The U.S. military is looking for a few good gamers.
According to internal documents obtained by Vice’s Motherboard, the Army had a plan to recruit soldiers at a time of low enrollment by recruiting through video games like Call of Duty.
“The U.S. Army allocated millions of dollars to sponsor a wide range of esports tournaments, individual high profile Call of Duty streamers, and Twitch events in the last year to specifically grow its audience with Gen-Z viewers, and especially women and Black and Hispanic people, according to internal Army documents obtained by Motherboard.”
The documents were obtained by a Freedom of Information Act request. They show that the only reason the Army did not go ahead with this plan was because Activision, the company that publishes Call of Duty had a sexual harrassment scandal.
In related news, the U.S. and U.K. militaries both have esports teams competing in the upcoming C.O.D.E. Bowl. This is a gaming competition that takes place in Call of Duty: Warzone 2. Last year, the U.S. Space force took home the trophy and they took their trophy out of bounds. Literally, to space where no one could get it.
