This past weekend, fans and players alike came together to celebrate the launch of the Call of Duty League. The first official season of this new rendition of competitive esports for the massive franchise is now underway. The competition was fierce in its first weekend.

Call of Duty League Kicks Off the Inaugural Season

Announced near the original launch of the latest game in the series, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Activision unveiled the official Call of Duty League. This league replaces the esports championships and other similar leagues that the game had gone through for years.

Taking some cues from the Overwatch League, NBA, NFL, and more, this league features franchised, city-based teams from around the world. The league shares a lot in common with those organizations.

There are recognizable teams from around the world who travel to and from each team’s home city to compete in various matches. The standings for the league will often change as we go through the inaugural season that culminates in the playoffs and championship.

But before we can get to that, the league had its start with the launch weekend this past weekend. The event for the newly founded esports league gave us the initial Call of Duty League standings that likely have ramifications for the rest of the 2020 season.

One of the most important things in competition and gaming is to start on the right foot. It was what the league’s launch weekend was all about. It gave all 12 teams in the competition a chance to shine throughout two matches each for the weekend.

No team had more than one match per day, so there was an ample amount of time to recover from each match and organize plans for the next match. As such, the results are in. It is one of the most surprising standings that we are sure not many fans would have guessed.

The Call of Duty League standings come after three days of competition from January 24-26. With each team competing in two matches of five players versus five, these were significant matches that were the best of five rounds in different game modes and maps.

Call of Duty League Standings May Surprise You

Since the launch weekend is over, we had the chance to see the initial standings in the league as we move into the normal format of only eight out of the 12 teams competing at each event. Every team has the opportunity to host the other teams at one of their home events.

In the case of the launch weekend, the Minnesota Rokkr hosted all 12 teams in the league at once and kicked off the season. The team had home-court advantage and did surprisingly well for themselves.

You can find the full Call of Duty League standings after launch weekend below from the last place currently to first place:

• 11. New York Subliners
• 11. Dallas Empire
• 10. Optic Gaming LA
• 9. Seattle Surge
• 7. Los Angeles Guerrillas
• 7. Toronto Ultra
• 5. London Royal Ravens
• 5. Florida Mutineers
• 3. Paris Legion
• 3. Minnesota Rokkr
• 1. Chicago Huntsmen
• 1. Atlanta FaZe

The Call of Duty League standings are surprising with some shockers at the top, namely the Minnesota Rokkr and Paris Legion. At the same time, teams like Dallas Empire and Seattle Surge didn’t do too well.

These are the official standings based on the current league website, updated after every major competition. Opening weekend worked differently than other events. They all only had two matches rather than what it will be in future events.

Each team gets 10 points for every win during the season. In this case, there were a few teams undefeated. They won all their matches for the launch weekend while some were unable to win one.

Of course, in the middle, several teams won one match and lost the other. To help you better understand, we are going over detailed results from each of the matches.

Detailed Results of the Matches on Day 1

On Friday, January 24, the first day of competition kicked off with three matches. The first match was one of the most anticipated in the weekend as it saw two of the most popular teams thus far compete against one another.

A lot of analysts and predictions saw the Dallas Empire and Chicago Huntsmen as two of the teams to watch during this inaugural season of the league. So, it was no surprise the first match of the league saw them go up against one another with their star-studded teams.

The Chicago Huntsmen won the best of five rounds match in an almost landslide win which no one expected. The match kicked off quite close with the Huntsmen barely scraping by with a win in a match of Hardpoint on the map Azhir Cave with 250 points to 209.

In the second round, Dallas Empire came out swinging in retaliation, completely decimating the enemy in Search and Destroy on Arklov Peak. The Empire won six rounds to one, tying up the match. However, the Empire fell hard from there in the third and fourth rounds.

Chicago Huntsmen took the Empire down in the third round of Domination on Hackney Yard 202 points to 157. This brought the Huntsmen back into the lead with the team securing its first victory of the league in the fourth and final round of Hardpoint on Gun Runner 250 points to 173.

The second match featured the Seattle Surge and the Florida Mutineers. In the first round, the teams competed on St. Petrograd in the Hardpoint mode. Surge came out on top with 250 points compared to the Mutineers’ 198 points.

The second round saw the Florida Mutineers rise back up and take back the match with six-round wins to three in Search and Destroy on Gun Runner. The third round was Gun Runner again, but in the Domination game mode. Seattle was barely able to get a victory on the map 188 points to 184.

From there, Florida Mutineers got another victory on the Azhir Cave map in Hardpoint with 250 points to 215. It created another tie and led to the fifth and final round of the match. The Mutineers destroyed the Surge six to nothing in Search and Destroy on Rammaza.

The final match of the night was the show-stopping main event with the hosting team Minnesota Rokkr against the Los Angeles Guerrillas. The two teams are some of the wildcards as not many knew what to expect.

That one’s for Minnesota!@ROKKR win on home turf with the 3-1 result over the @LAGuerrillas! #RØKKR #CDL2020 pic.twitter.com/YZARsbkTMR

— Call of Duty League (@CODLeague) January 25, 2020

One of the most intense matches of the entire event, the first round saw the teams compete on St. Petrograd in the Hardpoint mode where the Guerrillas won 250 points to 169. In the second round, it was Piccadilly in Search and Destroy.

The Los Angeles Guerrillas won yet again six rounds to three, but the judges ruled that one of the players cheated for using a certain restricted perk. This controversial decision resulted in Los Angeles forfeiting the round to Rokkr to tie up the match.

From there, Rokkr secured two consecutive round victories in Domination on Hackney Yard and Hardpoint also on Hackney Yard. Because of the forfeit, the point for that round went to Rokkr. It gave them a three to two victory for the match rather than two to two ties with a fifth-round to decide it all.

Detailed Results of the Matches on Day 2

Day 2 continued the craziness of the first day with the first match being New York Subliners versus the London Royal Ravens, both of which are favorite-fan teams. The London Royal Ravens crushed the Subliners in the first untouched match of the season, winning three, not even close rounds in a row.

Seattle Surge’s engaging in its match against the Toronto Ultra followed. It was another close match for the Surge, but they still lost, in the end, three rounds to two against the Toronto Ultra.

The @TorontoUltra claim the first Game 5, Round 11 win in the Call of Duty League! They clutch up vs the @SeattleSurge and get their first W. #SooUltra pic.twitter.com/6PvZ59EfDw

— Call of Duty League (@CODLeague) January 25, 2020

Following that match, the Los Angeles Guerrillas took on the Florida Mutineers in another close match. The Guerrillas overcame their rule-breaking loss and defeated the Mutineers three rounds to two.

Next up, Optic Gaming Los Angeles took on the Paris Legion in another highly anticipated match of the launch weekend. This was another close one where the teams went back and forth, swapping round wins with one another.

But Paris Legion secured the first-round win in Hardpoint on Azhir Cave. It led to them also getting the fifth and final round win and winning the whole match against Optic Gaming LA three rounds to two.

The night ended with the final match of the day. Atlanta Faze and Dallas Empire was another case of two of the most popular teams going up against one another. But, the results were shocking. Atlanta took a landslide win three rounds to nothing in Hardpoint, Search and Destroy, and Gun Runner.

Detailed Results of the Matches on Day 3

The third and final day of the competition saw the remaining teams complete their second match. It began with the London Royal Ravens having their second match against the Paris Legion. Though the Royal Ravens had the first untouched win of the season, there was an ironic twist of events here.

Instead, the Paris Legion went untouched in the three rounds played, winning all three of them against London and taking this match as their second victory in the league. After that, the Chicago Huntsmen took on Optic Gaming Los Angeles in their final matches of the weekend.

Optic couldn’t make a comeback and lost in a three to nothing victory for the Chicago Huntsmen in their second victory of the event as well. This final day secured the teams to watch out for this season in the third match of the day.

The penultimate match saw Atlanta Faze take on the New York Subliners. Though the Subliners tried to make a slight comeback towards the end, it was for nothing as they lost three rounds to one against Atlanta, which gave them two wins out of two for the weekend.

.@SimpXO and @Cellium lead the way for @ATLFaZe as they take the opening Hardpoint 250-211 over @subliners. #EZAFhttps://t.co/vKBgiISshS #CDL2020 pic.twitter.com/ogUWwU9oJs

— Call of Duty League (@CODLeague) January 26, 2020

The launch weekend concluded with none other than the home team playing their second and final match of the weekend. Minnesota Rokkr proved itself in the final match against the Toronto Ultra, taking down the team in an entertaining match-three round to one.

Where the League Goes from Here and Who to Watch

Overall, the launch weekend was crazy. Though many expected the Chicago Huntsmen and Atlanta Faze to come out as two of the top teams this season, no one quite expected the Minnesota Rokkr to do so well even though it had the home-field advantage.

The question remains of whether the Rokkr had a strong start due to confidence in having the opening weekend in their backyard or if this is truly a sign of the team’s greatness to come. It all remains to be seen. However, all eyes are what’s to come next for the league.

The next scheduled event for the league is on February 8. The London Royal Ravens host the first normal Home Series Weekend event after the launch weekend. Only eight of the teams in the league compete in a very different tournament-style format.

The event is an important one for the rest of the season. It puts the league in its normal routine for the first time. Here are the eight teams competing in the event:

• Chicago Huntsmen
• Dallas Empire
• Los Angeles Guerrillas
• Seattle Surge
• London Royal Ravens: Home team
• New York Subliners
• Paris Legion
• Toronto Ultra

It will be interesting to see what happens as the Royal Ravens currently have a win-loss record of one each. Also, it will be interesting to see how the Chicago Huntsmen reacts to taking on different teams than before and see if they can keep their No. 1 spot after the event.

This will be followed two weeks later in the normal format with the Atlanta Faze playing host to eight of the 12 teams in the league. Stay tuned for more info about these events, how to watch them both live and online, and the Call of Duty League standings as they change with each subsequent Home Series Weekend.