Damon "Karma" Barlow is a flex player for the Seattle Surge. The 26-year-old Canadian will feature as part of the Chicago franchise in the Call of Duty League (CDL) 2020 Season.
Karma is known for being the only three-time World Champion in Call of Duty esports, winning during Black Ops 2, Ghosts and Infinite Warfare.
He made his name back in 2013, winning the World Championship with Fariko Impact. Shortly after, he joined compLexity to be the first back-to-back World Champion. After being a part of the most dominant Call of Duty team in history, he moved to OpTic gaming to cement his name as an all-time great by winning multiple championships and his final World Championship. Karma has won over $800,000 in prize money.
Here's Karma's player profile for the CDL 2020 season.
CDL 2020 Season
For the debut season of the Call of Duty League, Karma will be a part of the Seattle Surge - the team consists of:
- Ian "Enable" Wyatt
- Bryan "Apathy" Zhelyazkov
- Sam "Octane" Larew
- Josiah "Slacked" Berry
- Damon "Karma" Barlow
With the CDL 2020 season yet to start, no offline tournaments have taken place yet. However, Karma has competed in a few online tournaments.
With the Seattle Surge, they have played in two tournaments placing top four in the GameBattles Premium $4500 5v5 S&D Kickoff 2019-10-27.
He also placed second in the Subliners New York Open 2019.
Major Achievements
The following achievements feature all offline tournaments only.
Prize pool represents the total amount the team earned.
Game | Event | Date | Place | Prize | Team |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
BO4 | Call of Duty World League Championship 2019 | 18-08-2019 | 3rd | $140,000 | OpTic Gaming |
BO4 | CWL Pro League 2019 Playoffs | 21-07-2019 | 7th-8th | $18,750 | OpTic Gaming |
BO4 | CWL Pro League 2019 | 05-07-2019 | 1st-2nd | $84,375 | OpTic Gaming |
BO4 | CWL Anaheim 2019 | 16-06-2019 | 3rd | $50,000 | OpTic Gaming |
BO4 | CWL London 2019 | 05-05-2019 | 3rd | $50,000 | OpTic Gaming |
BO4 | CWL Fort Worth 2019 | 17-03-2019 | 9th-12th | $0 | OpTic Gaming |
BO4 | CWL Las Vegas Open 2019 | 09-12-2018 | 1st | $100,000 | OpTic Gaming |
WWII | CWL Seattle Open 2018 | 22-04-2018 | 13th-16th | $0 | OpTic Gaming |
WWII | CWL Pro League 2018 Stage 1 Playoffs | 08-04-2018 | 2nd | $120,000 | OpTic Gaming |
WWII | CWL Birmingham Open 2018 | 01-04-2018 | 4th | $16,000 | OpTic Gaming |
Team History
- Seattle Surge - Enable, Apathy, Octane, Slacked (October 2019 - Present)
- OpTic Gaming - Scump, FormaL, Crimsix, Karma, Dashy, TJHaLy (October 2019 - April 2015)
- OpTic Nation - MBoZe, TeePee, ProoFy (November 2014 - April 2015)
- FaZe Clan - Censor, Apathy, Parasite (September - October 2014)
- Evil Geniuses - ACHES, TeePee, Crimsix (May - November 2014)
- compLexity - ACHES, TeePee, Crimsix (November 2013 - May 2014)
- Team Envy - JKap, ProoFy, Rambo, MerK (July - November 2013)
- Impact - KiLLa, MiRx, Parasite (April - July 2013)
- Fariko Impact - KiLLa, TuQuick, John, MiRx, Parasite (November 2012 - April 2013)
- Team Envy - ProoFy, Rambo, PHiZZURP, MerK, TuQuick, TwiZz (May - June 2012)
- apeX.Collapse - Parasite, Apathy, TuQuick (April 2012)
- Xtravagant - Rambo, Revan, Bobby (August - November 2011)
- yunGunZ - Regrets, Felonies, Fhast (2010-2011)
Karma's History
Black Ops 1
Despite being a talent since COD4, there were limited opportunities for him to put his name on the map.
A few events under his belt gave a good account for himself, placing sixth at MLG Anaheim 2011 helped get the call up by Rambo to join Xtravagant.
The team placed sixth at MLG Orlando and fifth at MLG National Championship 2011.
Modern Warfare 3
Modern Warfare 3 has a severe lack of support in the competitive scene, resulting in his only LAN event being at the 360icons Virginia Beach LAN showcase under Team Envy - himself, ProoFy, TuQuick and TwiZz placed first.
Online, he placed third in the Machinima Frag Cup III under apeX.Collapse.
Black Ops 2
With a return to the Black Ops franchise, Karma got his first opportunity at stability under Fariko Impact. His teammates Killa, TuQuick and John exceeded expectations as they placed third.
A change was made quick, MiRx replaced John, leading to the reign of Impact. The squad won four championships in a row winning COD Champs 2013 in the process.
The good times soon ended after leaving Fariko, they placed second at MLG Spring Championship 2013 and fourth at Gfinity London 2013 - Karma soon left to join Envy.
Apart from a brief cameo appearance for TCM-Gaming at Dreamhack Valencia, he remained on the roster until the end of the season producing some good performances.
Ghosts
After compLexity let Clayster go, despite winning the first event of the season, they brought in Karma to continue their dynasty.
With him joining the squad they won five events during Call of Duty Ghosts including COD Champs 2014.
The team were bought by Evil Geniuses, where their form could not be replicated; only winning one title.
For the last few months of the game, due to internal conflict within the team, Karma left for FaZe Clan - winning UMG Nashville in his first event.
Advanced Warfare
OpTic Nation was the next destination for Karma as he joined MBoZe, TeePee and ProoFy.
The team were fan favourites but did not bring the performances you would expect. Karma's talent was well recognised and with NaDeSHoT standing down from competitive Call of Duty, he took his place on OpTic Gaming.
The OpTic dynasty was now in full swing, winning four championships and placing second in three more tournaments.
Black Ops 3
The team made no roster changes and continued to dominate in Black Ops 3. Again they acquired five titles in various regions including North America, Europe and Australia.
Karma took home the MVP award at MLG Orlando 2016.
Despite another dominant year and coming into COD Champs 2016 as favourites, they again fell short, placing in the top 8.
Infinite Warfare
Despite plenty of rumours about roster changes, the team continued to squad up heading into the final jetpack Call of Duty.
It wasn't a glorious start, finishing top 6 at Las Vegas and 2nd at Atlanta, they went on to win back-to-back championships at Dallas and Paris; with Scump being awarded the MVP of Dallas.
It was a rocky road after that, a fourth place in the Pro League Stage 1 playoffs and a top 8 at Anaheim left many wondering if their time had come.
Nevertheless, the team continued on as they placed first at the Stage 2 playoffs. But the real tournament began two weeks later at COD Champs 2017.
OpTic entered as the favourites, sweeping their group 3-0. It was looking like their year until the eClassico arrived in the winners final against Envy; they were sent to the lower bracket.
A quick 3-0 on Luminosity meant they were back for revenge in the Grand Final, beating Envy 3-1 and 3-0 to win COD Champs.
WWII
After such a high, it was no surprise that the team would stick together for the next iteration of COD, as the franchise returned to boots on the ground.
A promising 3rd place at the first event in Dallas gave the impression that another successful year was ahead. However, it wasn't meant to be and the best the team could manage was second at the Pro League Stage 1 playoffs.
Seattle was the final nail in the coffin, their top 16 placement spelt time for change - Karma was benched and FormaL left for Luminosity to make way for Octane and Methodz.
Despite the change, it didn't work out overall as they fell to an all-time low with a top 24 placing at COD Champs 2018.
Black Ops 4
The fourth instalment of the Black Ops franchise looked to be a return to form for OpTic. Karma was brought back into the team, as well as replacing Octane and Methodz with Dashy and TJHaly.
The first place at Las Vegas looked like the jump start OpTic needed to get back to winning ways. However, they were quickly brought back down to earth as the team lacked practice and became overconfident - finishing top 12 at Fort Worth.
It was third place for the Greenwall at both London and Anaheim and finished up the regular season top of their pro league group.
Top 8 was all that they could manage at the Pro League playoffs, but it didn't hinder their spirits as they looked unstoppable at COD Champs 2019. Unfortunately, two quickfire losses to eUnited and 100 Thieves in the final stages of the competition left them with a third-place finish once again.
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Written ByChris Trout@TheTrout91
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