Call of Duty World League to Adopt City-Based Franchising

Franchising has become a major part in the world of esports during the past couple of years with the professional leagues for League of Legends and Overwatch adopting a franchised structure for competing teams. Now, it has been confirmed that the Call of Duty World League (CWL) will be the next major esports league to move into having city-based franchised teams. 

According to a report by Call of Duty media outlet Charlie Intel, Activision stated during the organization's Q4 2018 earnings call on Tuesday, February 12th that Activision confirmed that it would be launching a city-based franchise league for the Call of Duty esports scene. 

Activision confirms they are going to launch a city-based franchised league for Call of Duty.

— Call of Duty News • charlieINTEL.com (@charlieINTEL) February 12, 2019

This confirmation of the CWL adopting a city-based franchise model followed an official job posting by the CWL that was posted on esports jobs website Hitmarker. This Hitmarker job posted details that the esports league for the popular first-person shooter franchise is currently for a Brand Manager where the description of the position heavily focuses on the franchising shift of the CWL. 

"The brand manager will be the steward of the Call of Duty World League brand and will help to manage the look and feel of the Call of Duty World League with franchise owners, broadcasters and other external partners," stated the job posting. 

"Partner with Director of Marketing to formulate the global brand strategy & tactics for Call of Duty World League," the job posting continued. "Work with internal Activision’s Call of Duty franchise marketing teams in the customization and local execution of these plans."

It is not too surprising to see that Activision will be having the CWL adopt a city-based franchise model for its competing teams when the organization's other major esports league in the Overwatch League currently operates in the same manner. 

It is expected that this new franchised league will begin with the next entry in the franchise that is being developed by Infinity Ward. 

Are you excited to see that the Call of Duty World League will have city-based franchises in the future or would you have rather seen the esports scene for the franchise stay how it currently is?

(cover photo logo courtesy of Call of Duty World League)