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Overwatch League, Call of Duty League to exclusively stream on YouTube

 

Activision Blizzard and Google have entered a multi-year partnership to “power new player experiences,” and part of the deal is for the Overwatch League and the newly launched Call of Duty League to be exclusively streamed on YouTube.

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YouTube will host Activision Blizzard’s official live broadcasts of its esports leagues, which started on January 24 for the launch weekend of the first season of the Call of Duty League with 12 teams. To follow suit will be the Overwatch League, which will kick off its 2020 season on February 8.

All of Activision Blizzard’s esports events will be livestreamed on each league’s dedicated YouTube channel, which will also offer fans archived videos and other special content.

“Both the Overwatch League and Call of Duty League are the quintessential examples of world-class esports content. As a former Call of Duty esports commentator myself, I couldn’t be more excited for Activision Blizzard to choose YouTube as its exclusive home for the digital live streaming of both leagues,” said Ryan Wyatt, YouTube’s Head of Gaming, in a statement.

The Overwatch League’s move to YouTube is a blow to Twitch. The Amazon-owned video game streaming service paid $90 million to secure exclusive streaming rights for the league’s first two seasons, but it appears that Google lodged a more lucrative bid to sway Activision Blizzard towards YouTube.

It is also possible that Activision Blizzard made the decision to go with YouTube instead of Twitch due to the other incentives offered by a partnership with Google. The agreement between the two companies also includes Google Cloud being tapped to help enhance Activision Blizzard’s gaming infrastructure.

Twitch continues to hold the largest market share in video game livestreaming, but its dominance is slipping away. It held 67.1% of the market in 2018, but slipped to 61% in 2019. Twitch has been losing individual streamers, including the high-profile departures of Ninja and Shroud for Microsoft’s Mixer.

Twitch has reportedly failed to achieve its revenue goals, which has placed it in a difficult position. YouTube Gaming and Facebook Gaming, meanwhile, have Google’s and Facebook’s resources at their disposal, so the landscape of the video game streaming industry may further shift in the years to come.

Aaron Mamiit
Aaron received an NES and a copy of Super Mario Bros. for Christmas when he was four years old, and he has been fascinated…
The best Perk-A-Colas in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
A screenshot from Call of Duty: Black Ops 6's zombies mode.

There's nothing more refreshing than taking a nice big swig of a Perk-A-Cola during an intense Zombies match with your pals in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. Besides tasting great (we assume), these colas empower you with buffs that will keep you alive until the later rounds. These bonuses are just as important as the Pack-A-Punch, but come in a wider range of flavors. It is possible to stack them all, but that gets expensive very fast so you need to be thrifty about choosing which ones are most valuable early on. These colas come in eight different types that may or may not be worth your Essence to chug. If you want to know which ones are the best in Black Ops 6, check out our ranking.
Best Perk-A-Colas in Black Ops 6

We're ranking these Perk-A-Colas based on their base bonuses, not any additional effects you can get if you Augment them, from best to worst.
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Quick Revive
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Speed Cola
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Stamin-Up
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Deadshot Daiquiri
Every zombie has a weak spot, which is most often the head. Deadshot Daiquiri makes a critical hit hurt even more than normal, plus increases your auto-aim on those weak points when you aim down sights (ADS). That second part shouldn't factor much if you've got good aim, which is why this is only a decent Perk-A-Cola.
PhD Flopper
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Elemental Pop
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Melee Macchiato
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There are two kinds of people in this world: those who play Call of Duty and those who don’t. For three glorious hours, I was finally part of the former. Then it all came crashing down in a hail of gunfire.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is out now and it's being hailed as a return to greatness for the struggling series. Critics have praised features like its game-changing Omnimovement and welcomed the return of round-based Zombies mode. The star attraction, though, is this installment’s campaign. After years of experimental failures, Black Ops 6 delivers a straightforward political thriller full of eclectic missions. It’s a great premise, one that allows developer Raven to goof around with a “gone rogue” story featuring characters like Russel Adler.

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Soldier holding weapon in Modern Warfare II.

Few video game series are as influential and popular as Call of Duty. The annualized franchise throws players into fast-paced battles across various historical time periods -- along with fictional eras as well. Call of Duty has taken us to World War II, the Cold War, a modern setting, and even to the future.

Although it's one of the most successful video game franchises out there, Call of Duty's quality varies significantly from game to game, with some fantastic entries in the series, but many mediocre ones as well. But which Call of Duty games are worth your time and which ones should you skip? To answer that question, we've ranked all the mainline entries in the series, with details about why you should or shouldn't play a particular game.

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