LONDON: Guild Esports (LSE: GILD), a global teams organisation and lifestyle brand, is pleased to announce its entry into Call of Duty: Warzone, a multiplayer, first-person shooter developed by Infinity Ward and Raven Software and published by Activision.

Guild’s new Warzone team will compete at the Esports World Cup (EWC) under the Guild banner. This is Guild’s fourth event at the EWC, alongside Apex Legends, ESL R1 and Street Fighter. Warzone counts towards the Club Championship, the EWC’s cross-game competition offering the best teams a share of a $20m prize pool.

Guild’s Warzone team is captained by ‘WarsZ’, who is regarded in the professional circuit as among the best players in the world. He is 14th on the all-time prize-money winnings list for Warzone. WarsZ captained his team to a fifth-place finish in the World Series of Warzone (“the World Series”) in 2023, finishing as the highest-ranked EU team. Following this impressive showing at the World Series, as well as a string of further strong results in 2024, WarsZ received a direct invitation to compete in the EWC alongside two teammates.

The Company has signed ‘KINGAJ’ and ‘iVisionSR’ to join WarsZ at the Esports World Cup, making up the final two members of Guild’s Warzone team. KINGAJ was WarsZ’s teammate for their successful performance at the World Series in 2023, and iVisionSR won the Stage 1 Finals of the same tournament. The players are regular teammates, last competing as a team in December 2023. The team has been signed for the duration of the EWC, with the option to extend following a strong performance at the tournament.

Additionally, WarsZ is a popular streamer and content creator with a significant online following, which will grow Guild’s audience as he competes at the EWC. He has more than 250,000 followers across TikTok, Twitch, X (formerly Twitter) and YouTube.

Call of Duty: Warzone is a multiplayer first-person shooter, in which players parachute into a continuously shrinking map and battle it out to be the last player or team standing. Warzone has an estimated 60 million players that login each month, and up to 350,000 players active at any one time (source: Esports.net, 2024). It has a dedicated esports fanbase, with the 2023 World Series receiving 382,483 peak viewers, 1,720,454 hours watched and 299,210 average viewers (source: Esports Charts, 2024).

Jasmine Skee, Chief Executive Officer, commented: “I’m delighted to welcome WarsZ, KINGAJ and iVisionSR to Guild, as we continue to strengthen our presence at the Esports World Cup. Our entry into Warzone will lead to more Club Championship points and a greater shot at its $20m prize pool. Call of Duty is an iconic esport and the EWC is the perfect opportunity to enter the space for the first time. These are brilliant players with strong tournament placings under their belts already and they are keen to hit the ground running in Riyadh – we can’t wait for the tournament to begin.”