Update (March 28th 2022): London Royal Ravens picked up four wins from five in the CoD League 2022 Major Two qualifiers over the past few weeks, putting them as second seed, behind only Optic (who secured five wins).
Major Two takes place from March 31st to April 3rd 2022 at the Mystic Lake Center in Prior Lake, Minnesota. It’s hosted by the Minnesota Røkkr team. The Ravens will face the Florida Mutineers in their first match.
Original article (March 7th 2022): London Royal Ravens, the UK franchise team in the Call of Duty (CoD) League, have topped off a great start to 2022 with a top-three finish in the year’s first major.
The CoD League Major One was hosted by Optic Texas and took place at Esports Stadium Arlington on the weekend.
The Ravens beat the likes of the LA Guerrillas and Toronto Ultra to reach the upper bracket final, where they fell 3-1 to home team and eventual winners Optic Texas. They were then defeated 3-1 by Atlanta Faze in the lower bracket final, cementing their top three finish at the event.
This meant that the Ravens took home $80,000 in third place, with winners Optic Texas (who beat Atlanta Faze in the final, 5-2) receiving $200,000 and second-place Atlanta Faze earning $120,000.
London Royal Ravens have been finding their feet in the CoD League over the past few years, with mixed results following the Royal Ravens’ initial franchise announcement back in October 2019.
Since then, they’ve tried a few different players while always keeping to their UK roots by opting for UK talent in the team.
It looks like it’s paying off now. Last November, London Royal Ravens announced an all-English CoD League roster for 2022 including returning players Zer0 and Nastie, and the players seem to be gelling well together. They’ve got off to a solid start in the 2022 CoD League, currently sitting in third place with six wins and three losses, and now have performed well in the first major of 2022.
British esports OG Michael ‘ODEE’ O’Dell, chief gaming officer for RekTGlobal (a company which owns the Ravens CoD League franchise slot), said on Twitter:
This feeling is echoed with the players too.
A few months ago, we interviewed UK CoD player Zer0 on rejoining the Royal Ravens.
He said in that interview: “This team has some of the best talent I’ve ever seen, so I believe we’ll do extremely well in the 2022 season.”
Other players were also positive about the team, but Gismo did also reveal that he’s also going through several hardships right now.
But looking at their performances in-game, it certainly seems like it’s exciting days ahead for the Ravens. Let’s see how far they can go this year and what the next chapter will be in this British esports success story.
Related article: ‘A landmark event in UK Call of Duty history’ – what it was like attending London Royal Ravens’ first CoD League home matches in 2020
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.
