Overwatch League, Call of Duty League shift from live events to online matches

By Aaron Mamiit March 15, 2020

The Overwatch League and Call of Duty League, both of which Activision Blizzard envisioned would mirror traditional sports leagues with live audiences, is moving online for now as a safeguard against the novel coronavirus, officially known as COVID-19.

The Overwatch League said that the homestand events for March and April, which were recently canceled, will be played live in online matches that will start on March 21.

The league is working on a revised schedule to minimize the lag between matches of teams in different parts of the world. For the online matches of March and April, Overwatch League teams will be divided into three groups based on their region.

The Call of Duty League, similarly, is moving all of its scheduled live events to online matches, all of which will be broadcast live. The dates of the matches will be announced soon.

Both leagues said that they will return to city-based matches with live audiences as soon as it is safe for everyone involved. However, due to the nature of the coronavirus, it is not possible to determine an expected return date.

The online matches of the Overwatch League and Call of Duty League will be exclusively streamed and stored on their dedicated channels on YouTube, after Activision Blizzard and Google entered a multi-year partnership in January. YouTube was supposed to host the official live broadcasts from the stadiums where the Overwatch League and Call of Duty League matches would be held before they were suspended amid the pandemic.

The Overwatch League recently started experimenting with hero pools for the March 7 and March 8 matches at the Washington Justice Homestand, with McCree, Widowmaker, Reinhardt, and Moira making up the first batch of heroes who were temporarily banned. The hero pools will continue once Overwatch League matches resume.

E-sports continue through COVID-19

While various traditional sports leagues have been forced to suspend their seasons, including the NBA, NHL, and MLS, the digital nature of e-sports will allow the Overwatch League and Call of Duty League to continue this year after making certain adjustments. Cities may not be able to root for their basketball, hockey, or soccer teams, but they may still cheer for their favorite e-sports teams.

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III is official and it’s coming this November

call of duty modern warfare iii release date makarov mwiii

Activision has confirmed a November 10 release date for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III with a teaser trailer following a barrage of leaks.
The shooter, which is going to be a direct sequel to 2022's Modern Warfare II, was the subject of lots of reports and leaks prior to this announcement. Reports from Bloomberg revealed that this game was originally going to be a Modern Warfare II expansion, but it later got upgraded to a full game. Then, over the summer, more game details started to leak before some Monster Energy advertisements revealed the game's title prematurely. Activision coyly acknowledged this leak on Twitter at the time, but finally pulled the curtain back on the project today with a video titled "Modern Warfare III is Coming."
Modern Warfare III is Coming
It begins with some green soundwaves on-screen and a lot of radio chatter in the background. Then, the soundwaves turn from green to red before the perspective then pushes into them, creating a trippy red void. In there, we briefly see waveform images of a snake and Captain Price before he says, "Never bury your enemies alive" over the silhouette of a new character. This is believed to be Vladimir Makarov, the villain of the original Modern Warfare trilogy, who was teased in the post-credit scene for last year's campaign. After all of that, the title Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III is confirmed, as is the release date of November 10.

This date falls right in line with the late October to early November window in which Call of Duty games usually come out. It also places its launch after Microsoft's Activision Blizzard acquisition is expected to be complete, so it looks like this may be the first Call of Duty game released under Microsoft. Other than that date, official details on the game are fairly scarce. Thankfully, we shouldn't have to wait too much longer to learn more.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III launches on November 10.

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Call of Duty: Warzone devs share the design secrets of the best battle royale map

Overhead shot of Vondel map in Warzone.

The Vondel map in Call of Duty: Warzone is one of the best battlegrounds in the history of the battle royale genre. It's a small-scale, densely packed map with a wide variety of points of interest (POIs) that feel distinct. Modeled after European cities, Vondel is a feat of level design as it simultaneously feels fun and functional. It's a city that you can truly imagine as a real place, with a slew of different shops to enter, a canal, and even a water taxi service that moves throughout the map.

But behind the scenes, there are countless design choices that help the flow and pacing of the map. To get a better sense of just what makes this map work so well, I spoke with Beenox Senior Level Designer Fred Wilson and Lead Artist Guillaume Alain. The duo revealed how Vondel's composition seeps into the players' subconscious, with intuitive design choices that work better than any Warzone map that's come before.
Pacing is king

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III has seemingly leaked thanks to Monster

Five main characters from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II.

It looks like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III will be the title of this year's Call of Duty game. Following several leaks, including an undeniable one connected to Monster Energy, a joking tweet from the official Call of Duty Twitter account appears to confirm that this is true.
Leaks suggesting that 2023's Call of Duty game is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III have existed for months, but ramped up recently. On July 17, the Call of Duty Twitter account put up tweets asking if Operators, weapons, and bundles from Modern Warfare II should carry over to this year's game and teasing that a big reveal would happen alongside the unveiling of Season 5. Later that day, Bloomberg's Jason Schreier stated that this is a Sledgehammer Games-led project that started as an expansion and morphed into a full game.
Then, Monday morning, images of Monster Energy promotional materials connected to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III emerged on Twitter, giving us confirmation of the name and our first look at the game's logo.

A leak like this is pretty difficult to deny, so Activision decided to play along with it. "Whew. Mondays," the official Call of Duty account tweeted. "Anyone have an energy drink they can spare?"
While not a traditional, explicit announcement, this tweet confirms the validity of the Monster Energy leak and affirms that this year's Call of Duty will be a direct follow-up to 2022's Modern Warfare II. Now, we'll just have to wait and see when Activision decides to officially reveal more about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III itself.
Because it's not officially announced yet, we don't know what Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III's release date or launch platforms are. Still, it's likely that it will launch across PC, PlayStation, and Xbox sometime this October or November after Microsoft's Activision Blizzard acquisition closes.