Clayster Raises Possible Problem with Coaches Who Still Compete

eUnited’s James ‘Clayster’ Eubanks has raised an interesting question about a conflict of interest with coaches and analysts who continue to compete.

Although coaches are by no means a new addition to the competitive Call of Duty scene, the sheer number of them has grown during the 2018 season, with teams like eUnited, Luminosity, OpTic Gaming, and Splyce all now having their own.

Many of these coaches, like Eunited’s Brian ‘Saint’ Baroska and OpTic Gaming’s Tyler ‘TeePee’ Polchow, previously competed but are now retired, meaning coaching their teams is their main focus in esports.

However, this is not the case for every coach or analyst. Luminosity recently acquired Michael ‘Spacely’ Schmale as their analyst, but unlike some other coaches, he continues to compete, having played under Elevate at CWL Anaheim.

The question hasn’t been asked before, perhaps because the situation hasn’t arisen, but Clayster pointed out during the $200,000 tournament that there could be a conflict of interest between coaches or analysts like Spacely, who work for one team but compete for another.

This was particularly relevant at CWL Anaheim, as Elevate successfully made it out of the Open Bracket and were placed into Group C, alongside UNILAD, Echo Fox, Mindfreak and Evil Geniuses. But if the team had ended up in Group B, Spacely would’ve ended up competing against Luminosity.

While Spacely assured Clayster he would never do anything immoral, the question remains, is it a conflict of interest?

With CWL Anaheim being the last open event for the Call of Duty: World War II season, it’s unlikely we’ll see any changes to the rules this year. But with coaches becoming increasingly popular, could we see alterations for Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII?