The Grind of the Call of Duty League Pro

The Call of Duty scene as a pro has always been ultra-competitive. From the amateur scene to the Call of Duty league itself, the grind of the Call of Duty pro is definitely a hard road. For many pros, the start usually happens from local region tournaments and college tournaments for Call of Duty. Normally, upcoming players would gain enough traction in the regional scene to attract attention from amateur teams.

After that, that upcoming pro would have to perform in the amateur scene and leagues in order to gain the attention of the big pro teams. The grind included constant practices, normally eight to ten hours of scrimmages and practice as well as an hour’s worth of competing in Gamebattle and UMG amateur tournaments. While doing this, players would also have to make videos and stream in order to have some sort of income coming in for things such as rent and groceries. 

The Grind Now

The grind in the modern Call of Duty era is not that much different. The only grind that is different is that there are little to no amateur tournaments anymore. Nowadays, there are two franchise leagues. That being the challenger’s division and the Call of Duty League itself. 

The pros now have an extremely small chance at getting called up to one of the twelve franchises in the Call of Duty League. This, consequently, makes it harder and much more of a grind for players who want to turn pro. 

Players like Paul “PaulEhx” Avila needed to grind just well enough in the open brackets of the Challengers division, which is very competitive. The amateurs have to play even more hours just to even get noticed by a major amateur organization like WestR and EastR. 

The Stress of being a pro at the top of the Call of Duty League

Former pros like Damon “Karma” Barlow and Matthew “Nadeshot” Haag have talked about the grind pro players have to go through in and around being a pro. Whether it is the practices of the actual tournaments. It is beyond hard for the majority of the pros in the league. 

This, in turn, is normally the reason why players retire, which is getting burnt out over the years due to the constant grind. As Seth “Scump” Abner explained in a podcast. He explained how the players, after the last LAN(Land Area Network) major, had their first-week break in months over the entire season. 

The Grind in the Future

The future of the grind for a Call of Duty pro or upcoming pro could be even harder as the league is pushing towards expanding the amateur scene which could make it hard for players to get noticed by the top organizations of the pro league. 

For Call of Duty, it is great to have a lot of players with an opportunity of turning into pros, however, for the pros themselves, it could mean that it is just that much harder for them to go into the Call of Duty League adding stress to their overall lives as many players like Scump are facing depression because of it. 

Featured Image Courtesy of the Los Angeles Thieves

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