User blog:Smuff/Microsoft and Activision announce $1 million Call of Duty tournament

Despite having its own MLG scene, Activision and Microsoft have announced a worldwide, 32-team Call of Duty Championship with a massive $1,000,000 for Call of Duty: Black Ops II. Players will have the opportunity to compete for the $1,000,000 Purse in the worldwide Call of Duty: Black Ops II tournament, taking place in Hollywood, California, on April 5th to April 7th over Xbox 360.

Call of Duty is the already one of the most watched games on YouTube, with multiple YouTube commentators living off ad revenues generated from the massive amount of views. This is not the first time Activision has sponsored a game tournament; Blizzard, a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, hosts the annual Starcraft II World Championship Series.

, CEO of Activision Publishing, noted that Call of Duty is already one of the most popular pastimes in the world. The tournament is an attempt to bolster the spectatorship element:

“''More people play Call of Duty multiplayer every day than watch the average regular season game of the NBA. The scale and passion of the Call of Duty fan base is simply humbling, and yet there is no formal way to find out who amongst those millions of players is the best of the best, until now,''” he said. “Watching the performances of the very best Call of Duty players is already a mass spectator sport on YouTube and Call of Duty ELITE."



“It’s an absolute honor to have players and fans celebrate the thrill of competition on such a grand stage,” said Mark Lamia, Treyarch studio head. “From the very beginning of development for Call of Duty: Black Ops II, we committed to making eSports an integral part of the game, and it’s going to be awesome to watch the best teams in the world battle it out for everyone to see.”

Teams competing in the recently announced MLG 2013 Pro Circuit featuring Call of Duty: Black Ops II will vie for a chance to enter the Call of Duty Championship. At the MLG Winter Championship, March 15-17, in Dallas, Texas, the top eight teams will earn trips to Hollywood to play against the best Call of Duty players in the world. Joining them will be eight winning teams from the ESL’s European Finals (http://cod.esl.eu) taking place March 16-17 in Cologne, Germany. Additionally, eight seats in the 32-team tournament will be made available internationally across Asia, Australia, and Brazil.

All players with a Call of Duty ELITE account interested in participating in the tournament can go to https://elite.callofduty.com/esports. Once registered, teams of four can vie for entry into the Call of Duty Championship by competing in the February season of League Play in Call of Duty: Black Ops II on Xbox LIVE, which opened on February 1st. Following the close of the February season, the top eight eligible teams will earn the final eight spots in the Call of Duty Championship, including a trip to Hollywood this April to compete for the $1 million tournament purse.

So, while the contest is only open to Xbox players, do you think you'd be capable of taking part?