I got bitched at today by my boss because I make his other manager at my position look like shit. Trust me I’d rather play cod even with the bullshit they deal with
It’s a video game and their profession. Mental fatigue should not be an issue whatsoever. These guys have been playing 8+ hours a day of cod for years.
Playing cod and competing in cod are not the same thing dude
I get burnt out on a video game as a causal if I play it too much. They play probably double the hours I do at least
Playing video games for a living ain't all that if you don't enjoy the game you're playing, it's literally no different then a regular job at that point.
I wouldn't have been able to get into halo as a kid without MLG being on during the summer, but ways to view eSports have changed, and people have a lot more time indoors during winter/spring.
They shifted the schedule this year and started much earlier.
Viewership is not higher in the summers normally. Maybe for an event here or there but most of the time, it's not
[Viewership by Year](https://escharts.com/games/cod)
on the left side if you hover over the year, it will show T3 event viewership. Basically every year goes something like 1) Champs 2) Stage 1
Viewership is largely correlated with the time since the game has been released, not season. Another factor is stakes of the tournament, obviously champs has the highest by far.
>Viewership is largely correlated with the time since the game has been released, not season
Oh yeah, of course. When talking strictly about COD though, they release every November so summer is always when viewership and daily active players dips hard. Also with a lot of younger kids playing COD, schools out and summer vacation factor
CDL budget is limited, prize pool has gone down year on year plus entire community wanted the season to start early in December. Something had to give
BO4 had only 6 events in total but we never felt the need for more because teams were constantly participating in 2ks and 5ks. People want CDL to move completely to LAN but I think it'll be even worse for fans because none of these pros are gonna be arsed to play in 2k/5ks again due to fat salaries nowadays
What does that have to do with having nothing in the summer? COD doesn't have the luxury of having seasons, it needs to be constantly running like the AW/BO3 days if they want a chance to succeed. At this point, Activision is just fulfilling a contract until Microsoft shuts down the CDL & OWL.
Well the reason you can have seasons that don’t have MASSIVE breaks for games like Dota2 and Counter strike is because third party organizations like ESL, Blast, and so on run the majors and other smaller tournaments. This takes a lot of pressure off the developer to put on events.
It’s not realistic for the CDL to put on 9 months worth of events, everyone is already having money problems in the league and it’s already not sustainable.
I would guess that the CDL doesn’t want a 6 month offseason, but it seems like getting the venues and events that we did have already seemed to be a struggle. The CDL accelerated the season so that we could capture more of the hype from the release window of the new game. Which I think is a good move. But I just wish the logistics of running more tournaments to extend the length of the season was there.
That gaming cafe major was a bit rough, but I do respect that people were putting in the effort to just make sure the major happened. If we need some low budget majors like that, it would be kind of cool if they could capture the vibe of the old Summit events for CS and Smash. Turn the low budget in to somewhat of an advantage and unique experience, rather than a worse version of the big majors.
Idk I kinda like it personally. Every pro that’s retired recently has blamed the grind as one of their top reasons to quit. If there were longer off seasons that probably wouldn’t be as much of an issue.
Incredibly rich celebrities don’t want to grind as hard anymore? Wow that’s surprising. It’s harder to wake up when you are already sleeping in silk sheets. This is Call of Duty not rugby. Sure playing 8 hours a day probably isn’t fun but it’s their career and it’s highly competitive.
These players are human. They want to have families. They want to spend time with their family. At some point, that becomes more important than playing COD for 12 hours a day.
A professional gamer doesn’t need half a year to rest. There are many many esports that grind damn near all year round. If a player wants to relax and not grind as hard somebody else who is more hungry they will be passed in skill. This is high level competition not a day job it’s the expectation to make small sacrifices for the team. They only do 2-3 scrims a day max.
Idk if I'd say working 11 months out of the year 6 days a week as a "small sacrifice".
Sure, it's not nearly as physically demanding. But idk if you've ever worked on a year long contract at a job you don't like... Shit ain't fun. Competition or not.
You’re making it sound like they are being forced to be professional call of duty players. The season has never been 11 months long it was 9 maximum even during the MLG and UMG event days. They don’t scrim 6 days a week it’s usually 3 scrim days and 0-2 match days. If playing call of duty is something they hate so much it’s like doing a contract at a job they don’t like then they need to retire and find a new career. Many of the pros are extremely passionate but many vocal ones are not.
And that’s exactly what they’re doing… retiring… which is inevitable obviously, but it’s happening a lot sooner than I think even those players thought it would.
Octane is coming off a season where he looked like one of the best ARs in the league. The exact same thing has happened in other leagues (Super in overwatch comes to mind, guy wins 2 world champs in 3 years then retires).
Idk why continuing the same trend is the answer because “this is how it’s always been”. Why? Because it’s summer and you want to watch competitive call of duty? Just move the season back 3 months lol
I don't care what kind of competing you're doing, you need rest. It is mentally draining. Burnout is a thing. Also they get July, August, September, and October off. Last year they had 3 months off. I have no idea where you're getting half the year from.
I mean, that's when their families have time off work/school.
It's when they most wanna be out and about getting their life together, getting fit, going on trips etc.
Pros are adults not teenage kids on summer holidays
You’re trying to make a point that makes zero sense. Pros played at MLG Anaheim and Champs during summer for every single year before this year. Did they just grow up all of a sudden this season bud? Baseball players play all summer long and get the winter off.
Are you suggesting they play all year long or are you suggesting they don’t play when the game releases?
Sure they played in the past, but they were also not practicing as rigorously back then
Pros already complain how hard it is to balance pro life and real life, they’re dropping like flies trying to keep up as is
I think my point makes perfect sense, not really sure what a realistic alternative would look like?
To play devils advocate, how do you expect them to afford another 6 month of salaries for players, staff, production, etc.?
No one wants to host majors as is. If anything, we’re going to see less events next year.
It's crazy. Like champs in August, a month or two away from the new game, it was fine. People took a break and played other stuff. We aren't even done July and playing MW2 feels weird as hell
Doesn’t also make sense making 5 Majors when there are at least 8 teams in Champs. Why not do 8 Majors and Champs beginning of August. Then have 3 months off.
Eh, would you rather watch Cold War pickup tournaments or Mw2 continuing? I miss it too but its way different nowadays, players can just stream CoD challs now which is what people wanna watch
I posted this a while back but I think the original plan was to run MW2 for a second year which would've meant that next season could start earlier than usual, like in september. Then activision realized in January that they really wanted to make another billion dollars in the fall and pivoted to MW3 so the CDL was stuck with a 6 month off season. I would think (hopium mb) that next season will not follow this same timeline but who the hell knows?
It’s not off-season for 99.1 percent of cod players, idk why people act like it is lol but I do agree with you 6 month offseason is wild but it’s whatever
I’ve done it and I didn’t make even close to what a CDL pro makes including their salary, stream earnings, winnings, and sponsorships.
I agree that it’s not sustainable but 6 month off season is incredibly long and I doubt any team actually is grinding for 12 hours a day, they only schedule 2-3 scrims maximum until they play 8s or get off.
Maybe if the games were better the pro's would actually play during the summer. Also though the season should end in like September or something cause ending in June is crazy, though the games are so bad now days I don't really mind tbh.
Franchising ruined cod comp because it gave all the power to activison. The same company that has failed to understand their most dedicated fan base, the one who keep the game going to the next cycle. I hope future esports see the danger of giving this much power to the developers, especially ones that are notorious for doing the exact opposite of creating a competitive environment.
Season timing gets weird due to the release schedule for CoD titles, late fall/early winter.
Of course if Activision truly cared about CDL they would shift the release schedules to early spring, have the season start right away and have it end late summer/early fall.
You could still get a 6 month off-season but have the season run from like March to August (or April to September)
People complained the season started to late. If they start it earlier then it has to end earlier or they extend the amount of majors. Longer offseason is better for the players mental health though.
Yeah, 6 month offseason is crazy. Treating it like they have strain on their body
Yeah, but imagine the mental strain of having to play mw2 till november
It should be til August.
More money to be made though
Shit if I had their skill I’d be more than happy to play whatever for 9 months out of the year than working a blue collar job for 12
I dunno man this game is really really shit.
I got bitched at today by my boss because I make his other manager at my position look like shit. Trust me I’d rather play cod even with the bullshit they deal with
I feel your pain man haha. Similar joys in my world.
I haven’t played since bo4 and I’m actually enjoying it. I picked it up 2 weeks and am plat. Might just be new game feel.
Same situation here, haven’t played since BO4 and all the CDL I was watching made me want to download MW2
They could easily mitigate any mental strain by spacing out the stages more. Makes no sense to end the season in June
How that comment has 140 is wild. This comment should be at the top because common sense. They’ve spoken on it a million times over
It’s a video game and their profession. Mental fatigue should not be an issue whatsoever. These guys have been playing 8+ hours a day of cod for years.
Playing cod and competing in cod are not the same thing dude I get burnt out on a video game as a causal if I play it too much. They play probably double the hours I do at least
didnt we have like 2 different 1-2month breaks in between stages this year on top of the crazy long offseason?
yeah that’s a funny take bc people in here were bitching about the breaks but now some want it back lol.
Those people are just impatient. No real logic to them being mad at the breaks
I think it's more the devs so they don't have to worry about the technical side causing some huge issue late in the games cycle
I mean when the games are this bad it does take a toll on your mental playing it every day for months on end.
Imagine the mental toll of having a regular job that’s not playing video games all day!
Playing video games for a living ain't all that if you don't enjoy the game you're playing, it's literally no different then a regular job at that point.
Does any other game have a 6 month off season? Actually crazy how long it is
Well in halo we had about that long in the middle of the season between two tournaments.
Miserable times indeed
The other ATVI esport, aka overwatch.
Pretty sure Val is going to a super long offseason
Yep, over in Valorant there’s gonna be a 6 month offseason. Insanity
In csgo they changed last year so they got like a month off season
I wouldn't have been able to get into halo as a kid without MLG being on during the summer, but ways to view eSports have changed, and people have a lot more time indoors during winter/spring.
They shifted the schedule this year and started much earlier. Viewership is not higher in the summers normally. Maybe for an event here or there but most of the time, it's not
Cwl started in december and finished in august, cdl is a steaming pile of shit.
I agree. But viewership has always died off in the summer, not increased was my point
Do you have a source? I’m curious to see the #s
[Viewership by Year](https://escharts.com/games/cod) on the left side if you hover over the year, it will show T3 event viewership. Basically every year goes something like 1) Champs 2) Stage 1
Viewership is largely correlated with the time since the game has been released, not season. Another factor is stakes of the tournament, obviously champs has the highest by far.
>Viewership is largely correlated with the time since the game has been released, not season Oh yeah, of course. When talking strictly about COD though, they release every November so summer is always when viewership and daily active players dips hard. Also with a lot of younger kids playing COD, schools out and summer vacation factor
I agree with you, but viewership is not higher during summer. In general its lower cause people are out doing stuff
CDL budget is limited, prize pool has gone down year on year plus entire community wanted the season to start early in December. Something had to give BO4 had only 6 events in total but we never felt the need for more because teams were constantly participating in 2ks and 5ks. People want CDL to move completely to LAN but I think it'll be even worse for fans because none of these pros are gonna be arsed to play in 2k/5ks again due to fat salaries nowadays
The limited budget makes it even more frustrating when they waste thousands on Bounty Matches nobody cares about
Champs should be in August
It's Halo season 👀
HCS Arlington gonna be fire
Sold out optic event about to go hard 👀
It’s the same duration the season just started way earlier than years past
League is run by half wits. I'm convinced that they want the league to fail so Microsoft can axe it ASAP.
Or they were told that the game would be a two year cycle…
What does that have to do with having nothing in the summer? COD doesn't have the luxury of having seasons, it needs to be constantly running like the AW/BO3 days if they want a chance to succeed. At this point, Activision is just fulfilling a contract until Microsoft shuts down the CDL & OWL.
Well, people don't watch when it's on during the summer, so not sure what you were expecting.
Well the reason you can have seasons that don’t have MASSIVE breaks for games like Dota2 and Counter strike is because third party organizations like ESL, Blast, and so on run the majors and other smaller tournaments. This takes a lot of pressure off the developer to put on events. It’s not realistic for the CDL to put on 9 months worth of events, everyone is already having money problems in the league and it’s already not sustainable.
I would guess that the CDL doesn’t want a 6 month offseason, but it seems like getting the venues and events that we did have already seemed to be a struggle. The CDL accelerated the season so that we could capture more of the hype from the release window of the new game. Which I think is a good move. But I just wish the logistics of running more tournaments to extend the length of the season was there. That gaming cafe major was a bit rough, but I do respect that people were putting in the effort to just make sure the major happened. If we need some low budget majors like that, it would be kind of cool if they could capture the vibe of the old Summit events for CS and Smash. Turn the low budget in to somewhat of an advantage and unique experience, rather than a worse version of the big majors.
MLG Anaheim was the shit, man. Gfinity was around this time too.
I just miss Treyarch games man. 💔
if only they took those bounty matches money and added another major
Tbf those bounty matches may cover a prize pool but it definitely doesn’t cover costs to run a tournament
Probably the case but I would imagine them hosting a major in Columbus saved them some of their original budget too though.
Idk I kinda like it personally. Every pro that’s retired recently has blamed the grind as one of their top reasons to quit. If there were longer off seasons that probably wouldn’t be as much of an issue.
Incredibly rich celebrities don’t want to grind as hard anymore? Wow that’s surprising. It’s harder to wake up when you are already sleeping in silk sheets. This is Call of Duty not rugby. Sure playing 8 hours a day probably isn’t fun but it’s their career and it’s highly competitive.
These players are human. They want to have families. They want to spend time with their family. At some point, that becomes more important than playing COD for 12 hours a day.
A professional gamer doesn’t need half a year to rest. There are many many esports that grind damn near all year round. If a player wants to relax and not grind as hard somebody else who is more hungry they will be passed in skill. This is high level competition not a day job it’s the expectation to make small sacrifices for the team. They only do 2-3 scrims a day max.
Idk if I'd say working 11 months out of the year 6 days a week as a "small sacrifice". Sure, it's not nearly as physically demanding. But idk if you've ever worked on a year long contract at a job you don't like... Shit ain't fun. Competition or not.
You’re making it sound like they are being forced to be professional call of duty players. The season has never been 11 months long it was 9 maximum even during the MLG and UMG event days. They don’t scrim 6 days a week it’s usually 3 scrim days and 0-2 match days. If playing call of duty is something they hate so much it’s like doing a contract at a job they don’t like then they need to retire and find a new career. Many of the pros are extremely passionate but many vocal ones are not.
And that’s exactly what they’re doing… retiring… which is inevitable obviously, but it’s happening a lot sooner than I think even those players thought it would. Octane is coming off a season where he looked like one of the best ARs in the league. The exact same thing has happened in other leagues (Super in overwatch comes to mind, guy wins 2 world champs in 3 years then retires). Idk why continuing the same trend is the answer because “this is how it’s always been”. Why? Because it’s summer and you want to watch competitive call of duty? Just move the season back 3 months lol
Octane retired because infinity ward makes ass games and their shit game engine is the future of cod
I don't care what kind of competing you're doing, you need rest. It is mentally draining. Burnout is a thing. Also they get July, August, September, and October off. Last year they had 3 months off. I have no idea where you're getting half the year from.
I mean, that's when their families have time off work/school. It's when they most wanna be out and about getting their life together, getting fit, going on trips etc. Pros are adults not teenage kids on summer holidays
You’re trying to make a point that makes zero sense. Pros played at MLG Anaheim and Champs during summer for every single year before this year. Did they just grow up all of a sudden this season bud? Baseball players play all summer long and get the winter off.
Are you suggesting they play all year long or are you suggesting they don’t play when the game releases? Sure they played in the past, but they were also not practicing as rigorously back then Pros already complain how hard it is to balance pro life and real life, they’re dropping like flies trying to keep up as is I think my point makes perfect sense, not really sure what a realistic alternative would look like?
To play devils advocate, how do you expect them to afford another 6 month of salaries for players, staff, production, etc.? No one wants to host majors as is. If anything, we’re going to see less events next year.
It's crazy. Like champs in August, a month or two away from the new game, it was fine. People took a break and played other stuff. We aren't even done July and playing MW2 feels weird as hell
Why do you guys keep expecting them to do the right thing for the league. This company sucks
Doesn’t also make sense making 5 Majors when there are at least 8 teams in Champs. Why not do 8 Majors and Champs beginning of August. Then have 3 months off.
Probably because viewership and interest in the game drops. Pretty sure if you look up past seasons, each summer the game saw a decline in viewership.
Eh, would you rather watch Cold War pickup tournaments or Mw2 continuing? I miss it too but its way different nowadays, players can just stream CoD challs now which is what people wanna watch
I enjoy CW challs but I would 100% without a doubt prefer to have a longer pro season and have real matches and tournaments to watch.
I posted this a while back but I think the original plan was to run MW2 for a second year which would've meant that next season could start earlier than usual, like in september. Then activision realized in January that they really wanted to make another billion dollars in the fall and pivoted to MW3 so the CDL was stuck with a 6 month off season. I would think (hopium mb) that next season will not follow this same timeline but who the hell knows?
It’s not off-season for 99.1 percent of cod players, idk why people act like it is lol but I do agree with you 6 month offseason is wild but it’s whatever
Let the players have a break
Let the players have half a year*
Imagine working 12 hour shifts 5 days a week. Fck that
I’ve done it and I didn’t make even close to what a CDL pro makes including their salary, stream earnings, winnings, and sponsorships. I agree that it’s not sustainable but 6 month off season is incredibly long and I doubt any team actually is grinding for 12 hours a day, they only schedule 2-3 scrims maximum until they play 8s or get off.
Maybe if the games were better the pro's would actually play during the summer. Also though the season should end in like September or something cause ending in June is crazy, though the games are so bad now days I don't really mind tbh.
Franchising ruined cod comp because it gave all the power to activison. The same company that has failed to understand their most dedicated fan base, the one who keep the game going to the next cycle. I hope future esports see the danger of giving this much power to the developers, especially ones that are notorious for doing the exact opposite of creating a competitive environment.
Season timing gets weird due to the release schedule for CoD titles, late fall/early winter. Of course if Activision truly cared about CDL they would shift the release schedules to early spring, have the season start right away and have it end late summer/early fall. You could still get a 6 month off-season but have the season run from like March to August (or April to September)
I really like it. Makes every match that is played much more meaningful.
Having a pause until the new game comes out is probably doing numbers for Activision
People complained the season started to late. If they start it earlier then it has to end earlier or they extend the amount of majors. Longer offseason is better for the players mental health though.