Call of Duty League Confirms Return To Offline Events

Due to the ongoing pandemic, the Call of Duty competitive esports organization Call of Duty League, or CDL, canceled in-person offline events. In a recent announcement, it appears that these events are scheduled to return to some degree at select events. Right now, the Call of Duty CDL events are being hosted through Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, but that may change later this year.

Activision took the preemptive measure to postpone all offline events and move their tournaments to a digital platform during the onset of the pandemic. Now, Activision is moving to bring back the CDL events in coordination with franchised Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War teams. COVID-19 caused many teams to relocate to North America, and most teams moved to Texas as a result, where the CDL hosts many of these events.

The CDL announced through its official Twitter the return of LAN play for competitive events. This was preemptively teased through both Call of Duty's Gamertag generation site and many pro-player Twitter accounts. While the details regarding this return are unknown, it is a return to the stage for many professional players. Select events throughout the Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War competitive series will be played live this season, and the CDL has promised more details in the future.

The community in the comments is excited for the return to live tournament play. Thousands of fans attend official Call of Duty events, and COVID had a massive impact on the scheduling for these tournaments. Online teams will, most likely, not be allowed to compete, but many famous faces are already announcing their return.

Despite the excitement, many Call of Duty fans are concerned with the rise in cases in several states. With the return of live events comes an increased risk for contracting COVID. Still, many fans are expecting some light restrictions to be in play for the safety of the competitors and the viewers at the Call of Duty event.

This is a major push towards the plan previously laid out by the Call of Duty League commissioner. With the live events returning, it may not be much longer before fans are able to flood the stands and once again cheer on their favorite teams. Overall, the community sees this shift as a big win over the pandemic and a push back towards normality in the competitive environment.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare recently received a surprise update that added substantial new content to the game for the first time since the launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. This included the Call of Duty 4 map Killhouse, which is currently available to play in its own 24/7 playlist, in addition to the Al-Raab Airbase and Drainage maps, available in private matches. Unfortunately for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare fans, the maps were quietly removed with no explanation, though Infinity Ward has since addressed the situation.

Taking to Twitter, Infinity Ward explained why it decided to remove the Al-Raab Airbase and Drainage maps from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. According to the developer, the maps were removed because they weren't "quite ready," and needed some more development time. Infinity Ward then promised that it would update fans on when the maps would be returning to the game, but it didn't offer a timetable as to when that may happen.