Some recent reports have indicated that the Call of Duty League is going to be shifting back to a 12-team format for its majors in the coming season. The CoD League has been a big success since its launch, but there are a few aspects that have had poor receptions from the community. One of these was the recently announced format for the 2022 season. The CoD League 2022 Majors format was bizarrely changed to the four major tournaments having considerably fewer teams in competition.

This is what the change means for the League going forward and why it’s a good sign for the Call of Duty League.

CoD League 2022 Majors Format

The Call of Duty League has a structure that has proven a good mix of regular matches and more exciting tournaments. 12 teams make up the League at the moment. The tournament is played in a format with a regular season followed by playoffs. However, the regular season stage goes a bit further than just matches. There are four matches for this season.

Each major is three weeks of online matches that serve as a qualifier. At the first announcement for the CoD League 2022 Majors, only the top eight teams moved forward. They entered into an in-person LAN event with a live crowd. Teams competed for points in the general season standings alongside the title for each of the stage majors. The first will be hosted by OpTic Texas in 2022, making their debut after the various changes made to the OpTic CoD team in 2021.

In previous seasons, the majors feature all teams from the League. The top-ranking teams went into the winners’ bracket. the lower ranking also had the chance to play their way up from the losers bracket. The initial format for 2022 got rid of the losers’ bracket, having a knockout bracket with fewer teams.

CoD League 2022 Majors Format Changes – Return to 12 teams? 

According to some sources, the changes to the leagues format are going to be reverted for the 2022 season. The CoD League 2022 Majors format will be returning to having all 12 teams in competition. While sudden, the initial change was fairly controversial for the League. It removed the chance of full turnarounds for these inter-season events. While very rare, the possibility added tension to the games between lower-ranking teams.

The same batch of teams tended to dominate the higher stages of the majors last season, so the new format would have had some fan-favorite but lesser ranking teams playing considerably less.

The initial format also allowed for more teams in some cases. On the rare occasion that the host of a Major didn’t qualify, they would be put into a play-in match with the eighth-seeded team. While understandable to give a home team a chance, this isn’t exactly fair to those not hosting majors. This was a problem that was being caused purely by the new format for the League. Reverting to the previous format is likely going to appease fans who were upset with these changes.

Why Was it Changed?

The initial reasoning for the CoD League Majors format was due to lower viewing numbers for the loser’s bracket. However, this seemed to be a case of sacrificing competitive integrity in favor of better optimization for advertising. The reversal is a good move towards what fans wanted. However, it is also what their franchises were hoping for from the League.

The experimentation with a new format doesn’t seem to be going ahead. The CoD League seems to be listening to its fans and pros. That is always a good sign for an esport league like this.