Celtic FC Esports, the esports organisation associated with Scottish Premier League Champions Celtic, has announced it will support a team competing in the Call of Duty World League (“CWL”) Championship.
Prior to the move, Celtic FC Esports has competed in the eFootball.Pro championship but missed out narrowly on the title against AS Monaco Esports. The release states that Celtic are “evaluating the possibility of expanding into other esports competition”.
The Call of Duty World League Championship finals will take place between August 14-18th at the Pauley Pavillion, the basektball arena in Los Angeles, California – and boasts a total prize of $2,000,000.
The roster signed by Celtic is as follows: Sean ‘Seany’ O’Connor, Shea ‘QwiKeR’ Sweeney, Ben ‘Bance’ Bance, Byron ‘Nastie’ Plumridge and Sam ‘Chain’ Dineley. Seany and QwiKeR have been Celtic fans their whole life, with the latter recently attending Celtic Park to see the opening day rout of St Johnstone before heading over Stateside to ramp up preparations for the CWL finals.
This is the last CWL Championships of the open ecosystem Call of Duty era, with Activision Blizzard revealing that it will be headed to a franchising system – with 8 franchises announced already. You can read our interview with MiDNiTE about her recent move to the Minnesota franchise here.
Miguel Pacheco, who works as International Business Development Manager for Celtic FC and is currently leading the Esports project said: “This is a great opportunity in an esports area where we see almost no engagement from professional football Clubs or traditional sports organisations. As we continue to develop and grow our Celtic FC Esports initiative, we are delighted to be able to support the team in such a high-profile esports event which has been incredibly successful in recent years. The fact that Seany and QwiKeR are Celtic fans through and through makes it even more exciting to us as we continue to see the crossover between the traditional and digital worlds.”
It’s the first move outside of football simulation for Celtic, and it’s an exciting move – given that they’ve also hinted at exploring other titles too. It’ll give fans of the Bhoys something to watch later this week too, after their crucial Champions League qualification match against CFR Cluj tomorrow night.
Esports Insider says: Great to see Celtic moving outside of sport sim titles and into Call of Duty no less. Next we want to see a show match between the CoD pros and the footballers. Will Scott Brown be as good an IGL in CoD as he is on the pitch? Is Scott Bain a magician with the sticks instead of between them? Is Leigh Griffiths as good a fragger as he is a goalscorer? So many questions… so few answers.