The Call of Duty Championship presented by Xbox, which features a Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 tournament of 32 teams and a $1 million prize pool will take place in Hollywood, CA. April 5-7, Activision announced today.
"It's an absolute honor to have players and fans celebrate the thrill of competition on such a grand stage," said Mark Lamia, Treyarch studio head. "From the very beginning of development for Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, we committed to making eSports an integral part of the game, and it's going to be awesome to watch the best teams in the world battle it out for everyone to see."
Teams competing in the MLG 2013 Pro Circuit featuring Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 will have the chance to enter. The top 8 teams at the MLG Winter Championship, March 15-17, in Dallas, Texas, will go on to compete in the Call of Duty tournament. An additional 8 teams from the ESL's European Finals in Cologne, Germany on March 16-17, will also be joining the tournament.
North American teams can register their interest at the official Call of Duty eSports site. Once registered, the teams can compete in the February season of League Play in Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 on Xbox LIVE, which opens today. The top 8 eligible teams will be sent to Hollywood to compete.
From March 2-3, the Australian Cyber League will hold online Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 qualifiers for Australian and New Zealand teams. Seven successful teams will progress to a live event final in Sydney, Australia on Friday, March 15.
An eighth team will be chosen from a New Zealand-only qualifier and flown to Sydney to compete against the other teams. The best two teams of the competition will then go on to Hollywood to compete in The Call of Duty Championship.
Registration details for the Australian and New Zealand online qualifiers will be released on Wednesday Feb. 13. The remaining teams will consist of teams from across Asia and Brazil. More information for those local competitions will be announced on the Call of Duty eSport site.
"More people play Call of Duty multiplayer every day than watch the average regular season game of the NBA. The scale and passion of the Call of Duty fan base is simply humbling, and yet there is no formal way to find out who amongst those millions of players is the best of the best, until now," said Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision.
Brought together by Activision, Treyarch, Xbox, Major League Gaming (MLG) and the Electronic Sports League (ESL), the event will be streamed lived online. Additional details will be announced at a later date.