World Series of Warzone winner Shifty hints at possible CDL switch

World Series of Warzone 2023 winner Shifty has hinted at an interest in switching to play in the Call of Duty League, just hours after he and teammates Sage and Biffle pocketed $100,000 with a dominant trios performance in London.

After six maps, Shifty and his trio finished a huge 75 points ahead of second place, finishing the tournament with a huge Game 6, 24-kill win, extending their lead way further than anybody could have anticipated.

Shifty made his name in the days of Caldera, as his incredible performances online made him face a litany of hacking accusations, even flying out to a facility to attempt to prove his innocence in a LAN environment on a neutral setup.

On September 16, however, he proved any doubters and accusers wrong when he earned himself 44 kills across the six maps, the highest in the entire tournament, just beating teammate Biffle who had 43.

He might not be done proving people wrong, however.

Shifty eyeing up CDL switch?

Following the day’s events, Shifty spoke with GGRecon about his possible aspirations to move beyond Warzone and find success elsewhere.

“Warzone — it’s a challenge and I like that – but something about the CDL entices me,” he explained. “I like the hard work. Being able to start from the bottom again, and then work my way up, and especially LANs, I feed off this energy. I think everyone saw this. I was hyped the whole day, and when you hear the crowd cheer and you can feel like the ground rumbling, that’s what gets me, it’s a different feeling you cannot get from home.

“So, if it’s right, if the paper says something that makes my eyes pop up, then maybe.”

This certainly caused a stir on social media, as many questioned his motives for wanting to get into the league, including Boston Breach star Ben ‘Beans’ McMellon.

Beans said: “Wrong reasons, you wanna be the best in the world you gotta truly love it, not for money.”

Wrong reasons, you wanna be the best in the world you gotta truly love it, not for money.

— Beans (@BeansMCM) September 17, 2023

Others suggested that he would need to grind through Challengers to stand any chance of getting into the CDL. Meanwhile, three-time world champion James ‘Clayster Eubanks suggested that it’s not outside the realms of possibility for him to compete.

“Talent would translate over as it’s translated for a lot of CDL pros to Warzone,” he said in a reply to Shifty himself. “Just would have to actually learn the ins and outs of respawn and it’d be cake.”

yeah i cant remember what wz player was grinding ranked last year, but i mean, the game is the practically the same. talent would translate over as it's translated for a lot of cdl pros to warzone. just would have to actually learn the ins and outs of respawn and it'd be cake

— Clayster (@Clayster) September 17, 2023

Whether Shifty does actually decide to chase down the dream of becoming a pro Call of Duty player in the CDL remains to be seen, but he clearly has the talent to be a top FPS star — as Clayster said, if he just learns the fundamentals and intricacies of respawn COD, there’s no telling what could happen.