How To Grow The Call of Duty Community
What we know
As everyone in the Call of Duty community is aware our game will not be featured in the MLG Winter Championships. I know that at this point it’s old news but I personally feel that this is a blessing in disguise. Unfortunately I feel alone in this matter. In a related note, I have been juggling the idea of holding a tournament in Columbus, Ohio the Saturday of MLG Columbus. As many people misconstrued it was not an opportunistic punch in the gut to MLG, but to celebrate the game we enjoy competing and I enjoy casting.
A revolution in thought
In order for us to move forward I think we need to make some changes to the core of this community. Which I will like to outline for you guys (WARNING: This might be a long read).
A Central Hub – I feel that one thing the American Call of Duty scene is severely lacking is a central hub of discussion. Similar to Decerto, Team Liquid, GoW Nation, The Halo Council or any other community based site. We cannot continue to operate as a community on Twitter and we need to refrain from airing our dirty laundry publicly. If you want to be considered a “Professional” then I suggest you act like one. (I will be getting to the term Pro in just a second)
A rules committee – This is the one thing, above all else, that I feel Decerto does fantastically. There is a council of gamers and community leaders that discuss the current rules settings and what works well for the overall community. While Decerto is known to be “ban happy” I would imagine that we could establish a nice balance and even a universal rule set for Call of Duty that could be adopted by the ENTIRE competitive community.
Abolish the term “Pro” – If you were an MLG Pro in Black Ops congratulations but you’re not anymore. in fact the term professional is defined as a person who makes a living doing what they do and if you won CoD XP or make a substantial living on tournament victories I hate to break it to you but you are no a Pro. Labels is what separates our community and right now we simply don’t need that.
Take the example of others – I will say this time and time again but Hypefestation is one of the boldest and craziest ideas in a long time. In a world where people expect StarCraft caliber viewers, Hype has managed to surpass all expectations. Is there room for growth? Of course! Complacency is the first step to failure.
WE ARE NOT STARCRAFT – Console gaming was on top of the world at one point. Granted it was a small world but a world nonetheless. StarCraft and it’s community have placed us in a position where we are the minority. Unfortunately everyone wants that level of fame and notoriety so bad that they refrain from seeing the issues at hand. It’s time to rebuild and find what works for us.
Work toward a common goal – A bigger issue with the community is the selfishness that comes with it. We get it, everyone is working on “big things” and everyone is so cool and amazing hoo-freaking-rah. There are people in this for the quick buck and those looking to legitimately looking to grow the community and actually make things happen. Those people need to come together and understand what the common goal is. Everyone wants to traffic on their site and apparently monopolize CoD. This cannot happen. With something as small as the competitive CoD community we cannot risk relying on one single entity to drive us forward.
We cannot rely on MLG anymore – I know a lot of guys at MLG and whether they agree or disagree with this is beyond me but as someone who has been involved in competitive gaming for quite some time I have seen community literally disappear because MLG was not supporting their game anymore. It happened with Gears, Rainbow Six and Shadowrun.The Gears community saw the light though and decided to take matters into their own hands.
Cyber SportsNetwork, Beyond Gaming, Machinima, 360 Icons, Lantasitc Gaming, King of the Couch, End Game Live, and eSports Nation and many others all need your help! Sure things might be a little bumpy with all the commotion but to give up on CoD because MLG isn’t picking it up is ludicrous. I’ll be 100% honest with you guys but had it not been for PlayStation supporting us CoD would have NEVER been in the live events and for right now we need to make due with what we have and to be honest it’s not a bad thing. These companies need your support to grow and provide better prizing and more opportunities for growth. So implore everyone one of you to sign up on their sites and support them in the tournaments they are organizing because it’s now or never.
In closing
Lastly, this goes to all of the players out there who are afraid to play against the top players in the game. MAN UP! These guys are the best in the game because they have put in the work and the continue to grow as the game grows. The innovate and execute and I know that each and every player out there is more then capable of doing the same thing.
There was a time we were on the Pro Circuit and everything was awesome and as expect people became complacent, which as we all know, lead to failure. I hope this opened some peoples eyes and made them realize what the bigger picture is. Let us evolve this community together and take a bold new step for the greater good of competitive gaming, which is something I truly love.
Thanks for reading.
- GoldenboyFTW
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