CDL laid off entire observer team after Major One Boston

The Call of Duty League (CDL) has reportedly laid off its six full-time game observers right after the Major in Boston. The observers were the remaining talents of ‘Hot Hands Lounge’ who broke the news on X.

“With today’s news, we have additional free agents on the market. All of which are incredibly talented with a plethora of experience between them,” the company wrote in their post.

The news comes soon after the Microsoft lay-offs, which affected mostly the gaming divisions. With the observer team gone, fans are wondering about the fate of CDL in 2024 moving forward. The second Major is yet to take place.

What are game observers?

Any esports event takes a lot of effort to put together, especially when it is being broadcast. One of the most important jobs is of game observers. As the name suggests, these people observe the matches.

But that doesn’t seem like an important thing. However, this is not the case. Observers control those free cams that people get various perspectives from matches. They also provide live-action to the casters that can keep people entertained.

Without them, people would be stuck with only a first-person perspective and might miss out on action across the other side. Casters would also miss out on a lot of things.

Different games require different types of observers

Observers are required in every type of competitive game, be it FPS or MOBA. MOBA games usually have the entire map covered. In FPS, the observers need to be always around the action, as free cam might not always be the best option.

What makes this job hard is that everything happens in real time. This means that the observers also need to have deep knowledge of the game to predict the next moves. They know where the action is going to be and provide the best angle possible to fans.