A Call of Duty (CoD) esports tournament between UK and USA armed forces is coming back this year to raise money for various charities.
The 2022 Charities Cup will feature six teams – three from the UK and three from the USA – with CDL game modes and a Warzone tournament in the final. There will also be women’s veterans teams taking part.
The goal is to give all veterans, serving military and disabled veterans the opportunity to participate in an event and support their various charities.
It kicks off on June 25th 2022 with the UK teams, and the final will take place on August 6th from 5pm BST. The opening ceremony will be streamed from the BezzaBing Twitch channel from 6pm BST on June 25th. Each team will then stream their host day on their own stream channel.
The Charities Cup has been organised by Daniel ‘BezzaBing’ Bingley, a member/beneficiary of three UK charities. He served as a corporal with the British Army until he was medically discharged in 2017. Gaming has since become a bigger part of his life, and he has described playing as a great way to keep in touch with his friends and positive for mental health.
Daniel is also part of the GB Paralympic Sitting Volleyball team, and took part in the 2018 Invictus Games.
The event is also linked with The Legion Games – the gaming side of the Royal British Legion – which launched back in 2019.
Aside from the usual winning teams, there will also be most valuable player (MVP) and most improved player awards up for grabs.
There are seven volunteers on board representing different charities:
- WWP (Wounder Warrior Project) – Veterans Charity
- The Legion Games – The Royal British Legion Armed Forces Charity
- Blesma – Military Charity for Limbless Veterans
- Help for Heroes (H4H) – UK Armed Forces & Military Veterans Charity
- Stack Up – Military Charity from the United States
- Merging Vets & Players (MVP)
- Call of Duty Endowment – Charity set up by CoD publisher Activision Blizzard
Each team will represent one of the above charities, except for the CoD Endowment, which the event will aim to raise money for regardless.
You can watch the 2021 Charities Cup closing ceremony here.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
