CDL Expansion: What Would it Look Like?

There is some speculation on what it would look like if there were to be a CDL Expansion process. So let’s embrace the rumours and get in on the conversation. I’ll be diving into some possible team locations and formatting during a regular season. Fellow esports.gg expert Maverick has also given his input on some franchise locations.

 In the most likely scenario, four teams would be added for a CDL Expansion. Therefore, the league would bump up to an even 16 teams. I say “even” based on the fact that old tournament formats were based around 16 teams the majority of the time. So with that being said, I invited co-worker Maverick to choose his top 4 locations for new franchises. My top 4 will then follow his. Let’s get into it:

When it comes to the European Esports scene, there aren’t many nations with a bigger draw than Germany. Cologne has been the site of many big Esports tournaments as well as the host of Gamescom, the largest gaming convention in Europe. It would be the perfect location to base a CDL team and, like with Barcelona, would do wonders for European CoD as a whole. 

There really ought to be more of an incentive by the CDL to add more non-American teams, so having one from Spain would be a great start. We have already seen that there is a wealth of talented players in Spain via Challengers, not to mention the rich history of Spanish players that previously competed in the old CWL. With that in mind and given that there is already a huge esports scene in Barcelona, it would make sense for their to be a team representing the area.

Cod Esports has suffered from not having a lot of APAC representation at events and, in this case, the league. Korea is an esports market that the CDL should be eager to invest in as there is so much talent, as seen from other Esports titles. With Gen G already having an established franchise in the form of the Seoul Dynasty OWL team, CDL fans would certainly welcome their return to action.

If there are to be more North American teams then there should be more of an effort to add a couple more Canadian teams. There has been a lot of prominent and talented players to come out of Canada, like Dashy, Karma and Rambo. So the fact that there is currently only one team in Canada, that being the Toronto Ultra is frankly absurd. 

Las Vegas seems like the most obvious choice for a U.S. expansion team. It is a perfect market for a franchised esports team. A large population and incredible tourist area will help the team thrive financially, as well as popularity amongst fans.

Berlin most recently played host the VCT Masters, the largest event Valorant has ever seen. With the event being an overall success, the local interest has been sparked even more than before. Esports seems to be peaking in Germany in a big way, so what better way to take advantage of that by having a COD team there?

Canada is dying for more Esports. Vancouver and Toronto each have Overwatch teams (Toronto with COD as well), but other than that, teams and events run seldom north of the border. Montreal hosted the Rainbow Six Invitational before the pandemic and it was absolutely electric. Fans in Montreal are extremely passionate about their sports teams and it would be no different with a COD team.

APAC doesn’t get nearly as much attention as it should. The Australian scene has been on the come up for a few years now and a CDL franchise will push them over the edge. It will help Australia/New Zealand players get recognized and bring a whole new fan base to the professional level.

Honorable mentions: Columbus, Philadelphia, Detroit, New Orleans, Madrid, Milan, Sydney

While fans always get excited about franchise news and possible CDL expansion, it realistically is not doable until 2023. With a lot of movement between current franchises, it doesn’t seem likely the CDL can handle adding four new teams at the time. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has really hindered the progression of the CDL. Despite the pandemic, the league has done an excellent job to work through it all. However, until fans can be back in venues full-time, the league won’t expand anytime soon. 

Check out all of the recent roster announcements in the CDL here!