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What if All Call Of Duty League Teams Were Pokémon?

What if All Call Of Duty League Teams Were Pokémon?

While I was browsing Twitter… I mean working VERY hard at The Gaming Stadium, I came across a tweet from a community member showing a very uhhhh… Uncanny? Resemblance between one of the new Call of Duty League (CDL) teams and a Pokémon.

Tweet Here

This got me thinking… What if every CDL team were Pokémon?

Some of these were pretty easy to determine (see: Florida Mutineers), but some teams brought their own challenges and really forced an abstract train of thought! There were some restrictions though:

  1. No Legendaries: Legendary Pokémon always look cool, but I wanted to make sure that IF two of these Pokémon did meet in an actual battle, it wouldn’t be an immediate blowout (anime plot armour remains in play).
  2. No Ditto: Ditto can literally transform into anything, so it felt a little unfair if I was to include this little jelly monster.
  3. Gen I – VII: Even though Pokémon Sword and Shield is almost out (HYPE!) we want to relate them to Pokémon that people are already familiar with.
  4. Only ONE Representative: Some of these were tough and have a lot of great options, however only one Pokémon can represent each team. We have included some honorable mentions which could just as easily have taken the spot for these teams.

With that being said, let’s jump into this!

Atlanta Faze – Togekiss

The first team to be featured with a very lackluster team name in terms of creativity. With Faze Clan being based out of Atlanta for the CDL, they neglected to come up with something creative and somehow managed to keep their longstanding esports team name with them (sorry to almost literally every other team in the CDL). Design-wise, instead of the traditional “FC” for Faze Clan design they use for their team, they abbreviated their team to “AF” and basically swapped letters around. Their logo is basically an upside down triangle.

This triangular shape is best represented by the Pokémon “Togekiss” with her triangular glide-centric wings.

Honorable mention to our friend Snorunt, but upside down, because triangle.

Chicago Huntsmen – Shiny Marowak

Man… A shield with two axes? I mean the logo is cool I guess, but in terms of Pokémon, this becomes a little tough. Obviously there are shield Pokémon like Shieldon, but after some thought I decided Marowak would fit best.

Marowak wields his bone club like no one else, and to stick with the color scheme as best as possible, the shiny variation of this Pokémon is green. The green body with the aggressive club wielding makes shiny Marowak my choice for the Huntsmen representative.

Honorable mention to the aforementioned Shieldon, and also to the baby axe Pokémon – Axew.

Dallas Empire – Manectric

Empire[ em-pahyuhr ]: supreme control; absolute sway.

Isn’t that just majestic? A majestic team name is deserving of a majestic Pokémon, so we need not look further than the royal four-legged electric type Manectric.

The resemblance is clear, the golden crown of the Empire’s logo as if someone had a silhouette of Manectric and then discovered the colors. Absolute beauty.

Honorable mention goes to Slowking for the crown he wears, however Jolteon does make a strong case as well.

Florida Mutineers – Tentacruel

 

Tentacles… Yup… That’s it really…

Honorable mentions to Omastar, Omanyte, Octillery, and Inkay. Why? Tentacles.

London Royal Ravens – Fearow

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! Wait no… It’s just a bird. If I didn’t limit myself to Pokémon only, there would definitely be a different representative, but alas, a Pokémon must be chosen.

Fearow! I choose you!

The feathered wingspan of this flying-type Pokémon paired with the defined beak best represents the Royal Ravens’ bird of justice in their logo. While Braviary could have been an excellent choice as well, the slim body of a Fearow better represents the sharpness of the London team’s design in my eyes.

Click the following hyperlink for my Honorable Mention which is best described as a smashing video…

Los Angeles Guerillas – Ghastly

I like simple logos, however, simple logos mean that I have to select a simple Pokémon to support this team. With black and purple being the primary colors and a somewhat circular shape to boot, the ghost-type Ghastly seems to be the best choice. I mean come on, look at the logo and Ghastly together! It looks like a trainer/Pokémon duo you’d run into at the Pokémon Tower in Lavender Town.

Honorable mentions go to Sableye and Golbat for the dark purple/Lavender Town energy.

Minnesota Røkkr – Mega Houndoom

Initially, I wanted to avoid using mega forms of Pokémon for this list. They’re super powerful (almost in line with restriction #1) and the worst part is, they won’t come out of their Pokéball in mega form; you need to activate the mega evolution in battle!

Conversely, the horns on this bad boy are too perfect to pass up. The horns on Mega Houndoom have the size and curve to best represent the Røkkr’s Nordic-inspired Viking helmet.

Honorable mention goes to Cloyster, mainly for the fact that his face is protected by the humongous shell, almost simulating a helmet-like look.

New York Subliners – Poliwhirl’s Body

It’s a circle, made of lines. The team is named after a transit system. I mean, what? How can we find a Pokémon to represent these guys? I mean there’s Klefki and Comfey, they’re both circles!

Unfortunately for those fairy-types, there’s the water-types from the Poli-family and Polywhirl’s body whose spiral stomach vaguely resembles this abstract radar logo best fits the bill here for the NYSL.

Honorable mention goes to Hypno. Look into his medallion as it sways back and forth, and then you’ll see.

Optic Gaming Los Angeles – Unown

Ugh… Probably my least favorite team logo. I know Atlanta Faze’s logo is just letters too, but at least there’s some decent symbolism in the triangular representation. Optic Gaming, on the other hand, looks like they took their abbreviated letters of “OG”, typed the letters into a document, overlayed them, and finally just angled them.

IT’S JUST LETTERS! Because of that, they get the Unown as their Pokémon. Specifically, they get Unown-O and Unown-G.

Honorable mention goes to Klang because this naming decision really grinds my gears.

Paris Legion – Heatmor

The iconic fleur-de-lis takes on a red and orange color scheme this time around to represent the city of Paris. With a sharp design edit, the logo resembles the posture of this Gen V fire-type Pokémon – Heatmor.

With sharp claws and a long neck, this fire breathing anteater represents the fire that the Legion looks to bring to the COD League in January 2020.

Honorable mention to Paras because Paris. Secondary HM to Roselia for being the literal flower for the fleur-de-lis.

Seattle Surge – Empoleon

The titans of the sea, symbolised by the head of the trident of Neptune. Powerful, symbolic, region representative. Easily one of my favorites (definitely no bias considering they are the team representing the Pacfic Northwest or anything…) and will be cheering for them once the season starts.

They earn the final evolution of arguably the best final evolution of the starting Pokémon of Generation IV in Empoleon. Empoleon wears the same trident on his face, so this was almost a no brainer of a decision.

Honorable mention goes to Shedinja. A little bit of a stretch, however a link can be made between the trident and Shedinja’s halo as well as the Surge logo implying a “ghost of the sea” type of aura while Shedinja is the ghost of a bug. Shedinja is just really cool honestly, just like the Seattle Surge!

Toronto Ultra – Furret

The one that started it all. I mean just look at the similarities! It’s almost as if the logo designer was playing Pokémon Go trying to catch a Furret and then realized they had the team branding due in an hour.

I can imagine their train of thought going something like this: “Man, what do I do? I have an hour left! Well… I’m catching a Furret, so let me take some inspiration and use this long buddy as the logo. Now for the team name… Hmmm… Well I guess I caught it with an Ultra Ball, so let’s go with the Toronto Ultra!”

I’m convinced since the logo is a Furret inside of some type of Pokéball. Someone convince me otherwise, please.

Honorable mention to Linoone since Linoone is just Furret 2.0

 

What do you think? Do you agree? Disagree? Let us know what you think!

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Post Written and Images Edited by Justin “Jamalrus” Simpao | Twitter

Image sources: Bulbapedia | Call of Duty League