Professional Call of Duty Is Returning To LAN Today
Before we get into the blog, lemme explain the difference between Online and LAN events. It's fairly simple, but the vocab can trip you up - LAN means local area network. Each console/PC is linked together to form one network. When you play online, everyone is connecting to one server that is typically located somewhere within the country. Therefore, each player can have different "ping" (or response time, to the game they'll be playing. Because certain players can have lower ping (which is better) than other players, it can give an advantage depending on location.
Prior to COVID, almost all major competitive Call of Duty tournaments were LAN events. This is the best way to even the playing field and truly see who are the best players in the world. Due to COVID, the tournaments and majors were forced to be played online. All the while, many veteran players weren't playing to their tournament standards, while newer players began to pop off.
Think of LAN vs Online in the light as MLB pitchers being forced to not use foreign substances to grip baseballs. It's an entirely different game. If you're used to LAN (or foreign substances for better grip), having to adapt to a new style of gameplay is very different. The biggest difference between two is that LAN is the proper way to play, whereas foreign substance was always in the gray area.
Another major reason why LAN being back is a major positive - last year during COVID and Online CDL, so many players got hit offline or DDOSed (denial of service attack) during major tournaments. A DDOS is when a hacker/coward tries to block someone's connection to the internet. It has plagued online gaming forever and it affected former LA Thieves player Kenny (aka Kuavo) during COD Champs (the Super Bowl of CoD with a $4.2M prize pool) last year.
Going back to LAN players vs Online players, the perfect case study is OpTic gaming. Scump and Formal lead the team has veterans and have typically performed at a high level at LANs. During this year of online play, OpTic hasn't been playing to their full potential. This week is when we'll how big of a difference LAN makes. Every esports player knows that LAN events are where the true players can showcase their talents for the world to see.
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I've been an OpTic fan since Black Ops 3 (2016), so I'll be rooting for the #GreenWall during this Major IV.
The prize pool for Major IV is $500,000 and 8 teams will be competing for their share.
Below are the teams competing plus the bracket
As you can see above, certain teams like OpTic (CHI), Dallas Empire (DAL) and more have earned the placement of winner's bracket because of their performance throughout Season IV. Each weekend, certain teams will have a "home series" tournament where teams compete in 5 group play matches to determine their placement for these Majors.
Even though the CDL will be returning to LAN, no spectators are allowed into the venue, even casters will have to be remote. CDL LANs always have great energy from the crowd, so watching Major IV will be….interesting.
Schedule
Matches begin today, Thursday at 6pm EST with OpTic facing Empire. This should be a great game because there has been some major beef lately going on between Crimsix (Dallas Empire) and Formal (OpTic gaming. In prior Call of Duty titles, Crimsix and Formal were teammates on OpTic, but now they are sworn enemies. Drama below:
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Format
- Best of 5 Series
- Double Elimination
- Rotating between (3) game modes - Hardpoint, Control and Search and Destroy
Grand Finals are Sunday, June 20th.
GLHF to all teams competing, but I'll be rooting for the #GreenWall of OpTic Gaming.
Tweet me your team!
The next step for LAN events is to get back to these memorable moments.