The Call of Duty League has faced some serious backlash from two of its largest personalities in the past week. Previously, OpTic Texas owner Hector “H3CZ” Rodriguez spoke negatively about the Call of Duty developers on The OpTic Podcast. H3CZ even went so far as to say that the developers “don’t care” about competitive Call of Duty. This was followed by LA Thieves owner Matt “Nadeshot” Haag posting a series of tweets on Thursday about the current state of affairs in the Call of Duty League.
Nadeshot doesn’t hold back in rant about the Call of Duty League
The conversation began with amateur player and content creator Doug “Censor” Martin pleading with professionals to stream their scrimmages more. Atlanta FaZe star Chris “Simp” Lehr jumped in and explained why he and other professionals have chosen not to stream their practices.
“If I stream scrims I just get roasted the entire time, god forbid I lose a map too were the worst team in the game. I’ll save what’s left of my mental health and keep the stream off,” Simp said on Twitter.
Nadeshot’s name was eventually brought into the conversation by Censor, as he said players like Nadeshot and Seth “Scump” Abner paved the way for players like Simp because of their streams.
There wouldn’t be anything for you to win if it wasn’t for @H3CZ @scump @Nadeshot – they’re the reason you make a salary. It won’t be here in a couple years because of this mindset my brotha.
— Doug (@Censor) December 30, 2021
With the conversation started, Nadeshot began to tweet more and more about the current state of the CDL. The LA Thieves owner appears to be on the side of Censor, saying “It sucks this game [Vanguard] is half-assed and broken, but we still need to showcase our community.”
However, Nadeshot also explained that the developers and Activision completely control how competitive Call of Duty plays out. The owner referenced the fact that there are no tournaments or Ranked play for Vanguard until three months after the game was initially released. This is a complete turn from the early days of the esport when players would duke it out in open brackets or in online matches for almost no money as soon as a new game launched.
“We literally went from players fighting for their pride and respect every single weekend through a 256-512 team bracket for $1,000 bucks each in front of 100,000 people to no competition or tournaments until 3 months after the game has been released,” Nadeshot said. He ended the tweet with a clear message to the publishers of Call of Duty. “Wake up Activision.”
Nadeshot goes nuclear on the CDL
The rant didn’t stop there, however. Nadeshot continued on about how frustrating it is to be a viewer and owner of the CDL. One of his clear complaints is that professional players aren’t even allowed to play each other in competitive matches until February. This includes online Search and Destroy tournaments as well as anything outside of a scrimmage. “Vanguard releases and the league says, ‘you’re not allowed to compete on stream together until February’,” Nadeshot said.
It seems the owner could also be holding on to some regret for entering the CDL. He explained that he begged the 100 Thieves board of directors to spend the $25 million and purchase a spot in the CDL to “give our community what they want.” However, it seems that Activision and the CDL haven’t lived up to Nadeshot’s expectations so far.
“I said ‘let’s spend the money, let’s give our community what they’re asking for, just trust me and I’ll make sure LA Thieves is a success,” Nadeshot said. “Two years later, guess I’m the fool.”
I went to our board of directors pleading for us to get back into competitive Call of Duty. I said let's spend the money, let's give our community what they're asking for, just trust me and I'll make sure LA Thieves is a success. Two years later, I guess I'm the fool.
— 100T Nadeshot (@Nadeshot) December 30, 2021
This closely matches with what H3CZ said on The OpTic Podcast. According to the OpTic Texas owner, he was told the league and developers would ensure competitive Call of Duty would be a focal point in the franchise moving forward. H3CZ also claimed he was told Ranked play would be a feature at the launch of new Call of Duty titles. This hasn’t been the case so far.
There’s no telling if what H3CZ and Nadeshot said will have any impact on the CDL moving forward. Although, it’s clear what the owners want for the league: Ranked play, tournaments closer to the launch of the game and more transparency from the league.
