Call of Duty’s DMZ mode is surprisingly getting its own $30,000 tournament this month

Call of Duty will feature its extraction-based mode DMZ in a $30,000 tournament later this month, Activision announced today.

The Call of Duty: DMZ Gauntlet will pit 16 teams of three against each other in “a variety of challenges” in DMZ. The extraction-based mode a la Escape from Tarkov was first released this past November and is a departure from anything CoD has done in the past.

In DMZ, players spawn into Warzone 2’s giant map Al Mazrah and complete various objectives while trying to extract with better gear. If players die, they lose all the loot that they currently have equipped unless they insure their weapons.

It’s unclear what kind of challenges the competitors will be taking part in for the DMZ Gauntlet, or even who will be participating. But the event takes place in five days and the CoD tweet seems to be asking for who fans want to watch participate, so it seems like the contestants are still up in the air right now.

As this is the first big attempt at a “competitive” variant of the DMZ mode, which sees players fighting against AI combatants more so than other players, it should make for an interesting event for CoD fans to tune in for.

CoD’s DMZ Gauntlet will take place on Jan. 17 at 2pm CT on the official Call of Duty Twitch channel.