In the latest sign of the approaching end times, online tournament website and gaming staple GameBattles will be closing down, the site announced today.
From its origins as SOCOMbattles to online Call of Duty tournaments to Major League Gaming integration, GameBattles has been a pillar of the competitive gaming community for decades. And now it’s shuttering its doors to signal the end of an era important to many current gamers.
GameBattles started out as SOCOMbattles, an online ladder and tournament site with ranks for players to match up and climb leaderboards in games like SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs. Eventually, CoD became a mainstay, along with other games like Halo and Gears of War.
In 2006, GameBattles was acquired by Major League Gaming. And in 2016, MLG was acquired by Activision. Both MLG and GB will both have shut down since their acquisitions, leaving gamers to look elsewhere.
And now, Xbox has acquired Activision, meaning it owns all of the properties. Luckily, other tournament-based sites have popped up since then, but the pickings are slim now that many titles now offer in-game ranked modes.
GameBattles operations supervisor Chris Evans lamented the news in a lengthy tweet shortly after the news went live.
“This didn’t have to happen,” he said. “There’s so much untapped potential with MLG, GameBattles and the future of Esports. I hope one day both MLG & GB get the attention & internal support they deserve—not for me or anyone who worked here, but for the amazing community they created over the years.”
The response to the news was also unanimously sad by players who grew up playing GameBattles matches, like CDL pro Attach and former pro Censor. CouRage simply replied “damn,” echoing the sentiments of players everywhere.
I will personally always remember the achievement of reaching top 40 on the CoD4 ladder with my clan as I camped out Team Deathmatch GB matches with my silenced M4 assault rifle.
Thanks for the memories, GB.
