Esports winter has set in globally, but in very few places is it hitting harder than in Oceanic Call of Duty, where the scene has been on life support for years. However, one organizer is out to revitalize the Aussie scene in a big way in 2024.
The Australian Esports Network (AEN) is launching the CoD Platinum Division, an online seasonal league kicking off on Feb. 3 with open qualifiers from which six teams will emerge and compete in a single round-robin tournament. From a professional broadcast with casters to dedicated matchdays and a $2,000 prize pool, it’s the kickstart OCE CoD very much needs after years of darkness.
The Platinum Division won’t be a one-off thing, either. Plans are already in place for multiple seasons during the Modern Warfare 3 cycle, with the potential for more opportunities outside of competing in the works depending on season one’s success. There’s even talk of a possible LAN event, although it’s been stressed it’s still in the works.
The AEN Platinum Division is the brainchild of Jamie “JDU” Uncles, director of AEN and Vertex Esports Club, who fielded a CoD squad as recently as 2021. JDU is hoping the new league will act as a defibrillator for the OCE CoD scene and is part of a multi-step plan that will kickstart other events in the region.
“Rising tides float all ships,” JDU said to Dot Esports, who is hoping a smooth first season will pave the way for multiple iterations and a return of other third-party organizers to the region. “Hopefully we can open the door to other third-party organizers who will look at CoD and say ‘Hey, there is a solid viewership and community behind this game, maybe we can start running events too.’ It’ll grow everywhere holistically at the same time.”
Very few, if any, organizers remain in the CoD scene after the COVID-19 pandemic put a stop to operations. JDU experienced the COVID pause across multiple titles with Vertex through 2020 and 2021, but he asserts the effect on CoD was massive. “CoD was always run off a lot of organizations who would pay to have their teams fly overseas and play in the open events,” JDU said. With international opportunities such as the Challenger league “vanishing,” OCE CoD barely held on through the shutdown. “[The scene] has been stagnant for the best part of two to three years, which is why we’re looking to grow it again now.”
But JDU’s endgame isn’t to go it alone in the long run. He’s hoping the AEN Platinum Division will inspire other third-party organizers to give CoD another go in 2024 and provide OCE players a chance to realize their dreams at home rather than attempt to go it alone overseas.
“We’ve seen players like Rory ‘Cruze’ Hunn who’s had some great results in Challenger, he’s placed top eight at a couple of the open events so he’s getting his name out there,” JDU said, but success stories like Cruze and Amer “Pred” Zulbeari at OpTic are few and far between.
“You could travel overseas and risk it all and not get anything and then you’re trying to land on your own two feet in a foreign country. There are definitely more salaried opportunities in NA, but it’s much of a muchness compared to here honestly. You can battle it out and be the top team here and go overseas, or you can go overseas alone and play in that community full-time and still miss out.”
Another factor affecting small regions like OCE from growth is franchising, with JDU believing its introduction with the CDL has “gatekept” the community—especially in the smaller regions. “Back in the day you’d play the open events and then the top four or eight would go to the finals bracket,” he said. “I feel like it’s harder to break through, especially from a region like ours.”
Activision only recently confirmed the Challengers format for 2024, which will see opportunities halved for Challenger lineups with two brackets in Boston and Toronto, as opposed to all four Majors in 2023 featuring a Challenger Open. Fortunately, Oceanic squads can still make these events via APAC Challenger Cups.
But above all, the strength of a minor region like Oceania relies on its self-sufficiency as it always has, regardless of the esport. With more opportunities in the form of the Platinum Division available to players, OCE CoD may yet stand on its own two feet once more—not by choice, but by necessity.
The AEN Platinum Division’s maiden season begins on Feb. 3, with registration info available via the event’s official Discord server.
Published: Jan 15, 2024 02:19 am