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After adding nine teams to North America and Europe, Activision Blizzard's future franchise franchise Call of Duty will hang on Thursday: 100 Thieves, the organization founded by the Call of Duty legend, Matthew "Nadeshot" Haag, will not participate.
In a video posted on Twitter, Nadeshot explained the reasons for his decision, including the entry costs – US $ 25 million reported in March – told ESPN – and the league's desire to make their brands brands specific to Call of Duty or create them. new sister brands for the league.
Nadeshot was formerly captain of the most revolutionary company in the history of Call of Duty, OpTic Gaming, and has since built its own world-renowned brand. His 100 thieves, who won two major Call of Duty tournaments in 2019 and placed second at the Call of Duty World Championship in Los Angeles in August, will be seen as spectators of the future of the first-rate competition in the game. which has its famous founder.
The news, although heartbreaking for Nadeshot, his organization and the fans of the team, should not surprise. This $ 25 million prize is a big gamble on a game that has enjoyed relatively marginal success in recent years. Call of Duty was once the most popular game on the planet. It combined the rise of YouTube and content creators, such as Nadeshot, with exceptional game releases such as "Modern Warfare 2", "Black Ops", and more.
But a lot has changed since then. Fortnite is the most important game in the world, with others like League of Legends and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive at the head of the esport space. The slot machines of the League of Legends Championship Series, North America's franchised branch of the global ecosystem of this game, sell for around $ 30 million.
The 2018 League of Legends World Championship peaked at 44 million viewers worldwide, according to data released by developer Riot Games. How to compare Call of Duty, which attracted nearly 120,000 English viewers on Twitch during its world championship, even if other platforms' audience streams were added?
Like the Overwatch league, also managed by Activision Blizzard, the future Call of Duty league offers sports team owners a well-known value proposition: geolocated franchises with the possibility of selling tickets and local sponsorship. That's why six of the league's nine teams – Dallas, Florida, Los Angeles, Minnesota, New York and Paris – have as their main owners sports teams.
Eight of the nine cities in the franchised Call of Duty league are also represented in the Overwatch League and supported by the same millionaires and billionaires. For these buyers, this $ 25 million spend is a way to double Activision Blizzard and trust Bobby Kotick, president of this company. Although the city-based model has commercial appeal in traditional sports, there is no evidence to suggest that it still works in esports. Overwatch League and Call of Duty will be the faces of this experience in 2020.
If you are the owner of the Los Angeles Rams, Stan Kroenke, the Minnesota Vikings president, Zygi Wilf or the Wilpon family of the New York Mets, $ 25 million is a drop of water in the basket. But if you are 100 Thieves, this represents a huge investment – an investment that could make or break your startup in the future – and that can be discussed if the reward outweighs the risk.
It's not that 100 thieves can not afford the league, nor that his leadership, such as Nadeshot or the former senior vice president of Activision Blizzard, Mike Sepso – both very experienced in Call of Duty – do not understand this opportunity. It's the opposite, in fact; They are two of the most skilled people in the industry, facing a long-term but risky opportunity for the future of their team, and who say no.
If 100 thieves do not see the value of the risk associated with the franchise, who can?
This also concerns more than Call of Duty for the Nadeshot organization: teams of 100 thieves in the field in several sports. How do you convince others to trust your business judgment if you pay more than $ 25 million in franchise fees and operating costs in a league that falls flat? Who will give you money if you use most or all of it for a single project? For 100 Thieves and many endemic starter brands, the risk of burning investors and damaging their reputation in discussions with future donors is too high.
It will be unfortunate to see Nadeshot & Co. absent from the Call of Duty professional program in 2020. The opportunity to come back, at a price probably higher, will present itself in the future and maybe that's not enough. there will be enough data to support such an important decision. . But for the moment, there are none and 100 Thieves will not be the last major endemic brand of Call of Duty to refrain from participating in the future.
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