Rise Nation is rising up again.
Rise Nation announced along with their rebrand that they have an interest in and have had discussions about joining the Call of Duty League as recently as a few months ago.
After announcing the team's rebrand and upcoming charity Warzone event which starts tonight at 5:10 PM EST. Co-founder Kahreem Horsley said in an interview with ESPN that the team has had discussions with the CDL as early as last year, and are still ongoing to this day.
Horsley said: “We do want to move on Call of Duty, as far as the CDL goes, we’ve had talks with them, dating back to last year and as recently as a few months. We’re just getting our marbles all in the right basket so we can take aim at securing a spot for that league specifically. We’re not going to restrict ourselves to that, but that’s our first target.”
A Legacy and a Future
Rise Nation was first founded in 2014 by Kahreem Horsley and Roger Saffold, one of the first sports players to invest in esports. Saffold spoke on the move to not secure a franchise spot last season: “It was tough at the very beginning because Call of Duty is what we focused on for a very long time and it just wasn’t the right time to get into franchising,” Saffold said. “We feel like we have a plan and a structure to get back into that scene… We’re still available, I would say. We just want to take it to that next level.”
Rise Nation has been home to many big names of the Call of Duty scene, most notably their 2018 roster of SlasheR, TJHaly, Gunless and Loony. In this year they won the Atlanta, Seattle and Anaheim CWL Open events taking home $240K in prize money. With their highest Call of Duty World Championships placing being 4th during the Infinite Warfare season.
Rise Nation could become the first expansion team in the Call of Duty League after its inaugural season. Similarly, the Overwatch League added 8 new teams for its second season. While the Call of Duty League isn't expected to add the same amount, and the current pandemic may cause issues, we expect to see one or two more teams slowly coming to the CDL and expanding the competition.
Featured image via MLG.
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