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Sept. 2 marks the return of Call of Duty XP, a three day celebration for fans of the franchise. But for the first time ever, the event will host the epic conclusion to the Call of Duty World Championship, a yearlong event that started earlier this year in January. 32 premier teams from across the world will compete in Los Angeles for their share of the $2 million prize pool, a record sum for a tournament that debuted back in 2013.Its a watershed moment for the Call of Duty franchise, which has been an early promoter of the esports scene since the very first Call of Duty XP event in 2011. Thats thanks in part to the introduction of the CWL, a structured, yearlong event.While the CWL has had its share of ups and downs in its first season, its a venture that the CEO of Activision Eric Hirshberg considers a resounding success. To give you an example of the kind of effect the creation of a global, yearlong league has done, our qualifying rounds this year were more viewed than our championship rounds last year. To put that into context, our championship rounds last year made Call of Duty the most viewed shooter on console, he said.Hirshberg attributes that success to the players. They give you the momentum of a story: a beginning, middle and end. Those narratives are what fuel an interest in sports. People love watching the best players in the world play the game they love.Unlike other console esports, a new iteration of Call of Duty is released each year. That turnover isnt lost on Hirshberg, who feels the changes add an extra layer of difficulty for the professionals. That makes CoD esports athletes the most elite, he said. Because not only do they have to be the best, but they have to constantly adapt to each new iteration of the game.With Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, along with the remastered version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, scheduled to hit shelves Nov. 4, Call of Duty XP will represent one of the final tournaments to be played on Call of Duty: Black Ops III. That means this could be one of the final times that OpTic Gaming has the chance to face their rival, FaZe Clan, in a LAN event, something that hasnt happened this year.I think a lot of people are looking forward to that matchup, admitted Hirshberg.For the fans planning to attend the event, it wont just be all about watching the professionals, however.We basically created a theme park that leaped out of a video game, said Hirshberg. Weve built full-size versions of maps in the game and will allow fans to play paintball in them. We are going to have a zombies haunted house laser-tag event. We are going to have a virtual-reality exclusive event at CoD XP where you get to fly the Jackal, which is a combat ship in Infinite Warfare. We are going to have zipline missions. Its really like youre living the game.Thats the model for sports, said Mike Sepso, former co-founder and president of Major League Gaming (MLG), who joined Activision Blizzards esports division a little less than a year ago as the senior vice president. Its not just about sitting down and watching the game, its about the whole entertainment experience. I think thats something that XP is going to do really well. The CWL has really been able to make Call of Duty esports look and feel more like traditional sports, and thats going to help us tremendously in terms of reaching a bigger and more mainstream audience. Discount Hockey Jerseys . PETERSBURG, Fla. Cheap NHL Jerseys China .35 million, one-year contract that avoided salary arbitration. Plouffe batted .254 with 14 home runs and 52 RBIs in 477 at-bats last season, his second as a regular in the lineup. http://www.cheapnhljerseysusa.com/ . That gave fans outside Joe Louis Arena another chance to ask for autographs from the 19-year-old whose stardom in the NHL has arrived earlier than most expected. Wholesale NHL Jerseys .ca! Kerry, Two nights after the Scott-Eriksson incident in Buffalo, the Bruins returned home to play San Jose. In that game, Zdeno Chara put a check on Tommy Wingels that clearly targeted his head. Cheap Adidas NHL Jerseys .com) - The Pittsburgh Penguins placed forward James Neal on injured reserve Tuesday. She remembers the match well. She was 18. Scrawny. Wide-eyed. At her first Olympics. She wasnt meant to have come this far. She had no business beating the world No. 5 Wang Chen along the way. But she had. And now, against world No. 16 Maria Kristin Yulianti of Indonesia, she had won a marathon first game 28-26.It was the quarterfinals of the 2008 Olympics. Yulianti soon drew on all her experience to level the contest against the world junior champion from India. Game three and Saina Nehwal took an 11-3 lead. Ten more points and she would be in the semi-finals -- within touching distance of a medal.And then, just like that, in a matter of minutes it was over. Yulianti overturned the deficit and built a substantial lead of her own. Saina would return home empty-handed, but an ambition had been sparked -- to one day be called an Olympic medallist.That Olympics gave me lot of fame, lot of recognition, she says. People got to know who Saina is and (that) shes doing really well in badminton. Of course I lost the medal, but that gave me a lot of confidence that yes, I can win a medal in the Olympics.Four years later in London, the dream was realized. The gawky teenager from Beijing had transformed into a formidable force. She had won a clutch of big titles and risen steadily up the rankings. Saina versus China, the headlines exclaimed as she challenged the dominance of the foremost badminton nation in the world.In London, Saina won her first four matches in straight games before running into Chinas Wang Yihan in the semi-finals. She lost in a one-sided contest and was left in a play-off for the bronze against another Chinese, Wang Xin. Saina lost the first game but fortuitously; her opponent was forced to concede with an injury.At 22, Saina had become only the second Indian woman after weightlifter Karnam Malleswari to win an Olympic medal.In Rio, Saina will begin the competition as one among a group of about half-a-dozen players capable of clinching gold. Though her ranking has slipped to fifth, the difference in points separating the top players is marginal and in recent months no one player has dominated the circuit.Under the eagle eye of coach Vimal Kumar, besides achieving optimal fitness, the thrust over the final phase of preparations before the Olympics haas been on tactical subtleties against specific opponents.dddddddddddd Some players such as Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei have been massive stumbling blocks for Saina. Ying has won the last six matches between them, going back to 2014 and holds an 8-5 advantage in their head to head. So perplexed is Saina by Yings play that she has described her as a mystery and a puzzle.Other potential banana skins lurk as well. The 2012 Olympic Gold medallist Li Xureui leads Saina 12-2 in their head-to-head encounters. World No. 1 Carolina Marin has won some big tournament finals against Saina in recent years and Thailands Ratchanok Intanon has also been a persistent stumbling block.Well aware but undaunted by the ferocity of competition she faces, Saina is exuding an air of confidence as the Games approach. Much of her belief flows from a healed body after battling a niggling ankle injury for months. Forced to stay away for the first few months of the year, Saina has built momentum gradually since returning to the circuit at the All England Championships in March, where she lost in the quarterfinals to Ying.In the tournaments that followed, Saina consistently reached the quarterfinal and semifinal stages before making a timely breakthrough at the Australian Open Super series in June. By clinching her last pre-Rio competitive tournament -- where she conceded only one game in five matches, including two over higher ranked players -- Saina confirmed her form, fitness and pedigree ahead of the Games.I take each tournament as it comes, she says. Rio Olympics will also be like any other games. My approach to the game is very positive and I would like to keep it like that and focus on my game. I feel that on the day that I am 100% fit, I have the potential to defeat anyone.There has been a neat symmetry to Sainas Olympic forays so far. At Beijing, she made a muscular announcement to the world of her ability. In London, she strode deservedly on to the podium as one of the leading players in the world. Perhaps Rio will be remembered as the time she basked in the golden glow -- that determined little pint of a girl, who wouldnt settle for anything less. ' ' '