No one is safe from AI, apparently not even Call of Duty League teams, especially after the Vegas Legion today announced its roster for the Modern Warfare 3 season using what looks like AI-generated images of players.
Almost immediately, the CoD community noticed this was a bizarre choice, to their credit. There are tons of extremely talented graphic artists in the wider esports space, and if you don’t have the cash to burn on a simple roster announcement edit then you probably don’t have the cash to compete seriously in the CDL.
The edits, which were originally shared on X (formerly known as Twitter) on Nov. 12, even gave new veteran player Dillon “Attach” Price earrings for some reason.
While the roster is probably going to be solid, the announcement was panned quite heavily. “The roster is a W, but I cannot understand why you would use AI images for your players when there are so many talented GFX people in this community who would’ve KILLED for a chance to do this announcement,” wrote caster Sean “Spaceman” Rogers. One fan chimed in to say, “This is the most shameless roster reveal lol.”
The Legion CDL roster that was revealed includes:
- Attach
- Nero
- Standy
- Purj
Times are tough for esports orgs right now. Just about everyone is cutting costs and cutting corners with their payments to try to make ends meet as investors and sponsors pull out of deals. It’s very clear that after 2023, many esports are going back to grassroots.
However, using AI for a CoD roster announcement is among the weakest cost-cutting measures we’ve seen yet in any esport. It would be one thing if there was any speck, any iota of creativity used, but these appear to be just generated headshots. It’s dull and uninspired, it reads like a disinterested management group.
Let’s hope the CDL roster’s play in the server is the polar opposite of whatever the Legion was trying to do with their disappointing team announcement.
