SMG_Loski hunkered down in the brush near the edge of Verdansk. Bullets flew all around him, shredding his teammates and everyone who was left alive in the final circle of this match in Call of Duty: Warzone.
He thought he might have the game in the bag, until Rasim “Blazt” Ogresevic picked up a juggernaut suit and went on a tear. Little did SMG_Loski, a random player in a public lobby, know that he was in the middle of the London Royal Ravens Operation MayDay tournament.
“It was absolutely ridiculous, but that’s Warzone.” Blazt, who plays Warzone for the Minnesota RØKKR said. He had lucked out when a juggernaut, an overpowered suit of armor that comes with a Gatling gun, randomly dropped in Port. He killed the last four people in the lobby to win the entire tournament.
Operation MayDay was a Kill Race; one of the main event formats in competitive Warzone where teams jump into public lobbies and try to kill as many random players as possible. SMG_Loski had no idea he’d end up as the last elimination in Blazt’s 24-kill rampage.
That’s Call of Duty: Warzone esports
The exciting end that earned Blazt $3500 is the perfect microcosm of competitive Call of Duty: Warzone. An exclusive scene, chock-full of public lobby stomping, cheating and Hollywood action movie-like moments; a feature that elevated Warzone to the most popular battle royale in the world, with more than 100 million active players.
“Warzone is a huge game,” Blazt said. “It has endless possibilities.”
Like other battle royale scenes, the competitive Warzone community is a patchwork of tournaments. They are held by various organizations like the New York Subliners and individuals like Matthew “Nadeshot” Haag. The majority of tournaments are invitationals, which makes it difficult for anyone besides established names to get involved.
“There are so many underrated players that can’t get in,” Blazt said. “I don’t always get invited to tournaments, so I have to rely on getting in through one of my friends that gets a captain spot.”
Outside the World Series of Warzone — the first Activision-run series the game has seen since its launch in March of 2020 — few tournaments have had open qualifiers for up-and-coming players looking to prove themselves.
The World Series of Warzone
Smixie, a player who recently signed with the Minnesota RØKKR, was playing Warzone for up to 12 hours a day — all while grinding through whatever tournaments she could get into. In October of 2020, she was invited to the RØKKR and eFuse’s Women of the eRena Warzone. Smixie got the spotlight after winning and has been invited to a number of tournaments since.
“That put me on top,” she said. “I didn’t win everything, but I did well and that got me noticed.”
Many of the top competitors in Warzone have a similar story to Smixie. Many competed in Challengers, Call of Duty’s amateur scene, and then moved over to Warzone after realizing it had just as much potential as regular Call of Duty. Now, Smixie is fielding a team in the World Series of Warzone.
Activision joining the scene in a greater capacity with the World Series of Warzone is a positive sign for the future of the game. The publisher hadn’t done much with Blackout, the battle royale mode from Black Ops 4, and Warzone had taken a back seat to the Call of Duty League. Outside celebrity pro-am tournaments (that other battle royales have done with people like DJ Khaled), there wasn’t much of a scene.
“It’s huge that Activision is coming in,” Smixie said. “The money, the marketing. Hopefully it attracts more casual people to the competitive scene.”
