The magnitude of the Call of Duty franchise’s global success has been made abundantly clear by not only game sales, but also by the fact that the Australia and New Zealand qualifying tournament for next year’s COD World League attracted 50 teams. This professional division boasts an impressive final prize of $150,000 USD.
However, perhaps the most noteworthy outcome of the recent competition is that 19 year-old Australian Kayla Squires has become the first-ever female to qualify for the World League. A Perth resident, Squires and her team – Pure N3gs – secured their place among the 8 teams to be included in the first stage of next year’s Pro Division. Following this success, Squires’ Twitter following more than doubled overnight, and she has since stated that she is “ecstatic” about the win.
19 year-old Australian Kayla Squires becomes the first female to qualify for the Call of Duty World League.
“It just shows that plenty of hard work and dedication will definitely pay off in the long run, I hope I can inspire other girls to do the same,” she said.
Callof Duty‘s World League will comfortably dwarf several other professional gaming tournaments in terms of prize money alone, including Dota 2, Starcraft 2 and League of Legends.
The online reactions to Squires’ result has been understandably ecstatic, perhaps the most notable response coming from eSports reporter Rod Breslau, who tweeted, “Congrats to @Squizzay on Pure N3gs for being the first woman to qualify into the Call of Duty World League. Huge for women in esports”, and, “Kayla…shows that women can play on men’s teams and compete, win against the best. Hope to see this in other team eSports games.”
-JP