Boston Challenger Open: notable teams, prize breakdown and where to watch

The final Challenger Open tournament of the 2022 season will be held this weekend by Boston Breach at the Helix eSports Center in Foxborough, Massachusetts with $75,000 and plenty of pro points up for grabs.

This will be the last chance for teams to accrue pro points in a bid to automatically secure a spot at the Challenger Finals in August. Failure to have the top-four highest pro points worldwide means leftover teams will have to qualify via the Last Chance Qualifier, which is only available to the top-eight seeded teams in each region.

The LAN event will consist of mostly North American teams, six (6) European teams, one (1) Latin American, and zero (0) Asia/Pacific teams — making up a much smaller field than the previous two open events due to a much more limited Finals format, giving many teams no incentive to make the travel over to compete.

Here’s everything you need to know about this weekend’s Challenger tournament, including a prize pool breakdown, where to watch, and teams attending.

Notable teams:

NORTH AMERICA (NA)

— Toronto Academy NA: Assault, Scrappy, Vikul, and Hicksy
— Iron Blood Gaming: MohaK, Prolute, Capsidal, and Exceed
— Valor Esports: Brack, Welly, Mind, and Noysii
— Ex-Stallions: Cryptic, Kyzer, Uli, and John
— 705 Esports: DiamondCon, Prestinni, Classic, and Royalty
— Trash Bros: Mock, Hollow, Wrecks, and Jintroid
— Xposed Gaming: Clayster, Davpadie, Venom, and FeLo
— Phantomz and co: Phantomz, ChrisRadial, Ramby, and Dak
— Electrify Steel: GodRX, Pandur, Fame, and Pentagrxm
— Boston Breach Academy: Seany, Ghosty, Volants, and Censor

EUROPE (EU)

— Team WaR: Harry, Maple, WarDy, and Denza
— Toronto Academy EU: Weeman, Beans, Furious, and Vortex
— RØKKR Academy: Lucky, Sukry, MettalZ, and ReeaL
— Aw0babobs: Breszy, Abuzah, Cobra, and Chaaxter
— AYM Esports: SupeR, JurNii, YaKo, and EriKBooM

LATIN AMERICA (LatAm)

— D1 Gaming: Sukry, Thresh, Traixx, and Ruper

As mentioned earlier, the top-four seeded teams globally after the conclusion of this event will see themselves grab an automatic qualification spot to the Challenger Finals without having to go through the regional qualifiers. These four spots are currently held by Toronto Academy NA, Toronto Academy EU, Team WaR, and RØKKR Academy.

Toronto Academy NA is the #1 overall seed and are clear favorites going into the Boston Open, despite a shock last-minute roster change with Assault coming in for MohaK. With placings of 1st and 2nd at the two previous Challenger LAN events, they’re the powerhouse team that everyone should look out for, led by the #1 Challenger prospect, and Ultra substitute player Scrap.

In Europe, Team WaR is the number one seeded team and impressed at the Minnesota Open while under Electrify Steel, but unfortunately fell short in a second-best of five in the Grand Finals to Toronto Academy NA. With the addition of Harry to the lineup and a strong showing in the European Stage 4 Elite, the four are looking good heading into this weekend.

Toronto Academy EU, led by veteran Vortex, has been one of the most consistent Challenger teams this year. Having rotated their fourth player in-and-out due to Call of Duty League team changes in the last few months, they will be looking to show up in the dominant fashion that saw them qualify for the Pro-Am Classic back in April.

The final team on the list is RØKKR Academy, who have underperformed at the previous two LAN events with placements of top-24 and top-16, thankfully for exceptional performances in online tournaments, the Spaniards have managed to maintain their top-four seed heading into the Boston Open. Going into the tournament they will need to turn their LAN form around if they want to guarantee a spot at the Challenger Finals.

Prize pool breakdown:

1st: $24,000 / 25,000 points
2nd: $12,000 / 15,000 points
3rd: $7,500 / 11,000 points
4th: $6,000 / 9,000 points
5/6th: $3,750 / 8,000 points
7/8th: $2,250 / 7,000 points
9-12th: $1,875 / 5,500 points
13th-16th: $1,500 / 4,500 points

The stream will commence on day two at the top-eight stage of the winner’s bracket. Some players and fans as the venue will likely broadcast some of the earlier matches via Twitch, or Periscope to keep us up to date. More info on the event can be found here

Stream: https://youtube.com/c/CODChallengers

Twitter coverage: CDCIntel, CDCUpdate, TrevorMutiny (streams), and TheRotation