The CDL Player Poll Part 2: Online Play

Heading toward the end of the 5th season of the CDL, it has become clear that the League is sticking around for a minimum of two more seasons.

Each year the League changes the format slightly, whether it's including the Pro-AM tournament, more online matches, or a change in the number of LANs.

As the next title of Call of Duty has been rumored as of late and the current season marches towards Champs, it is time to start thinking about next year's format. To start, we have reached out to 50 of the professional players this season, getting responses from over 75%. Over the next three days, we'll be releasing the results of the twenty-seven questions that we asked players to answer.

Read Part 1 here!

Part II: Online Tournaments & Grading League Matches

This is the second of a three-part release of the results of the Player's Poll. This article will focus on the player's thoughts on online tournaments (2ks & ProDowns) and how they view online League Matches this season.

Question #11

Would you play in 2ks if they returned?

With online matches continuing to be a staple in the format in the future, many have called for the return of 2k tournaments. Fans have been calling for more online tournaments to add some spice for when League matches start becoming stale. Even Scump & ZooMaa have mentioned that the return of Weekend 2ks would be great content to watch. But what do the players think?

Overwhelmingly, they all agree that they would play 2ks if they returned. 89% of players said that they would play 2ks if they returned to competition, while only ONE player said they wouldn't want to play them. 8% of players said maybe, depending on the format. One concern that was raised was cheating & time torching, but if the 2k format gave professional teams byes into late rounds, then they wouldn't have to deal with as many situations that occur in the early rounds.

Question #12

On a scale of 1-10, how would you grade your experience playing 2ks in the past?

One major issue with 2ks is that they haven't been a staple in the competitive format in many years. Looking back at them now it's easy to view them with rose-tinted glasses and easy to forget all of the issues that occurred with them. Between the time torching, cheating, bad host connections, and taking up the entire weekend the 2ks did have many flaws. This is why some believe that pro players don't want them to return, so we asked the players how they would grade their past experience playing 2ks from 1 to 10.

Overall, the players viewed the 2k tournaments highly. The average grade was 7.0 out of 10, much higher than how they grade the online league matches. Five players gave the tournaments a 10 out of 10, while the lowest grade was a 3 out of 10. If they were to return, they would be a welcomed addition by the players judging by these responses.

Question #13

Would you play in ProDowns if they returned?

Another online competition that used to occur in older Call of Duty titles was ProDowns. These were tournaments that consisted of both professional and amateur teams. The number of teams varied between 16 to 24 for a prize pool similar to 2ks or 5ks.

It was similar to the late rounds of the 2k tournaments, which spared the professional teams from grinding through the early rounds. It was either a straight double-elimination bracket or a miniature tournament, my favorite. This began with a 16-team pool play on one day that feed into a double elimination bracket on the next day. With 12 professional teams, 4 Challenger teams could join, with another 4 Challenger teams starting in the Lower Bracket.

We asked the players if they would play ProDowns if they returned. They again overwhelmingly said yes to that question. 87% of the players said they would play, while 8% said they would not play.

Question #14

Do you prefer the 2k format or ProDown?

It is clear that professional players want some form of online tournaments to be introduced to the format. But the question is which of the two would be favored? We asked whether the players preferred 2ks or ProDowns, or whether they viewed them both equally.

A total of 34% of players prefer 2ks, while 24% prefer ProDowns. 37% of players viewed both of them equally, while just 5% said that they would not play either. These results show that 2ks have an edge with the players.

Question #15

Do you prefer to keep League matches as is, or shrink the match days in favor of online tournaments?

Now with the results of the online tournament questions, the next step is how the tournaments would be implemented into the competitive circuit that has many weekends covered with League Matches. The question is does the League shrink the League Matches to make room for online tournaments, or do we keep the League Match schedule how it is?

The results were very interesting. A total of 29% of players said to keep the League Matches how they are, while 53% agreed to shrink the League Match schedule in favor of Online Tournaments. Players gave additional feedback to the question as well. Many said that playing more often than once or twice a week was important and that LAN matches would be much more favorable. Per Part 1 of this Player Poll, the overwhelming majority of players preferred the Black Ops 4 season format which had 10 weeks of LAN League matches that contributed to seeding for pool plays at LAN and Playoffs at the end of the season that was separate from CoD Champs.

Question #16

On a scale of 1-10, how would you grade your experience playing League matches this year?

The final question of Part 2 was about the players' experience playing online League matches this season. In past years, the results varied due to the performance of the CDL servers, but now in year 4 of online play, the situation should be stabilized. So the question was On a scale of 1-10, how would you grade your experience playing League matches during this current season?

The results didn't paint the best picture, with the average grade on the online League Matches this season being 4.6 out of 10. Three players gave a grade of 1 out of 10, while five gave a 2 out of 10 grade. Only three players gave a higher grade than 7 out of 10, showing that players are not enjoying the current state of Online League Matches.