The Call of Duty League has announced it is changing the format of its inaugural season under a new structure, a late switch that will see it revert back to a tournament-based model used previously. Activision Blizzard has moved to a franchised, city-based model for the CDL, and as part of that all teams were expected to host home series events where some, but not all, of the 12 teams would play each other. However, the league came under some scrutiny from fans and industry members because the new model would have seen some teams flying not just across the U.S. but also to London for single-series games. The league has not released a new schedule yet, but it has now announced that starting with the second home series weekend in London in February, it will make the change to a system where all teams will compete at every event in a tournament. The launch weekend in Minneapolis in late January will remain with the original format of having predetermined matchups. It is unclear how many home series events will now be held in '20, but it is expected to be fewer than originally anticipated.
TOO MUCH TO HANDLE? The original schedule called for 26 matches over 28 weeks, with teams playing 5-on-5 with the "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare" game on PS4. Many of the CDL teams are also owned by groups that have Overwatch League teams, and with OWL also moving to its full homestand model in '20, a source said that some teams were becoming overwhelmed at the prospect of hosting events for both leagues for the first time next year. The source said that it thus made sense to move to this system for '20 to give teams more time to prepare their operations and staffing. CDL Commissioner Johanna Faries addressed the changes in a blog post.
