As stated in the report, it appears Gen.G was close to securing a spot in the city-based league, but “fumbled” late in negotiations, resulting in its exclusion. This is especially interesting considering their that they already have a team in the Overwatch League with Seoul Dynasty, so the question must be asked why they are suitable for one league and not the other.
Luminosity also operates an Overwatch League team, heading up the Vancouver Titans, which joined OWL in its second season. They’ve also been a mainstay in the upper levels of Call of Duty for a few years, having picked up a team at the start of the Black Ops 3 season in late 2015 and winning multiple championships since.
There are no more details on why negotiations with these organisations did not work out, but it will be interesting to see if they join the league at a later date.
So far, there are nine confirmed franchises in the Call of Duty Global League: Minnesota, New York, Toronto, Paris, Florida, Atlanta and two in Los Angeles. The expectation is that there will be 12 teams in the league at the start of the 2020 season, the same number as OWL had in its inaugural season, but this hasn’t been confirmed yet by Activision.
A flurry of players have announced their free agency going into the upcoming league likely preceding the largest roster shuffle Call of Duty esports has ever seen.
GINX Esports TV has reached out to both Gen.G and Luminosity Gaming for a comment on the matter.