Photo: Madison Rogers for WBZ NewsRadio
BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — Just steps from Fenway park, a major tournament is expected to bring in 15,000 fans through Sunday. The game? Call of Duty.
It's rapid-fire action as rows of gamers duke it out onstage at MGM Music Hall. Over a hundred amateur teams from around the globe are competing, along with 12 pro-squads from across the nation.
The home team, the Boston Breach, is competing for a $500,000 grand prize.
Photo: Madison Rogers for WBZ NewsRadio.
Players like Austin "Slasher" Liddicoat are absolute superstars with this crowd.
"I've been working really hard for ten or eleven years now," Liddicoat said. "It's basically an every day thing, there's really no days off. Eight to ten hours a day of playing the game, studying the game."
This is the first Call of Duty League™ (CDL) Major tournament of the 2024 season, hosted by Kraft family-backed Oxygen Esports, which owns the Boston Breach and other teams.
"It really legitimizes e-sports—thinking about selling out a major music venue in Boston," said Murph Vandervelde, co-founder and President of Oxygen Esports. "But it also just brings gamers together. I think everyone has a stigma that gamers aren't social, and I challenge that by saying there's not enough places for gamers to be social."
Photo: Madison Rogers for WBZ NewsRadio.
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