Call of Duty League, a new esports competition launched by US interactive entertainment company Activision Blizzard, has agreed a three-season rights deal with social media platform Twitter.
Under the global deal, Twitter will provide Call of Duty League highlights and community engagement.
The League is currently broadcast online exclusively via video-sharing platform YouTube. Ahead of its launch in January, Activision Blizzard agreed a wide-ranging strategic relationship with Google through which YouTube became the new exclusive streaming partner of its esports competitions worldwide, excluding China.
The multi-year deal covers the likes of Overwatch League, Call of Duty League and Hearthstone Esports, with Google Cloud also named as the preferred provider for Activision Blizzard’s game hosting infrastructure.
Call of Duty League will utilise Twitter’s conversational products for fan predictions and cheering, along with its recently launched ‘Topics’ and ‘Lists’ functionality. Twitter and Call of Duty League have also launched team hashtag emojis for the entire League.
Rishi Chadha, Twitter’s global head of gaming content partnerships, said: “The Call of Duty community has been one of the largest gaming communities on Twitter, and we are thrilled to be partnering with Activision Blizzard to continue to support this vibrant community.”
In addition, Activision Blizzard has also signed a new sponsorship deal for the Call of Duty League with the U.S. Army. As part of the one-year agreement, U.S. Army will activate at multiple levels of Call of Duty Esports, including Call of Duty League and Call of Duty Challengers.
In the Call of Duty League, U.S. Army will be featured in League broadcasts throughout the season as the sponsor of a special segment dubbed ‘Tactical Play,’ in which on-air analysts review key highlights from League matches.
Additionally, the U.S. Army Esports team will participate in the Call of Duty Challengers LAN competition. The team is composed of active duty soldiers who represent the U.S. Army in competitive and amateur esports competition throughout the United States.
U.S. Army will also be the presenting sponsor of a forthcoming collegiate duos competition tournament series. Call of Duty Collegiate will be open to eligible college students in the United States and Canada.