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On the brink of publishing another Call of Duty title, Activision has announced a new Call of Duty e-sports competition.

The plan is to expand from an annual tournament to a year-round international league a la League of Legends and DOTA 2. The publishing company is also increasing the competition’s prize pool from $1 million to a whooping $3 million.

Whether you are an amateur or a professional, you’ll have a place in the competition. The year-round tournament will feature all sorts of divisions aimed at newcomers and veterans alike. At the end of the year, a championship will be held to crown the best team/player.

Rob Kostich, who is the Senior VP and General Manager for Activision’s Call of Duty, said that this will be a cornerstone for Call of Duty e-sports. He continues to add that Activision is keeping up their promise of promoting professional gaming across the world. They want to make a fun and competitive year that will culminate with a huge Call of Duty championship.

The official name for the championship will be Call of Duty World League. The Californian-based Activision says that the competition will start at the beginning of 2016 with league-like events in New Zealand, Australia, Europe and North America. The Santa-Monica publisher says that there will be three territories that will feature independent seasons. This will eventually lead to 32 teams qualifying for the Fall 2016 Call of Duty e-sports competition.

The company first hosted a Call of Duty e-sports competition in 2011 with a prize pool of $1 million. Since 2013, it has been an annual event.

Kostich wants these kind of e-sports events to have a deeper impact on the average gamer. He, along with Activision, wants to encourage pro gamers to delve more into their hobby, while at the same time entice aspiring competitors and casual fans to take up Call of Duty on a more serious level.

Call of Duty’s Senior Director of Product Management, Sam Cooper notes that their goal is to help the crème de la crème actually make money by competing in events aimed at pro gamers. The top 150 professional player will have the possibility to make a living by playing Call of Duty.

However, he didn’t comment about the financial prospects that this entails. What figures are you talking about Sam Cooper?

Events will be broadcast online, but Sam refused to specify what service they will be primarily using – Twitch, or Google’s YouTube Gaming platform?

To continue the trend, Kostich also refused to comment regarding the sensitive subject if Activision would test players for drugs.

The Electronic Sports League started administering random drug tests during the ESL One Cologne tournament this August.

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The first trailer for Call of Duty: Black Ops III has finally been set free by developer Treyarch.

The trailer sheds a light on the time frame of the franchise’s new installment – it’s somewhere in the near future.

There is a huge difference between Black Ops III and last year’s Advanced Warfare; after all, there are different developers on board this time. Even though is set a little bit further in time than its predecessor, in 2060, there is absolutely no connection between the games. The new game will focus more on robot soldiers, and cyborg enhancements – the developers probably all saw Neil Blomkamp’s Chappie, and thought what a great idea; hopefully with less Die Antwoord present.

The trailer looks amazing. It starts with Rolling Stone’s Paint It Black – with gunshots synchronized to the drum’s beat – and it showcases a world in turmoil. Man against machine, fighting to the very end of extinction.

Ow, did I forget to mention that the zombie mode will most likely be present in Call of Duty: Black Ops III? The last 3 seconds of the trailer blatantly hints us that zombies will make a reappearance in the new installment. Zombie mode will have its own experience point-based progression system, set apart from the campaign mode, and the multiplayer fiasco. I say fiasco, because that’s the truth. Everyone runs around, shooting everything in sight. At least, that what happens in pub games.

The graphics looks great, but we aren’t just excited for more eye candy games. I, for one, can’t wait to play the game with my friends. Black Ops III features a 4 player co-op campaign – and it will also include a two-player split screen option.

With that in mind, the games has taken a different path, starting with how maps are constructed – you should expect wider, and larger maps. Cinematics and cut scenes will also be somewhat new – from the perspective of both soldier-mounted cameras, and third person view. Who knows, maybe we’ll see cut scenes from a robot’s point of view. Maybe they aren’t all that bad, maybe they are all misunderstood sentient, blood thirsty beings. Who knows?!

Exo-suits won’t make a reappearance in CoD: BO III, but the player will still be able to jump high in the air, and manoeuvre himself both in singleplayer, and multiplayer.

Only 4 out of the 9 classes for the on-line mode have been announced:

Reaper – a little gun wielding robot;
Seraph – in charge of a powerful revolver that will blow you to smithereens;
Outrider – master of bow and arrow; high tech compound bow that is;
Ruin – who has his mind dead set on explosives, and how to kill you with said explosives;

If you’ve played Titanfall, you’ll be happy to know that Call of Duty has paid attention to its own community, and others as well. The new game will feature wall run, and unlimited sprint.

Call of Duty: Black Ops III will be available on the 6th of November for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC. If you pre-order the game, you’ll have access to the multiplayer open beta.

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Activision Announces Call of Duty E-Sports Competition

Call of Duty: Black Ops III Trailer Reveals 4-Player Campaign

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