After three days of competition, several thousand gathered in the north part of The Forum in Los Angeles to watch the grand finals of the Call of Duty World Championship. The tournament and fan favorite OpTic Gaming was ousted, meaning many left the event. But fans in attendance witnessed another veteran Call of Duty organization, Team EnVyUs, finally take its shot at the gold.
Its opponent, European team Splyce, pulled off stunning victories in the loser's bracket by beating the likes of FaZe Clan, FAB Games Esports and eLevate. While an unlikely opponent, Splyce, like EnVyUs, have had a good year in their respective region.
But Envy comes out with a clean 3-1 victory, and captain Jordan "JKap" Kaplan, a 22-year old from the small-town of Marlton, New Jersey, is showered in confetti as the team lifted its trophy in front of screaming fans.
"I don't know how to put it into words right now," JKap told ESPN after the win. "[This is the] biggest tournament in Call of Duty history and I think it's a different kind of special. Right now, we are the kings so to speak; we won the biggest tournament, and no one could take that from us for at least another year when I'm assuming there will be another tournament like this."
This is the second-time JKap, the winningest player in competitive Call of Duty, has taken home the Call of Duty Championship trophy. Like his peer, OpTic's Damon "Karma" Barlow, who won the tournament in 2013 and 2014, JKap has now won back-to-back; a monumental achievement within the competitive scene. JKap remarks it was "a lot of déjà vu."
"We kind of came in as one of the favorite teams but not the favorite team," he says. "Kind of second, same as last year. Then due to some unexpected pool play, we had to play OpTic in the first round, same as last year, and beat them 3-1, same as last year. From that point forward, both tournaments were just an easy winner's bracket run. Then winner's bracket finals came and played the trio of Nagafen, Aqua and Faccento both years, beat them 3-2 in the winner's finals."
While he expected to play that trio, who are currently under the eLevate banner, again in the grand finals, he met Splyce instead. He says that after his team took down OpTic, he believed they, who have been the arguably best team throughout the remainder of the year, would make it through loser's. Splyce, however, gave many a surprise, including JKap, as they made history as the first European team to make it to the grand finals of the Call of Duty World Championship.
"I didn't expect them to be a finals team," JKap says. "When all these matches were going on and Splyce and FAB were taking down all of these North American teams, I was like, 'wow, these guys are serious.' It was a little different [facing Splyce in finals] because they play their ban and protect system a little different than North America does, but again, we came out and played our game and that's all it takes, that's all that matters."
Throughout the weekend, many fans, commentators, and analysts sang the praises of JKap. Some even called him the best player in the game, a comment which he retorts, stating that he believes his teammates are much better than he is.
"I'm not the best player in the game," he exclaims. "I'm very confident in myself, don't get it twisted but I actually like to be the worst player on my team, which I think I am; my teammates are unbelievable. Their slaying ability on any given map is just unreal."
But with the title of the highest earning and winningest Call of Duty pro, with nearly $500,000 in career prize earnings, JKap has definitely marked his spot in history in the game. For someone who began his competitive Call of Duty career with Modern Warfare in 2008 and only winning a few hundred dollars in online tournaments, JKap's career has skyrocketed as Call of Duty esports has evolved.
"It's been a great career progression for me," he says. "I've been a top player, not to sound egotistical, I've been considered a top player since 2010. I've been at the top for a while and if anything, I think the general consensus has been that I've kind of declined over the years, but I'm worse now than I was before. That's all whatever, I've won the biggest tournament two years in a row so a great career progression."
Much of JKap's career has been under the EnVyUs organization, which has grown significantly in the past two years. Led by ex-professional Call of Duty player Mike "Hastr0" Rufail, JKap has been with the team throughout parts of 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016 in three stints.
What once was a small organization that only had Call of Duty when it was founded, Team EnVyUs has rapidly expanded in the esports space and recently received investment from SeirraMaya360 and relocated to Charlotte, N.C. The team has built a training facility here, which Rufail says that 2016 Call of Duty World Championship MVP Johnathon "John" Perez has already put to use before the tournament.
The win at the Call of Duty World Championship, for Hastr0, is one that he believes means a great deal to those who have worked with EnVyUs over the team's nine-year career.
"It feels like you're just giving validation to everybody who worked in this organization in the past," Hastr0 explains. "Every Call of Duty pro that has come through this organization, especially the old guys, who help found the team back in the day because we started here in Call of Duty. It just brings a lot of validation to everyone who has worn our jersey. I think they're all emotional right now, I'm really happy with what we've accomplished."
And while EnVyUs can now say they're the best team in Call of Duty, the beginning of the year was a bit shaky. The team, then composed of JKap, Austin "SlasheR" Liddicoat, Patrick "ACHES" Price, and Tyler "TeePee" Polchow, took fifth-eighth domestically at the Call of Duty World League Stage 1 playoffs. Following that event, it added John and Bryan "Apathy" Zhelyazkov in place of ACHES and TeePee. Hastr0 says for the first time, his team took a different approach to how it built this championship roster.
"We didn't know how far we could go with it [after getting Apathy and John] but what we did was build the team on character," he explains. "We were done with trying to build the team based on player skill. We just went for character first and what can we do here to develop it and try to win a championship. It was just a lot of work to get here. Now that we've won, it was just a good moment."