Posted: Jun 01, 2021

Spring 21 Season in Review: Call of Duty

MEQUON, Wis. – The Call of Duty (CoD) franchise is one of the most popular video game franchises. The last few months of 2020 saw 100 million people playing CoD each month. Warzone was a significant part of that total, but the release of the new title, CoD: Black Ops Cold War, brought life into the competitive scene across pro and collegiate leagues.

CUW Esports competed within the College CoD League (CCL), which is the "largest and most well run collegiate esports league we have access to," said head coach Smith. Right when Cold War released, CUW esports didn't hesitate to start try outs and get to work right away. They held tryouts with 12 people wanting to join the team, but they could only take eight in total, with four student-athletes being on team A and four student-athletes being on team B. Team A came out to be junior Luc "Kreuzy" Kreuser, junior Nathan "YaDunGotMe" Bauknecht, freshman Hunter "MeatHead" Kanneberg, freshman Sean "Seary" Hofstetter, and coached by Grant "Speedy" Steineke.

The season started in February with their first match against Wisconsin, which they ended up winning. "One of my favorite nights of this program." said Coach Smith. The CUW CoD team went on to win their first seven games of the season, falling to a top-10 team for their first loss of the season to make their record 7-1 to close the first half of the season. The second half of the season was reorganized so that top teams in record played other top teams in record, and that made the second half of the season a little bit rockier for the team. CUW ended up placing sixth in the division, forcing a play-in game against the University of Nebraska to clinch their spot in the 64-team playoffs tournament. After defeating Nebraska, CUW unfortunately ended up losing their first two games of the tournament, ending their season there.

"This first year was a great step forward. After our 7-0 start, we knew we could make a run towards the championship," said coach Grant "Speedy" Steineke as he sees a lot of promise in the future of the team. Captain Luc "Kreuzy" Kreuser shared a similar optimism as he stated, "We have a great team and we're looking to exceed what we did this past year."

All four players from the A-team will be returning in the Fall of 2021 to play again. There will be another round of tryouts where they will have to fight for their starting position as Coach Smith said that CUW esports is "bringing in a lot of fresh talent." This brings a lot of potential to CUW esports, making them a new threat in the competitive CoD scene to battle for years to come.