During the annual Tencent Esports Global Summit, Leo Yao, the general manager of Tencent TiMi J3 Studio, detailed the developer’s current Call of Duty: Mobile esports plan in China. CoD: M is developed by Tencent’s TiMi Studios and Activision Blizzard.
Yao stated that the game has over 500M downloads worldwide, and showcased the hierarchy of the CoD: M esports ecosystem in China. As the cover image shows, the Call of Duty Mobile World Championship will be the highest competition in the game’s global esports plan. Yao revealed that the prize pool money of the 2021 CoD: M World Championship will feature $2M USD prize money, and SONY will remain as the competition’s main sponsor.
In 2020, Activision canceled the 2020 CoD: M World Championship Grand Finals due to the pandemic.
Below the World Championship, the Call of Duty: Mobile Major becomes the top competition in China. The competition has two seasons this year, and is sponsored by Redmi, the sub smartphone brand of Xiaomi. On June 12, the first season of the Major final concluded in Shanghai Jingan Sports Center. Yao stated that the second season of the Major will begin in July, and the best teams will qualify for the World Championship. Yao and TiMi Studios have not disclosed the prize pool money of the major.
Below the Major, there are two secondary competitions: Tencent’s own multi-title esports competition Tencent Global Esports Arena (TGA), and third-party tournaments. It should be noted that there is a relegation system between TGA and the Major, while the third-party tournaments don’t have one.
For the grassroots system of the hierarchy, it includes online, offline, and collegiate competitions. More details of the ecosystem were not disclosed. TiMi Studios told The Esports Observer that the game’s Chinese version only launched about six months ago, so the esports ecosystem of the game still needs time to develop.
