MLG Atlanta has kicked off today (roster changes and all), but the action was delayed by a few other Call of Duty-related eSports announcements, not the least of which regarded the upcoming Call Of Duty World League Championship tournament.
August's championship tournament will have the second largest prize pool ever for a Call of Duty eSports event. This one featuring Infinite Warfare, the COD Championship will have a $1.5 million prize pool. For comparison, MLG Atlanta's World League Open happening right now has a pool of $200,000.
Though it might be best to compare this with last year's World League Championship for Call of Duty, using Black Ops III. That tournament had a $2 million prize pool, and the 16th largest prize pool all time of any eSport, according to esportsearnings.com.
While this may indicate a decrease from last year, the overall trend of Call of Duty eSports tournaments is still upward, in terms of prize pool.
According to Adam Apicella of MLG, this decrease was in part to help increase the overall spread of their available prize pool money throughout the year, rather than just have one major blowout. So this decrease also doesn't indicate a lack of funding or a decline in the relevance or viability of Call of Duty as an eSport.
They will also be using this money to fully support travel and accommodations to teams at certain tournaments this year. This sort of thing can serve to show that large prize pools alone does not a good eSports tournament make.
