College CoD returns with a new format

The new CDL season is approaching fast and combined with the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, the motivation and hopes for competitive play among top players are at their highest. And the same can be said for collegiate players. 

College Call of Duty League (CCL), the top-level collegiate Call Of Duty competition in the US, is returning with its fifth season, bringing a fresh format to ensure the highest level of competition yet.

New Format

Split into three sections, the new CCL season starts with the already ongoing Pre-Season, which runs until December. After that comes the Regular Season, taking place from January to May 2023. The Off Season will start as soon as the Regular Season finishes in May and will run through August 2023. 

The new College CoD season will officially kick off in February 2023 with a series of Regional Qualifiers for Northeast, Southeast, and West regions, with each region featuring two qualifiers. The top 12 teams from each qualifier will advance to regional League Play, and while the teams advancing from the first round of regional qualifiers will be coming to regional Division 1, the teams advancing from the second round of regional qualifiers will be seeded to regional Division 2.  

Every Division 1 team and the top four Division 2 teams will automatically qualify for season playoffs, while the other eight teams from every region’s Division 2 will have to earn their slot through the Last Chance Qualifier.

Regional Open Tournaments

The series of Regional Open Tournaments have been added to the CCL to help teams that didn’t qualify for League Play. However, the regions in this series are broken down into just two regions — West and East. 

In this competition, participating teams receive playoff points based on their performance throughout the events with the top 16 teams from the East region and the top eight teams from the West region qualifying for the CCL playoffs Last Chance Qualifier.

The LCQ will feature a total of 48 teams — 32 from the East and 16 from the West. The top 8 teams from each region will then advance to the playoffs, where the rest of the teams that have already qualified will be waiting. 

Playoffs

The College CoD Playoffs will also be split into East and West, with each featuring separate playoff brackets. Following the playoff battles, the top four teams from the East and the top three teams from the West will receive their tickets to the Championship LAN, which will likely take place in the summer 2023. The final Championship LAN slot will be earned by a team that wins a cross-region play-in-style tournament.

More information regarding details on the prize pool are yet to be revealed. 

 

Image credit: CCL