One of the most monumental tournaments in Call of Duty history took place five years ago today.
Fariko Impact won the first $1 million Call of Duty Championship on April 7, 2013. Adam “KiLLa” Sloss, Marcus “MiRx” Carter, Damon “Karma” Barlow, and Christopher “Parasite” Duarte took down Team Envy in the grand finals, which is considered by many to be one of the most memorable and thrilling Call of Duty series ever.
Fariko entered CoD Champs 2013 having won the two previous major LAN events, including the $50,000 MLG Winter Championship in March 2013. All eyes were on this lineup heading into the biggest Black Ops II tournament of the year.
KiLLa and crew went undefeated in pool play, and then took down OpTic Gaming and compLexity to reach the winners bracket finals. But Fariko actually lost to Team Envy—Jordan “JKap” Kaplan, Tosh “Stainville” McGruder, Jordan “ProoFy” Cannon, and Raymond “Rambo” Lussier—3-2 in the winners bracket finals.
Fariko bounced back and made it to the grand finals after defeating OpTic again, setting up a best-of-11 continuation series with Team Envy. In one of the best series in Call of Duty history, Fariko beat Team Envy 6-5 to win CoD Champs 2013.
Related: Team EnVyUs won the largest prize pool event in Call of Duty history at CoD Champs 2016
The grand finals featured some of the most memorable moments from Black Ops II, as the tournament concluded with an intense game 11 showdown on Meltdown Search and Destroy to decide the champion.
Fariko earned $400,000 as a team for their first-place finish, while the Boys in Blue took home $200,000 after coming in second.
CoD Champs 2013 was a significant tournament for several reasons. Not only was it a fan-favorite event, but this inaugural CoD Champs paved the way for more tournaments like it. CoD Champs is unrivaled as the most important event every year—but who knows what would’ve happened if the first installment in this tournament series wasn’t as successful.
