Hicksy: Becoming the first EU champ would be 'the highlight of my life'

The grid is settled. The formation had been made. Everything that has gone on throughout qualifying is forgotten. It’s lights out all out, and the race for the rings is about to get underway.

Call of Duty’s pinnacle circuit is reaching its climax and for once there’s no such thing as poll position. Subliners are revving in the middle with their two championship trophies on their bonnet, FaZe lineup alongside them at consistent table toppers. Thieves are all ghillied-up to swoop the trophy from under everyone’s nose to break the Champs curse and blow it to smithereens, and OpTic are looking to pull off a heist of their own having crashed nose-first in Major V.

And you can never deny Attach and ROKKR a piece of the pie…

But one engine that’s cooking on gas is Toronto Ultra, and after their mid-season rollercoaster pickup, Charlie "Hicksy" Hicks is firing on all cylinders to become the first European ever to get their finger on a Call of Duty World Championship ring.

Hicksy eyes becoming the first European Call of Duty World Champion

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Toronto Ultra are one of many teams at the Call of Duty League 2023 World Championships that house European players, leaving the region in its best spot ever to have a representative be crowned as a legend.

Hicksy could now do what the likes of Benjamin "Bance" Bance could never do with Ultra and finally push European talent over the finish line, alongside his regional teammates Jamie "Insight" Craven and Tobias "CleanX" Juul Jønsson.

It's safe to say that this opportunity is one that he's now relishing.

"Oh my god. It would be [inaudible sound of joy]. Jesus. I don't even know. Obviously, it'd be an unbelievable achievement for me, Jamie, and Toby - all three of us being European," he told GGRecon, following Major V.

"It'd be an unbelievable achievement, but on top of that, it'd be the highlight of my life. It'd be everything. It would be absolutely insane."

Previously, only a handful of players from EU have made the Grand Finals, with Splyce's Bance, Joshua-Lee "Joshh" Sheppard, Joseph "Joee" Pinnington, and Rhys "Rated" Price all finishing runner-up in 2016 during the Black Ops 3 era, and Ultra's previous roster of Bance, Cameron "Cammy" McKilligan, CleanX, and Insight finishing a close second in 2021 during Cold War.

Why winning Champs would open doors for European Call of Duty players

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Producing a European winner wouldn't just be a bragging right though, and Hicksy believes that people or slowly accepting that the UK and the rest of EU has many great players to offer that have really pushed to follow in the footsteps of the current icons, making it important for them to now house a World Champion.

"I'd say ever since Ultra's Cold War team, they kind of opened people's eyes to say that maybe Europeans can win stuff, and the region does have the ability to win," Hicksy said.

"I think that helped, and then the last two years we've seen more players come. Obviously, you've got London still with half a European team, ROKKR have half, we have three, New York has HyDra and Wardy on the bench, and there are more and more people creeping in. There's definitely a lot more talent over there that needs to be needs to be considered."

With a proposed Miami Heretics team backed with an all-Spanish roster also coming in for the next season, Hicksy claimed now would be the best time for EU to peak, and potentially host a LAN of their own next season too.

Toronto specifically faces a tough opening fixture against the all-American LA Thieves before either progressing to play Atlanta FaZe/Seattle Surge or looking to regain and make a lower-bracket charge against the losers of OpTic Texas and Boston Breach.

Their first match will kick off against Thieves on Thursday, June 15, at 4:30pm Vegas Time (12:30am on Friday, June 16, BST).