Activision, the creator of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and the battle royale title Warzone, has partnered with popular Twitch streamer and FaZe Clan member Nick "NickMercs" Kolcheff to expand his MFAM Gauntlet Warzone tournament series.
In addition to helping with promotional support, Activision will bolster the prize pool for the MFAM Gauntlet to $100,000, doubling the amount for the June MFAM event. The gauntlet will move from a monthly-event format to a four-week series, with qualifiers and a main event each week. Amateurs, pro gamers, professional athletes and celebrities will compete in duos, trios and quads events as part of the gauntlet.
Week 1 of the series will begin with a qualifier at 3 p.m. ET Monday. The main event will take place at 4 p.m. ET July 15. Both will be broadcast on twitch.tv/mfamgauntlet. A preshow called The Armory has also been added.
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As part of the gauntlet, NickMercs will raise awareness and ask for donations for the Call of Duty Endowment, a charity organization dedicated to pairing military veterans with high-quality jobs.
The MFAM Gauntlet series began in April, with 100 teams and a $4,500 weekly prize pool. The most recent MFAM Gauntlet in June had a $50,000 prize pool and featured prominent streamers, competitors and athletes such as Jack "CouRage" Dunlop, Ian "Crimsix" Porter, Turner "Tfue" Tenney, Chicago Bears running back Tarik Cohen, Dallas Mavericks player Seth Curry, Boston Celtics player Vincent Poirier and others. The event garnered 212,000 average viewers.
NickMercs' Twitch channel is the fourth-most watched channel on Twitch the past 30 days and has averaged the 12th-most average concurrent viewers, at 38,226. His channel is the 15th-most followed on Twitch, with more than 3.7 million followers.
NickMercs' average viewership skyrocketed in 2020, particularly after the release of Warzone in March. After beginning the year with just more than 14,000 average viewers, NickMercs climbed steadily to 18,000 by March. After the release of Warzone on March 10, he catapulted to an average of 25,000 viewers in April, then up to almost 37,000 in June. Thus far in July, his average viewership has been between 44,000 and 54,000. NickMercs is currently the most watched Warzone streamer on Twitch.
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