OpTic’s Crimsix reveals what will make or break franchising in Call of Duty esports
OpTic Gaming’s Hector ‘H3CZ’ Rodriguez and Ian ‘Crimsix’ Porter have spoken about the possibility of franchising in professional Call of Duty and given their opinions on the matter.
It is believed franchising in Call of Duty has been considered by Activision for a few years and was most recently talked about publicly just after the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4. On their Third Quarter Results call, the publisher mentioned that they were ‘actively working’ to see how to implement franchising in Call of Duty.
With plenty of other games moving into the franchise model and the success of Activision’s own Overwatch League, many believe that it’ll happen in time for 2019’s Call of Duty title.
During Episode 11 of H3CZ’s Eavesdrop Podcast, Crim speaks on why he thinks franchising in the game would be successful from the standpoint of a professional and what could possibly hinder it.
“That’s the biggest thing for me (game studios working together to make good games),” Crim says. “There’s no way the infrastructure is messed up – like, Activision has already done this once. If they do it again, they’re probably going to do it better than the first time.”
He continues: “The only thing that literally everything rides on is if the game is good or if its bad. At the end of the day, I think that is what matters the absolute most.”
The winningest player in Call of Duty history knows what it takes to succeed.“Imagine franchising on IW. I liked it as a competitor but pubs were awful. That’s not just my opinion, that’s a whole bunch of other people’s opinion.
“If they launch it on a game like Black Ops 4 or Black Ops 3, just a well liked game, then it’s gonna go places. I think it’s gonna go places no matter what but that cap of how successful it can be is just based solely on the game.”
(Timestamp for mobile viewers for below video of 1:03:50)
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H3CZ adds that there are rumours of franchising happening prior to the next game being released and that changes have been made that point towards those rumours being true – mainly changing from 4v4 to 5v5.
Since moving to 5v5, Crimsix and the new OpTic Gaming lineup have dominated the online tournaments of Black Ops 4 and are gearing up for the opening event of the year, CWL Las Vegas, which will take place December 7 through to December 9.
The Greenwall have been drawn in Pool D for the competition alongside Spylce, G2, a winner of the play-in bracket and an open bracket team.
Disclaimer: Hector Rodriguez is a minority shareholder in Dexerto Ltd.