It appears that all that the Call of Duty League needed for top viewership was a little bit of French love.
Gotaga, the French YouTuber and former CoD esports competitor with over one billion views, entered into the CDL this season by purchasing the Los Angeles Guerrillas roster and pairing it up with his Gentle Mates organization. And it’s already paying big dividends for the league.

Thanks in part to the influence of Gotaga and M8, the Stage One Major Qualifier became the most-viewed overall event in league history, racking up over 6.5 million hours watched—beating out the CDL’s 2023 Stage Three Major which previously held the title at nearly 5.6 million hours. The Stage One Major Qualifiers took place in December and January, but also included the CDL’s first ever Minor tournament, which was won by Atlanta FaZe. This, combined with Gotaga and other big organizations like OpTic Texas, lead the way when it came to viewership.
CoD has always had a bit of a problem with maintaining interest in live events when organizations like OpTic and FaZe aren’t playing. That trend looks to be continuing thus far, but with M8 also in the fray, the numbers became stronger than ever over the course of the nearly 73 hours streamed throughout the qualifier.
Gotaga’s team, which now goes by Los Angeles Guerrillas M8 in the CDL, also featured in the top four most-viewed matches of all of this season’s Stage One Major qualifiers, according to EsportsCharts. The most-watched match took place on Dec. 14, as LAG M8 took on OpTic Texas, and the Frenchman pulled in more viewers than fellow co-streamer Scump.
Unfortunately, LAG M8 has not gotten off to a great start. The team finished stage one at 2-5, good for ninth place in the league, and thus will begin the tournament in the elimination bracket when action begins this weekend.
The league has definitely taken on a more esports-centric look in 2025, with city-style branding replaced with multiple esports organizations along with M8, including Cloud9 New York, Las Vegas Falcons, G2 Esports’ Minnesota ROKKR, and Miami Heretics joining the likes of OpTic, FaZe, and 100 Thieves.

The big four sports leagues-like franchising era of CoD may soon be coming to a close in favor of a return to the branding of esports’ roots. And the globalization of the league with the French M8, Saudi Falcons, and others may be just what the league needed when it comes to becoming more popular on the global stage and less centralized around North America.
The CDL kicks off its Major One tournament this Thursday, Jan. 30, with the league’s first-ever Major tournament in Europe hosted by Toronto Ultra in Madrid.
Published: Jan 27, 2025 02:38 pm