This weekend’s Call of Duty event in Atlanta is shaping up to be a crazy one. As many as 172 bloodthirsty teams are descending on the World Congress Center for their shot at a piece of the $200,000 prize pool and a giant pile of Pro Points.
This event could not have come at a better time. It’s no secret that a lot of people- casual players, competitive players, and everyone in between- have been disappointed with this year’s entry in Call of Duty.
With that in mind, there’s no better time to have an absolutely mind-blowing, kick-butt event to remind everyone why they love Call of Duty esports; there is no one I trust more to get that done than the hardworking people over at MLG. MLG Vegas- though flawed due to some administrative decisions- was one of the better events in terms of gameplay quality and storylines that I have watched in a long time, and I think this weekend has the potential to be even better, especially since this event has double the prize pool of its predecessor.
Below are the pools for the group stage of MLG Atlanta:
Group A
- Rise Nation: AquA, Faccento, FeLo, Loony
- FaZe Clan: Attach, Clayster, Enable, Zooma
- Team Infused: MarkyB, Nolson, Peatie, Moose
- Engima6: General, MRuiz, Kade, Proto
- Open Bracket Team
Group B
- Splyce: Bance, Jurd, Joshh, Madcat
- OpTic Gaming: Karma, Crimsix, Scump, FormaL
- Team Allegiance: Sinful, Royalty, Mochila, Remy
- Evil Geniuses: Nagafen, Studyy, Havok, NAMELESS
- Open Bracket Team
Group C
- Cloud9: Ricky, Aches, Assault, Lacefield
- Elevate: Reedy, Zed, Watson, Seany
- Luminosity Gaming: Saints, Classic, Slacked, Octane
- Team 3G: QwiKer, Zerg, Weeman, Niall
- Open Bracket Team
Group D
- Orbit: Rated, Urban, Zer0, Joee
- eUnited: Arcitys, Prestinni, Gunless, SiLLY
- Team EnVyUs: JKap, Slasher, John, Apathy
- Fnatic: Tommey, Skrapz, Wuskinz, SunnyB
- Open Bracket Team
Here is how the money and Pro Points will be split by placement:
- 1st – $80,000 | 25,000
- 2nd – $48,000 | 15,000
- 3rd – $32,000 | 11,000
- 4th – $16,000 | 9,000
- 5/6th – $8,000 | 8,000
- 5/6th – $8,000 | 8,000
- 7/8th – $4,000 | 7,000
- 7/8th – $4,000 | 7,000
- 9-12th – 5,500
- 13-17th – 4,500
- 17-21th – 3,000
- 21-25th – 2,750
- 25-29th – 2,250
- 29-32nd – 1,800
- 33-40th – 1,600
- 41-48th – 1,400
- 49th – 1,000
The storylines at this event are huge. Rise Nation, the reigning LAN champions after their dominant performance at MLG Vegas, are looking to repeat with a victory and prove that they are the team to beat in Infinite Warfare. Cloud9 and FaZe Clan, falling just short of the title at Vegas, are in it to prove that they are the best team in the game. OpTic Gaming, undoubtedly the best team in Black Ops III, are looking for redemption and to silence their ever-loudening critics after a disastrous LAN performance and several poor showings (and one good one) in the 2K Series online tournaments. eUnited, who have been performing extremely well online, are looking to show that their skills don’t disappear on LAN. Those are just a few of the many stories to watch this weekend as the matches play out, and they’re going to be fun to watch.
One quick note for all you viewers out there: MLG has made progress in terms of allowing streaming on other platforms, but they still are giving a lot of preference to their proprietary streaming platform. The good news is that they aren’t completely putting a moratorium on streaming the event to other platforms, as they are streaming Friday’s action on both Alpha and Bravo streams on Facebook, YouTube, Twitch and to their proprietary streaming platform. The bad news is that all Alpha Stream matches on Saturday will only be streamed on MLG’s website and to the PS4 in-game viewers (Bravo will still be active though), and both streams on Sunday will only be streamed live to MLG’s site. (Twitch will get both Alpha and Bravo streams on a one-hour delay). PS4 In-Game Stream viewers can also watch the action on Alpha stream all weekend long, but they’ll need to move to another platform should they wish to watch the Bravo stream.
