Dallas Empire’s iLLeY reveals the cost of insane Modern Warfare grind

Professional players around the world have been throwing themselves at the latest Call of Duty title in an attempt to get ahead of the pack, yet there’s a slim chance anyone has sacrificed more than Dallas Empire’s Indervir ‘iLLeY’ Dhaliwal.

The esports grind can often be a challenging one, with dedicated professionals around the world committing countless hours to mastering their craft. Competitive Call of Duty is no different, with teams practicing at great lengths to get ahead of the opposition in any way possible. 

With each annual release in the popular FPS franchise, practice ramps up to a new degree as professionals look to get as much game time in as possible in order to acclimate faster than their competition.

Since the release of Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare on October 25, Call of Duty players have been deep in the trenches, perhaps moreso than ever before due to the introduction of the Call of Duty League in 2020.

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An overhaul to the competitive model, franchise-based teams are now set to compete all over the world with the first slate of matches kicking off in Minnesota on January 24.

As practice heats up, some competitors have begun to question the insane commitment of their foes.

A recent discussion kicked off when Toronto Ultra member Anthony ‘Methodz’ Zinni asked iLLeY to screenshot the health app on his phone. “I wanna see how many steps you took today,” he asked, clearly questioning the hours his competitor has been putting into the Modern Warfare grind ahead of the first League matchups.

Revealing his total steps for the day at 505, iLLeY highlighted how he has actually been on an upward trend, improving his total physical exercise month over month. With an average of 564 steps per day throughout the course of December already, that marks a significant increase over the 306 step average during November. 

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While obviously, the profession comes with the requirement of remaining in a seated position throughout practice, there’s no denying that his average movement falls well below the commonly recommended target of 10,000 steps per day. 

Shocking a number of fellow professionals in the scene, even iLLeY’s teammate on the starting roster of Dallas Empire, James ‘Clayster’ Eubanks, chimed in to express his concern.

“Bro this is f***in DISGUSTING,” he replied. While the squad has been dominating professional practice of late, indicating that the early grind has been paying off to an extent, even Clayster was taken back by the sheer dedication of his teammate.

Adding to the debate with their own tallies, fellow pros Thomas ‘ZooMaa’ Paparatto and Chris ‘Simp’ Lehr outlined their average steps in comparison to the outlier.

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The New York Subliners starter came in with an average of 4,485 steps throughout the past week, whereas the 2019 CoD Champs MVP and Atlanta FaZe member revealed his average of just under 5,000 per day throughout the entire year of 2019, and joked he must not be “grinding hard enough.”

There’s no denying that iLLeY’s sole focus since the release of Modern Warfare has clearly been to improve as a player and put himself in the best position possible to claim victory once the League kicks off in 2020. 

Evidently concerned at his lack of physical exercise thrown into the mix however, perhaps that will all change for the better once the full Dallas Empire roster is training out of their dedicated home base and required to travel overseas for various matchups.