The Call of Duty League’s prize pool is significantly lower this year, according to Atlanta FaZe’s head coach Crowder.
While playing some Warzone matches with TeePee, Symfuhny, and Maven, the former Call of Duty pro and current FaZe coach and streamer revealed that Atlanta FaZe took home considerably less money for finishing in second place at Major One than they would have just a year ago. When asked by Symfuhny about how much the team made, Crowder was quite honest.
“Who knows, bro, they lowered the prize pool,” Crowder said. “Shit’s fuckin’ corny. It’s bullshit now. They didn’t fuckin’ announce a goddamn thing and then all of a sudden we just saw the prize pool and it’s just ass now.”
Crowder went on to reveal that placing first at a Major in 2024 will earn a team $150,000, down from $200,000 last year, and second place got FaZe $90,000, down from $120,000 in 2023.
FaZe lost in Major One’s grand finals to Toronto Ultra, who now hold a 15-point CDL Points lead over Atlanta in the standings for this season. And although he was upset about the money, Crowder took more of an issue that the change wasn’t made apparent beforehand and the team didn’t find out until Championship Sunday this past weekend.
“I’m not hating on the fact that they lowered it, because it probably should’ve been lowered, because no one is making money,” Crowder said. “I get that. But it’s just fucking crazy that they just snuck that in there.”
The state of franchised esports has been in flux for several years now, with teams who made large investments into leagues like the CDL and Overwatch League not finding much of a return on their investment. The OWL has now closed down, and the future of CDL itself is also likely murky.
