the winner will take home $400,000.

All of the action will streamed live online, and for the first time, the event will be open to the public for those who’ve purchased tickets. On final day on Sunday, Sledgehammer Games will unveil an exclusive look at the Ascendance DLC pack for Advanced Warfare, showing off live gameplay of the new multiplayer maps as well as a new trailer for the Infection Exo Zombies level.

Where

• Event Deck at L.A Live in Los Angeles, CA

When

• Friday, 27th March beginning at 9am PDT (12pm EDT/4pm GMT) – Group Play
• Saturday, 28th March beginning at 9am PDT (12pm EDT/4pm GMT) – Bracket Matches
• Sunday, 29th March beginning at 11am PDT (2pm EDT/7pm BST) – Bracket and Championship Finals

How to watch

• MLG.tv/COD – All of the action will be live-streamed here across all three days. The matches will be streamed across five channels so that every game will be viewable. There are also two channels for viewers who speak Spanish or Italian.
• Xbox One – The grand final will be live-streamed on Xbox Live.

Groups

All 32 teams have been split into 8 groups consisting of 4 teams. Each team will face the three other teams in their group once and the results will count towards the group’s standings. After all matches have been played, the top two teams in each group will advance to the next stage commencing on Saturday, while the bottom two will be eliminated from the competition.

Group A:

• OpTic Gaming (NA)
• NextGaming – NxG Rapid (ITA)
• Vitality X (FRA)
• Team Orbit (NA)

Group B:

• Denial eSports (NA)
• HyperGames Team (FRA)
• Klar1ty Gaming (UAE)
• Prophecy (NA)

Group C:

• FaZe Red (NA)
• FAB Games Germany (GER)
• fabE.Allstars (BENELUX)
• Automatic Reload (NA)

Group D:

• OpTic Nation (NA)
• Gamers2 (SPA)
• SSOF Gaming (BRA)
• Exile5.T1 (AUS)

Group E:

• EnVyUs (NA)
• Team Menace (NORDIC)
• uX Gaming (GER)
• Plantronics.Mindfreak (AUS)

Group F:

• Revenge (NA)
• Aware Gaming (UK)
• Infused (UK)
• 3sUp (NA)

Group G:

• FaZe Black (NA)
• TCM Gaming (UK)
• Ascentia (FRA)
• DA.Below Zero (NA)

Group H:

• Team Kaliber (NA)
• Epsilon eSports (UK)
• Integral (AUS)
• Strictly Business Gaming (NA)

Casters

• Chris Puckett
• Ben “Benson” Bowe
• Clint “Maven” Evans
• Matt “Mr. X” Morello
• Oliver “Rel” Whitfield (Europe – UK)
• Alan “Bricey” Brice (Europe – UK)
• Dallas “Bio Acid” O’Donnell (Australia)
• Jarrett “Duffman” Duff
• Joshua “Inmaniac” Inman (Australia)
• Philip “Momo” Whitfield (Europe – UK)
• Jack “Courage” Dunlop
• Christopher Tunn (Europe – UK)
• Raymond “Rambo” Lussier
• Plus MLG Cast Off Winner Thomas “Chance” Ashworth

Prize Pool

1. $400,000
2. $200,000
3. $120,000
4. $100,000
5. $70,000
6. $50,000
7. $35,000
8. $25,000

Support your team

On top of watching each match in action online, players can support their favourite team in additional ways. By downloading ‘social skins’, players can receive access to team-specific designed images that they can use to advertise their support on social media such as Twitter. Head over to this to link to download the social skin for your favourite team out of the 32 entrants.

Preview Trailer