It’s becoming something of a trend for CDL teams to perform a rebrand. As we head into the 2025 season, only four teams retain their ‘original’ branding from when the Call of Duty League was founded in 2020 – every other team has either migrated across the country (or moved to another continent) or been acquired by another organization and gained a new face entirely.
Most recently, Seattle Surge emerged with a rebrand, with the organisation revealing it’ll be known as Vancouver Surge going forward, aligning more closely with the brand’s parent company.
Brand Alignment
Not much has been said by the firm regarding this change, but it’s widely believed that the squad has been rebranded to ‘Vancouver Surge’ to align closely with the Aquilini Group, which is the org’s parent company. This firm, headed by Francesco Aquilini, also owns the Vancouver Canucks, a team competing in the NHL.
Elsewhere, the Aquilini Group owns a range of properties, hotels, and companies across Canada, with a focus on managing an estate across Vancouver.
This means that a second team will call Canada home, with Toronto Ultra having existed since the birth of the CDL. It’s unknown how this change will impact the team beyond an amendment to the branding, but it’s expected that the 2025 CDL season will begin and things will roll on as normal – but it might mean that we get a Major in Vancouver next year.