Florida’s pro Call of Duty team is teaming up with some ex-Hurricanes for charity stream
Want to see DeeJay Dallas and Ahmmon Richards be teammates one last time? The two beloved former Miami Hurricanes will share a virtual battlefield Wednesday for a charity event hosted by Florida’s Call of Duty League team.
The Florida Mutineers, a professional Call of Duty team based out of Boca Raton, are teaming with a host of NFL stars, other professional athletes, retired pros and streamers for the Wrecked Royale to raise money for COVID-19 charities Wednesday. Dallas, Richards and Sheldrick Redwine are among the celebrity guests the Mutineers have enlisted.
“What we really wanted to do was leverage our platform to be able to do good for the broader community,” said Ben Spoont, CEO of Boca Raton’s Misfits Gaming, which owns the Mutineers. “We’ve been thinking about different ways that we can give back. It’s really, for us, a good chance to show the traditional sports collaboration behind us and Misfits, and how sports and esports worlds are truly coming together in this fight.”
Dallas and Richards, who was forced to retire in 2018 because of a neck injury, are teaming up with Mutineers star Cesar “Skyz” Buono and Rivv, a streamer. Redwine is paired with Browns teammates Jedrick Wills and Mack Wilson, and Mutineers player Colt “Havok” McClendon. The star-studded field also includes Terrell Owens, Washington Mystics star Aerial Powers and former Pittsburgh Steelers Pro Bowl linebacker Ryan Shazier, who retired in March after suffering a career-ending spine injury in 2017. With Dallas, Richards, Redwine and Shazier, who played at Plantation High School, all competing, the stream has a distinct South Florida flavor.
The teams of four will duke it out in the wildly popular “Call of Duty: Warzone” mode of “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.” The 12 teams are dropped into a massive map for a last-man-standing battle royale. Prize money totaling $25,000, all going to COVID-19 charities, is up for grabs with the winning team choosing where $5,000 will go. Matches will stream on the Mutineers’ Twitch channel starting at 6 p.m.
Misfits and the Mutineers are far from the first to collaborate with professional athletes while traditional sports remain on hold because of the coronavirus, and they have done similar collaborations in the past. Ahead of Super Bowl 54 in January, Misfits hosted a two-on-two tournament, where NFL players paired with Mutineers for a pro-am at The Wynwood Marketplace in Miami.
“NFL players, specifically, really love Call of Duty,” Spoont said. “I think this is a really cool showcase of what esports and gaming can do in bringing folks together.”
The charity stream comes on the heels of the Mutineers’ virtual homestand during the weekend. At the outset of the Call of Duty League’s debut season, the plan was for each team to host in-person events in their respective city or state before the coronavirus pandemic forced the league to pivot to remote play. Still, each weekend tournament has been dubbed a “home series” for a different team, and this weekend was the Mutineers’, which meant the team and its sponsors were a focal point of the broadcast.
Although they failed to win a match in their home series, the Mutineers remain the top half of the league after they won the Dallas Empire’s home series in April. The Mutineers, who sit in fifth place at 9-8, won’t return to game action until June, when they’ll play in the Minnesota ROKKR’s home series.
“We haven’t really been changing anything up too much It’s just like another year of Call of Duty to us even though there’s a franchise kit, we have city names slapped on our team names now,” said Mutineers star Chance Moncivaez, better known as “Maux.” “It’s still the same scene to us.”
