CDL Releases First-Ever League Update: Majors Format, Third Game Mode, Ranked Play, Late Season Start, and More

In the first-ever Call of Duty League community update, the CDL discussed and announced details regarding several topics and concerns ahead of its 2022 season.

From updates to the majors format, to the announcement of the long-awaited third game mode, here's a breakdown of the CDL's Community Update No. 1.

First off, the CDL announced that following feedback from the community, they will indeed be reverting back to their original format in which there will be 12 teams at each Major.

Additionally, the CDL will be moving to a predetermined schedule for the upcoming season, citing that by being able to map out each team's strength of schedule, it'll be easier to ensure a fair distribution of matchups for players and fans alike to know and plan for ahead of time.

In the briefing, the CDL also announced that despite rumors of Warzone somehow entering the fray, the third game mode for the 2022 season had always been planned to be Control.

As it stands, the CDL is reportedly working with Sledgehammer Games to ensure its playability before officially confirming its inclusion in the Call of Duty League and Challengers. The changes coming soon in a patch this week include adjusting the location of the capture bar progress so it doesn’t overlap with the weapon reticle, fixing the Silent Plant function in S&D, and re-enabling the ability to toggle Destructible elements in the maps either on or off.

With the late-season start timing, CDL GM Daniel Tsay acknowledged that the lag since the launch of Vanguard is something the league will fix going forward.

"We don't like the lag between the game release and the start of our season either," Tsay said in the update. "We gotta move that and get our competitive gameplay much, much sooner. It's important to align with the start of a new game, be in all the excitement, amplify the excitement that comes with that time period. We didn't do that this season. We need to fix that. That's going to be the north star going forward."

As far as ranked play in Vanguard goes and complaints from owners on the current competitive pipeline of the game, the update mentions that while they understand that it is a priority among players and that they want to "give the next generation of Call of Duty pros a place prove their skills and play at the highest levels," more information on that front will be shared "in the coming weeks."

The Call of Duty League's first live LAN event for the year is set to kick off on Jan. 21, 2022, with the Kickoff Classic at Esports Stadium Arlington.