Sam “Octane” Larew broke down what he feels is wrong with the Call of Duty League Champs format in a YouTube video after his team, Seattle Surge, failed to qualify for the event.
With the Call of Duty League Stage 4 Major now over, there is just one more stage left before the big event. Stage 5 will be the turning point for several teams, including those fighting for second seed placement. However, unlike in previous years, this year’s Champs will only host the top eight teams of the twelve. That means four teams will be left out of the event entirely. This apparently does not sit right with Octane.
Octane has been completing in Call of Duty since 2014 and has won several events, but has yet to win a World Championship. In 2019 on 100 Thieves, Octane led his team through the lower bracket to make it to the Grand Finals against eUnited. They played the most games out of any other team at the event, but were unable to pull off the unthinkable. As Octane states in his video on YouTube, Atlanta FaZe, as the first seed team, will only have to win two series to win Champs. In previous years before the Call of Duty League franchised, teams had to play through a gauntlet of games to become World Champions.
Octane argues for including all 12 teams at Champs
“They [Call of Duty League] could just as easily add another losers’ bracket on Wednesday like last year,” Octane said. “I feel like there is minimal effort required to have every team there, especially because there are only twelve teams.”
Last year during Modern Warfare, the Call of Duty League originally opted to exclude the bottom four teams at the Major. That changed as the league went on and multiple people begged to have the teams added. However, last year’s Champs was completely online. That’s not the case this year.
“I don’t think that the format currently is good,” said Octane. “FaZe has to win two f****** series again [to become World Champs]. I don’t think having to win that amount of series for a World Championship should be a thing, ever.”
There is still time for the Call of Duty League to potentially change their minds on the subject. Especially after Seattle Surge, a team not known for their online play, performed much better in an offline setting.
