The $ 1 million Call of Duty Championship concludes: Finals Recap, Fariko Impact takes the prize

By Anthony John Agnello April 9, 2013

Image used with permission by copyright holder

The road to the Call of Duty Championships that took place between Friday and Sunday was long and filled with bitter rivalries. From the build up of the Champions Series Season 3 across all of February, to preliminary tournaments in March like the MLG Winter Championship and the ESL Championship, the world’s most popular military first-person shooter gripped the growing, rabid fan base of competitive gaming. At the close of competition, with the $1 million in prizes ponied up by Activision, the team Fariko Impact came out on top.

Fariko dominated through the first three rounds of the tournament, handily putting down competing teams Epsilon, Optic Gaming, and Complexity before facing off against EnVyUs. The last time Fariko Impact took on EnVyUs was in the first round of the MLG Winter Championship when Fariko literally shut out the team in a 3-0 match up. EnVyUs came to the Call of Duty Championships thirsty for revenge though, pushing Fariko Impact into a tie-breaker. Fariko came out on top, but just barely, squeaking out a 6-5 win to take home the grand prize of $400,000. EnVyUs walked away with $200,000

The team consists of American players Adam “Killa” Sloss, Chris “Parasite” Duarte, “MiRx,” and Canadian Damon “Karma” Barlow, a smaller group of the larger Fariko Gaming group which dominates the competitive Call of Duty world. Their team manager is Aaron “Jergin” Ryan. Since forming a few years ago, Fariko Impact has been a rising star in 2013, taking away the championship at the EGL 9 competition in the UK on March 31, as well as the MLG Winter Championship in Dallas.

Some of the teams that Fariko felled in early rounds actually have storied histories in the Call of Duty Championships. Optic Gaming, another team of American players, were actually the champions at the Call of Duty Championships back in September 2011 when they beat out the UK team Infinity in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. Infinity didn’t participate in this year’s competition.

Editors' Recommendations

Anthony John Agnello

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Anthony John Agnello is a writer living in New York. He works as the Community Manager of Joystiq.com and his writing has…

Gaming

You can get Call of Duty and Alan Wake with PS Plus in July

Sony has confirmed the three PS4 and PS5 games PlayStation Plus Essential subscribers will receive this July, and it's actually the best lineup the service has seen in a while. It features one of the best Call of Duty games from recent years, a cult classic that needs to be played before its sequel launches next year, and an overlooked 2022 indie.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War was first released in 2020 and, as its title suggests, is set in the 1980s during the Cold War. It features one of the most creative Call of Duty campaigns since Modern Warfare 2 and makes excellent use of DualSense's haptic feedback and adaptive triggers. The multiplayer and zombie modes are good fun too. Next up is Alan Wake Remastered, a remaster of an excellent 2010 horror-thriller from Control developer Remedy Entertainment. It's an experience best played unspoiled, so I'll simply recommend you go and play this. Its PS Plus addition is timed well, too, as Alan Wake II is set to release and continue the story this October.
Finally, Endling - Extinction is Forever is available this month. This 2022 indie game follows a mother fox as she tries to protect her cubs in a forest continuously getting ravaged by humans. It's a chilling, staunchly harrowing adventure that clearly displays the negative effects of deforestation, pollution, and environmental exploitation. You might have missed this game last year, as it came out on the same day as Stray, so definitely give it a shot now if you haven't yet.
This lineup of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War Cross-Gen Bundle, Alan Wake Remastered, and Endling - Extinction is Forever is one of the best lineups PS Plus Essential has seen in months, so definitely pick up these games when they are available between July 4 and July 31. Make sure you download June's titles before July 4 as well.

Gaming

Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0’s new update just nerfed the game’s best weapons

Characters on Ashika Island in Warzone 2.0.

Activision has released a new Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 update that nerfs the game's best long-range weapons: the Cronen Squall and the ISO Hemlock. Specifically, the damage across both weapons has been reduced, making them both less effective in all situations.

The news comes from the battle royale game's latest round of patch notes, which outlines the new changes to the weapons. There are some major implications to those changes, though the updates aren't as devastating as they might initially seem. Here's every tweak that was implemented in the new patch.

Gaming

6 months after launch, is Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 worth playing?

is warzone 20 worth playing six months after launch 2 0

Six months after its initial release, Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 has evolved tremendously, with many new features added as part of major updates. Despite this, the game still feels slightly unfinished in ways, lacking some of the features that made the original so great. Warzone 2.0 is a complex beast that may steer newcomers away, but if players can learn to master it, the battle royale can be a lot of fun, especially with a team.

But with so much competition in the battle royale space, is Warzone 2.0 worth your time six months later? Here's the current state of the popular shooter after a lot of retooling from Activision.
Slow trickle