Kanye West closes first ‘Call of Duty’ convention
LOS ANGELES — Kanye West closed down the inaugural “Call of Duty XP” convention, a two-day event celebrating the popular Activision Blizzard Inc. shoot-’em-up video game franchise, with an explosive concert inside a hangar on the old airfield where Howard Hughes built the Spruce Goose. West’s performance included such hits as “Gold Digger” and “Love Lock Down.”
West, who was joined several times throughout the show by 20 scantily clad female dancers, kicked off the Saturday spectacle by ascending more than five stories above the crowd on a platform inside the cavernous space. Earlier, the hangar stage served as the final battleground for a “Call of Duty” tournament that awarded $1 million in prize money.
The four-man group Optic Gaming from the United States toppled 31 other teams from across the globe to win the event’s single-elimination “Modern Warfare 3” tournament. William “BigTymer” Johnson, Blake “Vengeance2T” Campbell, Joseph “Merc SD” DeLuca and Matthew “NaDeSHoT” Haag bested the United Kingdom team Til Infinity to take home the $400,000 grand prize.
“This is definitely the most that we’ve ever won,” said Johnson, 20.
“Call of Duty” devotees lined up at the extravaganza for a chance to play the multiplayer mode of “Modern Warfare 3,” spar on paintball fields modeled after “Modern Warfare 2” levels, glide over the event on a zipline, zoom around an obstacle course in a Jeep and grab grub from an eatery resembling the game’s fictitious Burger Town fast food chain.
