A Sports Emmy nod for Call of Duty League
The broadcast team for the professional esports league received its second-ever nomination for its coverage of the 2022 Championship Weekend.
It’s a cliché, but we’ll say it anyway: achievement unlocked.
The broadcast team for Call of Duty League, the professional esports league based on the game franchise Call of Duty, received its second nomination for a Sports Emmy this month.
The nod is for the team’s coverage of the league’s 2022 Championship Weekend and comes in the Outstanding Esports Championship Coverage category for what will be the 44th annual Sports Emmy Awards.
The Sports Emmys have honored outstanding achievement in sports programming since 1979, and are awarded, like their primetime and daytime siblings, by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. This year’s Sports Emmy Awards ceremony will take place at New York City’s Lincoln Center on May 22.
Call of Duty League’s 2022 Championship Weekend saw the Los Angeles Thieves win their first CDL title (and, ahem, a $1.2 million prize) by defeating the reigning champion Atlanta FaZe. The league’s inaugural season took place in 2020.
We caught up with Michael Berger, executive producer for global broadcast at Activision Blizzard, which produces Call of Duty League, to learn what the Emmy nomination means to the team and what the future holds for esports.
How did the broadcast team react when they heard about the Emmy nomination?
To be nominated is a tremendous honor and accomplishment and a testament to the many people who work on the team. Culminating with Champs, it literally takes a village every year for what is a six-month season. We felt like we put on a great show and are really happy with how it turned out.
I've worked in both traditional sports and esports. I know how hard it is to get these nominations—there are a lot of amazingly talented folks on the esports scene. To know the other folks who are out there who are doing such a good job and to be recognized is really special.
What made this year’s event memorable?
The first four matches all went to game five [in a best-of-five series], which was awesome. I think two of them went to round 11, which is as far as it goes. That’s as exciting as you can get. I remember LA going up 4-0 in the best-of-nine grand finals. Atlanta won the next two games, and you're like, “Okay, well maybe we could have the most epic comeback of all time.” LA ended up closing it out.
It's not often that you get to see a hometown team win it all in front of their fans. That was one of the most dominating postseason performances in Call of Duty League history. Just the energy, the electricity in the venue, and seeing it all play out 20 minutes from their headquarters was special. It was a great capper to an amazing weekend.
What did fans enjoy the most about this year’s event?
That hometown piece was huge, but also being in person again for Champs—we had to take a bit of a hiatus during the pandemic. Just having everybody's boots on the ground [was great].
That goes for us as well on the production side. There's no replacement for having everyone there in the production truck and living and dying with every play and every match and every map. It was big for us. The fans turned out big time and as the weekend went on, you could tell that the Thieves were onto something special. The crowd obviously responded to that and seeing Atlanta trying to create their own dynasty and being so close to it—fans love Call of Duty and they love in-person Call of Duty even more.
What do you think the Emmy nomination means for Call of Duty League and the future?
Validation that this esport is growing and resonating with more and more people. Our viewership numbers skyrocketed this year. We’ve continued to set records for pretty much every event that we produce. I think it's just been kind of this watershed moment and year for the league in terms of popularity.
So this nomination is really exciting. It shows that this league is not just sustainable, but something that we can continue to build on to take Call of Duty, and esports, into the next era of gaming.
For more on Call of Duty League:
🏆 See the CDL tournament results and schedule
📺 Catch all the action on the CDL YouTube channel
📰 Read the latest news on the CDL website