The Call of Duty League (CDL) has just wrapped up its CDL Major IV in Paris, which proved to be one of the most exciting and fun Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 events. With two events hosted in Europe in CDL 2026, it’s only natural to wonder where it might take the league next.
During the CDL Major 4 in Paris, Dot Esports sat down with the general manager of Call of Duty esports, Daniel Tsay, to talk about the experience in Europe so far and the league’s international expansion, whether through events, teams, or players.
It’s all about the fans
“What sticks out to me about these international events is the passion from the fans,” Tsay said, highlighting the chants, flags, and much more that the crowd, and especially The Gentle Suits supporters association, has been doing at the event, which isn’t as common at North American events.
The support from fans and the crowd adds a lot to the event, which is something CDL wants to maximize. Sometimes it might just be the small things.
“The funny thing that came out of Birmingham, and this is more just like a silly remark, but we ran out of beer,” Tsay shared.
Next frontiers for CDL
The CDL 2026 season had two international events so far, and the EWC will bring the competition back to Paris in early August. The team is happy with two out of five core events being international. Birmingham set the attendance record, and now Paris has set a new one, on top of the new viewership record for CDL with 379,533 peak viewers, so there’s “unbridled demand” from fans.
“Europe, that’s the next frontier to continue building on, and we know we have a fanbase here, so it’s kind of the next target for us,” Tsay said.
The demand is there, but Tsay explained that selecting locations largely depends on the teams that want to host events and third parties like DreamHack.
“We also need to make sure that there’s teams that want to host in Europe like Toronto [KOI] did in Madrid, like Paris Gentle Mates have in Paris, and then, DreamHack. That’s the part of the calculus on how many times we’re going to be in Europe,” Tsay said, adding that there are factors like time zones that affect decision-making, too.
CDL then financially and operationally supports the teams by providing subsidies and the broadcast, but production and remaining details are up to them.
There are still unexplored areas for CDL, though. Tsay said that one of the regions he’d love to do is Latin America. “We don’t have a host team there, but we do have some connections to some cities via some of the host teams.”
He added that Asia is more of a stretch right now regarding esports. There were Asian teams who expressed interest in entering the league, so that’s likely the starting point before hosting an event there.
“I think, probably, Latin America and Europe first.”
Number of international teams must catch up
CDL is expanding internationally, but is still dominated by American players and franchises. According to Tsay, the playerbase is around 25 percent international, and he sees it as a decent base, but the number of international teams needs to catch up.
“One of the biggest ways that we can supercharge this league’s popularity comes from international expansion,” Tsay said. “We’ve had a couple European teams and Asian teams enquire about would we ever expand? Are there slots? So I’m hopeful that that happens eventually.”
There’s interest and great incentive on the monetization side in the form of in-game bundles, but because CDL is a 12-team closed franchise, the only way a new team can currently enter is by making a deal with an existing team.
Supporting the amateur scene
The amateur scene has been the best it has ever been in 2026, with four Elite seasons and four Challengers Opens. Middle East was also added to the EU Challengers region, bringing more competition.
The main objective of the amateur scene is to surface great talent up to CDL, and according to Tsay, it has been doing quite well, with a third of the starters in the league being rookies in the last three years. Looking ahead, CDL aims to keep Challengers Opens at every Major and broadcast every single match in the Elite series.
However, one of the biggest opportunities for Challengers teams to shine is pro-am tournaments, like the CDL Major III in Atlanta. The community loves them, but they can also be tricky to organize on the logistics side.
“Sometimes it’s hard to do that, because you have four stages, and so especially if you have a team-hosted event, not every single arena can fit four stages. But we try to make it happen as much as we can. We’re looking at opportunities for next year for sure.”
Another thing to consider is the viewership stats. Tsay highlighted that it points towards branded teams facing off against Challengers teams being more popular.
“These events are for the culture. They’re so awesome. But we want to do it in a measured way, just because the competitive results usually aren’t the best,” he explained.
Following the success of both Birmingham and Paris, CDL is bound to have more international events. While it’s hard to predict where the next international Major might take place, the CoD esports scene is in its strongest form as we close out the 2026 season.
