At the recent CWL Birmingham event hosted by Insomnia 62, the UK CoD fans cemented themselves as some of the most eccentric and exciting fans in esports.
Their songs, chants and roars encouraged Splyce’s UK Call of Duty team to a second-place finish against all odds.
The event didn’t suffer from the effects that a lot of Call of Duty events seem to face overseas. Fans were packing the hall on Friday during Pool Play, supporting every team in contention and showing a clearly diminished OpTic bias (though the “Let’s go OpTic!” chants did reverberate throughout much of the weekend, it wasn’t quite as prevalent as at other events).
Despite the favouritism towards Splyce – including “Shut up, Maven” chants every time the caster mentioned Luminosity – the crowd showed their sportsmanship following Luminosity’s win, with chants of “GG LG”
What did reverberate however – both throughout the event and in the days following – was the support shown from the crowd in attendance, particularly to Splyce as they made their incredible Loser’s Bracket run.
As stated, the crowd was loud throughout most of the weekend, but the noise levels reached their head in the final two series, following Splyce’s monumental win, Game Five Round 11, versus OpTic Gaming.
https://twitter.com/PhilWhi7/status/980504266493300736
The volume increased exponentially in the following hours, firmly in support of Splyce as they sought the first international Major win for an EU team in Europe since EGL 8 in 2012, where Madcat’s TCM team beat OpTic Gaming in the Grand Final.
Both players and personalities in attendance were at awe of the lengths the crowd was going to to show their love for Call of Duty esports.
Can we bring this crowd to Seattle? And Anaheim? And Champs? Please?
— Chance (@ChanceCasts) April 1, 2018
Most importantly was the reaction of players to the crowd support – not only does it validate their careers, of which they have fought tooth and nail to maintain, but in a turbulent time for Call of Duty esports, it shows that they have a future too.
2 thoughts: 1. Absolutey love to see hard carry John back in his full form. 2. The CWL Birmingham crowd was incredible. Probably the best crowd we’ve had in a while in my opinion.
— Jordan Kaplan (@JKap415) April 1, 2018
Don’t think I’ll ever be able to forget the crowd yesterday, nothing better than hearing people show their support towards you.
— Bance (@Bance) April 2, 2018
Despite the heavy favouritism towards Splyce throughout the CWL Birmingham Grand Final, including “Shut up, Maven” chants every time caster Maven mentioned Luminosity, and booing when the opposing team touched the Hardpoint, the crowd also showed their traditional sportsmanship following Luminosity’s win.
Chants of “GG LG” resonated throughout, and “MVP” chants followed when LG’s John lifted the Most Valuable Player trophy trailing a standout performance.
If anything, we at Esports News UK hope that this inspires Activision and the COD World League to bring more Call of Duty events to the UK in the future, giving such a rabid fan base the entertainment that they evidently crave in one of their biggest markets.
Further reading: Why did some CoD pros question the legitimacy of CWL Birmingham, and how could it be improved?
(Featured image courtesy of COD World League/Sammy Lam)
