Business of Esports TV: Andbox Answers the Call of Duty

(Livestream 138)

In this segment, we discuss Andbox adding a Call Of Duty Mobile team to their roster, further edging into the mobile esports scene.

The Business Of Esports brings you news, debates, and all the information you need to know about the gaming sector, the world’s fastest-growing market. With Paul “The Profit” Dawalibi leading the charge, and a variety of special guests, BoE TV is the only place to find insider information on the esports industry!

Check out the full livestream here:

Paul Dawalibi 44:58
Anbox in the news this week, and and the headline here is anbox expands into mobile eSports with a call of duty team. So inbox, as everyone might know, recently backed actually by Kevin Durant, they’re adding a call of duty mobile team to their roster. They already have a call of duty league like normal, not mobile, and an overwatch league team. And basically what they’re doing is they’re acquiring the trovo mayhem. So this is a mobile Call of Duty league team. And they’re rebranding them as the NY SL mayhem. And ny SL standing for New York sub liners are sub Linares sub liners. Who is their PC based Call of Duty league team? So they’re getting all the players from this trovo mayhem squad. anyone think? I mean, horrible naming asides, because I think it’s pretty awful. Interesting guys to see more within the same ecosystem still, like a not a doubling, they’ve already doubled down right when they went from Overwatch league to call of duty League, but like still within the same ecosystem, as opposed to maybe seeing an Xbox go out and try and get a, you know, League of Legends franchise or something like that. I don’t know, where do you guys? What do you guys think of this move in general? Jeff, I don’t know if you have thoughts? Um,

Jeff Cohen 46:41
I do I keep going back and forth. I mean, my first thought one, I’ll start out I think, you know, we’ve talked about this a lot. I applaud them for getting into mobile eSports. making that a focus, because I think we’ve had that conversation in the podcast numerous times. And we think that this is an important strategic thing for eSports. Mobile is it’s real, it’s here. It’s not going anywhere. It’s important, then, that was my first thought. And my second thought was why Call of Duty I don’t really see that as having a massive eSports scene. Why not a mobile game that already has a massive eSports scene? Like garena, free fire now? I don’t know, maybe they already have a free fire team. So if they do, then I’ll take my foot out of my mouth. But you know, that was my my second thought is why double down on Call of Duty. Then as you were talking, I was like, Okay, well, maybe that’s not that crazy, right Call of Duty mobile has been massively successful, particularly in getting fans in different regions that aren’t, you know, North America, Western Europe that maybe don’t have access to PCs and consoles. It’s brought in I think, 500 million players, it’s been a massive success. Maybe Maybe this helps them broaden their audience for their Call of Duty team. Same way, the mobile version help Activision broaden their audience for the actual game. So I know I just contradicted myself, but those that was, you know, my, that was my thought process in real in real time. So no heartache there. But that’s kind of where my head was that

Paul Dawalibi 48:03
there’s no one. Look, I’m I’m no fan of an Xbox and what they’ve done. Like I think they’ve made a lot of bad moves. The naming here is, is terrible. It’s really bad. I mean, the naming so much. I mean, they took this team that they I guess acquire trovo mayhem, right. And they renamed it the New York sub liners mayhem. Like it’s weird. They got like, there is a mayhem. There’s a mayhem in the Overwatch league too, right. Like, it’s just, it’s weird, I don’t know. Again, somewhat tone deaf in terms of their seeming lack of knowledge of what’s going on in the space. But I also feel like it’s one of those things where are they hoping to drive eyeballs to their PC based Call of Duty team? Is that the play here? And is this weird that this is the first move after bringing on Kevin Durant? You know what I mean? It’s the first piece of news we’ve seen from inbox. Since he came on board. I thought I find remember some of the messaging around him coming on board was there. They’re really going to you know, shake things up and do exciting things. And, and this just, I don’t know, this little, little sort of little ho hum, for me at least. Yeah, I don’t know. Or William.

William Collis 49:29
This is so weird, Paul, because you said a quick one. And we all had lots to say. And then he said a serious one. And we’re all like, you know, I like this episode. I don’t know. Jimmy. I don’t have strong thoughts on this one. I guess.

Jimmy Baratta 49:43
I don’t know about the how it relates to your comment about Kevin Durant coming on and why this is a flop or what was expected after that. Not in the not calling this a flop actually, but but you know what I mean? Like I don’t I don’t know. I don’t have much to say about what should have occurred after the Kevin Durant and announcement. I can agree with Jeff in that it’s great that they’re looking at Mobile. And YSL is a lot to roll off the tongue before you get to the mayhem part. So I understand I think that’s where you’re where you’re criticizing them. And sure. I want to see what they do with it. I like they’re in Cod. Oh,

William Collis 50:16
sorry. What do you say I get? The real question is what happens when they get a title sponsor and they’re the NYS l mayhem f dx.

Paul Dawalibi 50:26
Did you need two jerseys just to get on more planning, it’s poor

Jimmy Baratta 50:29
planning, but at least you know, the URL and all the social tags are not taken for that.

William Collis 50:36
benefit, you can definitely add that.

Jimmy Baratta 50:40
You know, like William said, though, interesting topic. Not a lot to say, like cod like mobile. I like Katie. So you know, we’ll see what else comes out of this camp. I can tell you this, though, I find I found it very interesting that I just texted that article to a handful of people that I thought would be interested more so because they’re from that traditional sports world. And it’s great to see an Esports move like this with Kevin Durant and the Mets behind it. So um, so I don’t know. I don’t know if it’s a very expensive press release for now. But we’ll see what it turns into.