We're going to start very controversially here with Simp (sorry Clay, but if this was a top 10 you would definitely be 6). Simp has led the Atlanta Faze team through some remarkably dominant years, although his own impressive history goes further back. He's an SMG slayer and probably the best player in the world right now, with the possible exception of Scrappy. | © CDL
FormaL is the first member of the infamous Green Wall to make our list, and remains one of the most beloved figures in the CoD scene. He is also known as the best sniper in Call of Duty history. What's particularly impressive is that FormaL also has a huge list of accolades as a professional Halo player (currently a player for the OpTic Halo team). | © Scuff Gaming
Karma was a fundamental piece of the legendary Optic Dynasty, and played support SMG before transitioning into main AR later in his career. He was clearly on the decline when he left the scene in 2021, but that does nothing to diminish his stellar reputation. | © Optic Gaming
There will always be some argument between number 1 and number 2 in CoD. But Scump (aka the King of CoD), has simply won a less and never developed as an in-game leader over the years quite as well. But that's not to take anything away from the best SMG player in CoD history. Scump started his days in Black Ops, and he was still frying for Optic Texas until 2023. His best moment is undoubtedly the legendary Hardpoint match between Envy and Optic in BO2, Scump is absolutely popping off, and he gets so hyped he just starts screaming "who's the best in the game" and keeps frying. | © CWL
Crimsix is the GOAT of CoD. He started playing CoD 2 before he had an Xbox; he would go to a tech store and play on their demo Xbox for hours. Then, a few years later, he saved up enough money to buy a near-broken 360. He began competing all the way back in the early CoD 4 SnD scene, before going on to have the most ridiculously successful career in CoD esports. He's won 37 major tournaments, 3 world championships, numerous other smaller events, and oh yeah, he also dominated the early Halo scene back in the day (in fact, he's the only player who's been crowned "Major League Gaming Pro Player" in both CoD and Halo). C6 is also famous for creating the flex role in CoD, as he's strong enough on both an AR and an SMG.
There are numerous best of moments we could pick from, but if you want to see how much of a demon he is in CoD, then you should probably check out the SnD match versus FaZe at MLG Anaheim 2014, where he broke (and still holds) the record for most kills ever in a pro SnD match. | © Crimsix's Twitter
There's been literally hundreds of millions of players who have tried Call of Duty in the past two decades. Only a fraction have ever pushed their way into the top-tiers of Ranked play and of that number, fewer still have made it into the Challengers scene, or from there to the coveted CDL. But who among the elite in the world are the best players? Who are the legends of CoD history?
