The Call of Duty Endowment Bowl will return, with today’s announcement of the third annual C.O.D.E. Bowl, presented by USAA.
This will take place on December 16th 2022 in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Fans will be able to watch US and U.K. military esports teams battle it out alongside top Call of Duty (CoD) streamers in the newly launched Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0.
Participating teams from the military include players from the United States Air Force, Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Coast Guard and Space Force, and UK players from the British Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force. Streamers joining these teams include CouRage, Espresso, IceManIsaac, M3rkd by a SKIRT, C9Emz, Spratt, BennyCentral and more to be announced soon.
The winning military branch will receive bragging rights and the C.O.D.E. Bowl Trophy. 100% of the net proceeds from the tournament will go toward placing veterans into ‘high quality’ careers.
Update – RAF Esports ended up winning this year’s tournament:
This year, the C.O.D.E. Bowl will celebrate that the Endowment has helped place more than 110,000 veterans into employment.
The C.O.D.E. Bowl is the Endowment’scharity event to raise awareness and funds for veteran employment. All six US military branches and the three UK military branches are participating with members from their own esports teams, with the defending champions of the US Space Force looking to defend their trophy and challenging all branches to “come & get it” from space.
“This year, the C.O.D.E. Bowl will take Raleigh by storm with a thrilling Warzone 2.0 battle to see if anyone can pry the trophy away from Space Force,” said Dan Goldenberg, executive director of the Call of Duty Endowment.
“The event will be incredibly fun to watch, but we never lose sight of our important mission of placing the 61% of veterans who identify as being either unemployed or underemployed into meaningful careers.”
Earlier this year, a similar Charities Cup took place, with UK and USA armed forces going head-to-head in Call of Duty to raise money for good causes.
The C.O.D.E. Bowl kicks off at 9am Pacific time on December 16th and will feature nine military teams each divided into two squads, paired with a popular Call of Duty streamer, all competing in the newly-released Warzone 2.0 in a tournament-style, mini-royale competition.
The action will be broadcast live on the Call of Duty YouTube, Twitch, and Facebook channels.
USAA, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary of serving the military community, will provide exclusive content, viewer rewards and on-site experiences for attendees.
“As a company founded by the military for the military, including nearly one in five employees who are veterans or military spouses, USAA understands how incredibly important and rewarding it is for our military veterans to find valuable employment post-service.”
Jen Escobar, USAA
Jen Escobar, senior brand marketing officer at USAA, said: “We are proud to support the C.O.D.E. Bowl by helping to bring together military and veterans with a game they love, and more importantly, helping those who wear the uniform find their next career following their service and sacrifice to our country.”
Paired with the event in Raleigh, Hire Heroes USA, one of the Endowment’s grantees, will be holding a hiring event on-site at the Raleigh Convention Center the morning leading up to the event.
Recently, the official CDL map set, competitive settings and gentleman’s agreement for the MW2 season were revealed.
There’s more info at callofdutyendowment.org/help.
Related article: Should the Army be allowed to exhibit at gaming festivals like Insomnia?
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.
