Esports World Cup Call of Duty: Warzone format revealed

The Esports World Cup‘s event organisers have confirmed more details surrounding the second edition of its Call of Duty: Warzone tournament.

With attention turning towards the multi-title event taking place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the format for 2025’s Warzone tournament has been revealed

The 2025 Esports World Cup will see the return of Warzone’s Resurgence mode instead of the title’s standard battle royale formula, which has featured in several tournaments throughout 2025.

Resurgence matches involve players redeploying into the match if remaining teammates are able to survive the countdown clock. By completing in-game actions such as moving around the map, opening loot caches, and scoring eliminations, the length of the timer is reduced.

Similar to large map Warzone tournaments, teams will earn points for scoring eliminations and high placements. The full list of placement multipliers is as follows:

Qualifiers for the Call of Duty: Warzone Esports World Cup event take place on May 31st, 2025, with each round consisting of two matches featuring 14 trios.

The top 50% of teams from a round will move on to the next, with the top 28 teams from open qualification earning a place at the closed qualifier. Details on when the closed qualifier takes place have yet to be revealed.

The return of the Verdansk map in March has sparked a renewed interest in Warzone and its esports scene. Despite this, the Esports World Cup Foundation has opted to keep the format used in 2024’s tournament.

Verdansk is significantly larger than the Rebirth Island map used for Resurgence matches, resulting in parts of matches containing a minimal amount of action.

To ensure action is maintained throughout, Resurgence and a smaller battleground keep matches engaging for the audience, alongside a faster pace for players looking to compete on the main stage.