Activision Blizzard Reveals Two More Franchises for Call of Duty League

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Activision Blizzard Reveals Two More Franchises for Call of Duty League

Activision Blizzard announced today that Immortals Gaming Club and WISE Ventures will field franchises in the upcoming Call of Duty League.


Immortals Gaming Club will field a Call of Duty Franchise when the League starts next year, according to Activision Blizzard. According to the team, Immortals will retain the newly purchased OpTic Gaming brand for the upcoming team.

Call of Duty Comes to Minnesota

Activision Blizzard also announced that WISE Ventures, led by the owners of the Minnesota Vikings, the Wilf family, will also compete in the upcoming Call of Duty League with a team based in Minnesota. Interestingly, the WISE Ventures-owned franchise is the first announced to not be an extension of an existing Overwatch League team.

Ari Segal, CEO, Immortals Gaming Club, had this to say on the new franchise:

“By participating in the city-based model, we recognize the opportunity that the new Call of Duty esports league creates for us to tap into two existing sources of affinity: regional or city-based pride, and affinity for Call of Duty itself. Call of Duty League also allows us to scale the relationships we’ve been fortunate to build with both Activision Blizzard Esports leadership and senior management into a new and largely distinct market segment.”

For the new Minnesota franchise, Jonathan Wilf of WISE Ventures commented as well:

“Esports and competitive gaming has clearly emerged as a major force in the sports and entertainment industry. We have explored various opportunities in esports over the past few years, and we believe the new Call of Duty esports league is well positioned for long term success.”

That now makes seven official franchises set to compete in next year's Call of Duty League. Los Angeles and Minnesota join Atlanta, Toronto, New York, Dallas and Paris as cities that will have teams competing in the inaugural Call of Duty League, starting in 2019.

 


Image VIA: OpTic Gaming

Nick Johnson
Nick "Lesona" Johnson is an esports journalist with a focus on CS:GO and the OWL. His interest for esports started with CS:S and grew into a career as both an esports writer and an avid fan, giving him a unique perspective on both the casual and professional scenes. Twitter: @Lesona_