Is Competitive Blackout Coming Due To Success of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4?

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 has completely reinvigorated the franchise, the decision to forego a single-player mode in favor of a competitive battle royale mode called Blackout proving to be a wise one. In just three days time the game eclipsed $500 million in total sales, a record-breaking feat that puts Black Ops 4 in rarified air. The esports side of Black Ops 4 has yet to be fully fleshed out, but there’s one aspect that piques my interest: competitive Blackout.

See, the Call of Duty World League has been chugging along for years now, incorporating the current title’s multiplayer modes into a year-long professional circuit. Top teams from all over the world compete in a massive months-long tournament, culminating in the CWL Championship at the end of the summer. In previous years the CWL only had to worry about core multiplayer, traditional 4v4 competition. With the introduction of Blackout, however, the CWL committee finds itself in a slight predicament.

I do not foresee CWL abandoning the Multiplayer format for its core competitions, as Black Ops 4 gives plenty of robust options in that regard. However, I also do not think Activision would greenlight a mode like Blackout only for it to play second fiddle on the competitive scene. The question becomes: will the Call of Duty World League introduce Blackout to the mix, and if they do how so?

My first instinct says “two different tournaments at once during each CWL event,” but the arenas CWL rents out aren’t always equipped to run two separate tournaments concurrently. Furthermore, running say half of a multiplayer bracket, then stopping and switching to a Blackout bracket is just plain dumb. That leaves one, albeit far more expensive, option: two separate Call of Duty World Leagues, one for multiplayer and one for Blackout.

Different cities, different weekends, different formats. If a team wants to play the core multiplayer they follow one schedule, and if a team wants to play competitive Blackout  they have a completely different set of dates and locations. This will be a logistical nightmare for the CWL I’m sure, as planning one tournament series is no easy feat, but the rewards in my eyes far outweigh the risks. By scheduling two different series on alternating weeks, that’s more CWL to consume throughout the year, which means more exposure for the game and the tournament.

That extra exposure brings both competitive formats to the forefront at the same time, allows Activision to show off more of Black Ops 4 to the world on a grand scale, and could open the door for more lucrative broadcasting deals since there’s now two content streams to show off. Also, breaking the CWL into two halves means that they can showcase one half all by itself without the other cannibalizing viewers, hence the “alternating weeks” idea.

One other point, specifically on the Blackout side: while the other battle royale games have done competitions in the past, there’s still no real agreed upon set of rules for battle royale esports that I can see. The CWL can set those standards in one fell swoop with a Blackout series, becoming the defacto battle royale esports scene before the others can iron out the finer details. That is an opportunity too rich to pass up, more so than anything else I’ve mentioned so far.

Obviously things like overall cost and locations would need to be considered before this idea becomes a reality, but I think the CWL can turn that slight predicament into a major win. Heck, $500 millions in sales on day three means the budget for two concurrent tournament series could definitely be available, it’s just a matter of scouring the world and finding the best spots to host a regional. If the top brass can nail that down, the Call of Duty World League could turn into a two-headed giant the likes of which esports has never seen before. Your move CWL, the world is waiting for you.

(cover photo courtesy of Treyarch)