The final seconds were ticking down as Thomas "Tommey" Trewren and his squad gave everything they had on the last hardpoint rotation on Call of Duty World War 2's Sainte Marie du Mont map. They were down by nearly 150 points -- but were hardly out of the game. In a final rush to the point, Jordan "jurd" Crowley, Ben "Bance" Bance, Dylan "MadCat" Daly, and Trewren were all gunned down before they could stop Team Luminosity from taking first place.
That was the scene from the grand finals at CWL Birmingham, England last year where Team Luminosity, a squad made up entirely of Americans, took out Splyce, a four-man team made up of British and Irish players. Despite the final outcome, Splyce had fought through the best talent that Call of Duty has to offer to get to championship Sunday. An accomplishment representative of how far European talent has come since the Call of Duty World League was established in 2016. Now, with CWL London kicking off this weekend, we're bound to see more European faces make a run for the trophy once again.
"Every team is trying to win, but I think Reciprocity and other European teams have a chip on their shoulder," eUnited player Alec "Arcitys" Sanderson tells ESPN. "Events over there are different, most people expect Optic Gaming to own the crowd at events like Las Vegas and Dallas, but that isn't the case in Europe. The crowd will be behind the European teams if they make it to Sunday."
The European scene has trailed their North American counterparts for as long as competitive Call of Duty has been around, and only in recent years have teams worked to close the talent gap between regions. Players from Spain, Germany, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere haven't had the same infrastructure or opportunities that competitors in the United States have had.
"Europe has gotten a lot better, the talent we've seen grow harkens back before the league was established," said longtime Call of Duty commentator Sean "Spaceman" Rogers. "A lot of the competitive scene was independently run in Europe before the CWL came, there wasn't much foundation outside the players that were already successful.
"European players were always seen as the kids from across the pond that were only good at Search and Destroy. They struggled."
In the years leading up to the creation of the Call of Duty World League, the official circuit run by Activision Blizzard and Major League Gaming, more tournaments and events started taking place in the UK and the rest of Europe. We've seen major LANs hosted in Paris, Birmingham, and London in the past few years alone. Those events and the more stable nature of the league has helped European talent find their footing in an esport dominated by North American players.
"They've closed the gap over the past few years," said eUnited general manager Matthew "Burns" Potthoff. "Now we're seeing multiple European teams performing at a high level, they're getting more practice and making fewer mistakes. They couldn't get that level of practice that players in the US could because of a lack of infrastructure before."
Outside open bracket teams from all over the continent, a few European dominant rosters have been seeded into CWL London. Team Reciprocity (who are hot off a third-placed finish at CWL Fort Worth), Team Heretics, and Denial Esports will be representing an entire region of players among a predominately North American pool of competitors. There's little doubt that these three squads will have the homefield advantage, but it's still anyone's tournament to win.
"It's the easy storyline to go to since they want to put it on for the home crowd," Rogers said. "It was different for Splyce last year since they were the team to beat all season, they were a different beast. Everyone will expect the European teams to cause upsets but I don't necessarily think they will come out on top."
Only one of the three seeded European teams has much big stage experience, Denial Esports and Heretics haven't been competing at a high level as long as Team Reciprocity, "Denial and Heretics don't have the experience or the players needed to get all the way to the grand finals," Rogers said. "Getting to Sunday is taxing as hell. It'll be a huge accomplishment if they're able to escape without the pressure affecting their gameplay. Team Reciprocity has the biggest chance though, they are the dark horse."
Reciprocity has improved a lot throughout the 2019 season. They've grown into better performances in Hardpoint and other respawn modes while placing well in a series of online tournaments. With London being the closest thing they have to a home event, this could be their best shot at a trophy this year.
"European arenas are actual arenas, they don't have a stage that faces one direction," Rogers said. "Those crowds will be all around teams and they can get in your head. They'll be against North American teams as soon as Reciprocity are up."
Like any other CWL event in the past, the trophy is always up for grabs by almost any squad despite crowd and analyst favorites. After inconsistent performances and a large number of roster changes by some of the top teams, it is hard to say who will take the trophy home. It is always a safe bet to toss out names like Optic Gaming or 100 Thieves, but they have struggled to achieve sustainable success this year as well.
"I think Optic [Gaming] can win this event, but at the same time we have seen these events have chaotic brackets," said pro player Brandon "Nelson" McKinney. "With that in mind, and a lot of the recent roster changes, it could be anyone's game."