Your 18th birthday usually signifies a coming of age. It’s an important milestone. But in Call of Duty esports, turning 18 carries even more significance—it’s the age at which a player can finally compete in Call of Duty World League events.
When the CWL implemented the age restriction in September 2015, a lot of talented young players were affected. While some have come of age since then, or moved on to a different esport, others have been patiently waiting for their 18th birthday.
This has especially been the case for Seth “Glory” Donskey.
Glory just celebrated his 18th birthday on May 21. Despite his youth, he was given an opportunity to play alongside Ethan “FA5TBALLA” Wedgeworth, Christopher “ProFeeZy” Astudillo, and Tanner “Mosh” Clark on Most Wanted, which was later acquired by eRa Eternity.
Glory couldn’t accumulate any pro points before his 18th birthday, so the team played with Cloud9’s Preston “Priest” Greiner as a fill-in, winning two of the past three North American 2K tournaments. Now, it will be Glory’s turn to show everyone what he can do in the next North American 2K tournament this upcoming weekend (May 28).
Glory is just like many other young teenagers. He lives in a small town in Wisconsin, and played a lot of different sports growing up. But he eventually made the tough decision that a lot of professional gamers have faced over the years—quitting sports to pursue a career out of gaming.
“I got into the competitive scene back in Call of Duty: Black Ops II, but I only played League Play and 8s with friends because I played a lot of sports,” Glory told Dot Esports. “In Call of Duty: Ghosts, I started trying to compete a little bit, but I never had the time to do so. But in Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, I quit all of my sports and decided to try and make something out of this.”
After competing in a lot of online Search and Destroy tournaments over the past few years, Glory made the switch to variant gameplay in the hopes of landing a spot on a quality team. Glory put in a lot of hard work and dedication and finally got the opportunity to join eRa Eternity in their quest to qualify for the second season of the CWL Global Pro League.
“I was grinding almost 12 to 14 hours a day, putting in the work to get used to variant again,” Glory said. “FA5TBALLA saw potential in me and decided to give me a shot, and I made the most of the opportunity.”
While Glory definitely worked hard to earn his spot on eRa, his journey has only just begun—his team will need to place in the top two of the online qualifier on June 3 in order to earn a spot in the relegation tournament on June 15. ERa currently has the most pro points in North America for a non-pro league team, so they will enter the relegation qualifier as one of the top seeds.
With so much riding on this relegation qualifier, a lot of Call of Duty fans will be watching Glory to see how he performs, as well as to learn more about his individual style of play. Glory said that he considers himself more of a flex player—in Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, he usually runs a KBAR, but he can switch it up to use an NV4 or Erad on some maps.
“I feel like my situational plays are my biggest strengths,” Glory said. “But, I do play a little too fast in some situations, and I’d say that is my weakness as a player.”
Glory will need his situational knowledge to help eRa in both the relegation qualifier and at the next major LAN event: the CWL Anaheim Open. Although this will be his first LAN event since Advanced Warfare, Glory has high expectations for himself and his team.
“As long as we practice every day and have the mindset to fix our mistakes and get better, I expect us to qualify [for the pro league],” Glory said. “If you’re a team and you’re going into an event and don’t expect to win, what’s the point of going? I think if we play our game and get the right amount of practice, we can make some magic happen at Anaheim.”
All told, Glory is excited to compete in CWL events now that he has finally turned 18. Call of Duty fans will be keeping their eyes on Glory and eRa as they prepare for the long road ahead.
