The story of iLLeY: Call of Duty's Indian origin superstar

Call of Duty esports are currently chock-full of young superstars who are looking to take over the scene. However, there may be none more equipped to do so than the Dallas Empire's Indervir "iLLeY" Dhaliwal.

iLLeY, of Indian origin, recently played an integral part in the Empire's run to becoming Call of Duty League champions in 2020. Although, before he was a part of the Empire, he was one of the most highly-touted prospects in Call of Duty history. Today, we'll be looking at iLLeY's beginnings and how he's gotten to where he is presently.

---

iLLeY: The Call of Duty star of Indian origin

Image via Call of Duty League

iLLeY first began tearing up the Call of Duty scene when he was just 14 years old. He truly made a name for himself during Black Ops 3, where he dominated online Search and Destroy tournaments. The likes of Nick "Nickmercs" Kolcheff and even a slew of professional players tried desperately to get iLLeY on their teams for these tournaments.

However, since he was only 14 at the time, this was all the player of Indian origin could do. Activision has strict age limits in place that forbid any player under 18 from competing professionally. So until he was 18, iLLeY had to lie in wait.

Although, that didn't stop the Indian origin star from joining the eUnited Cadets with other underage prospects like Chris "Simp" Lehr. This was a program started by eUnited to get these players some experience before they entered the professional scene. iLLeY was a founding member of the squad but didn't stay on eUnited for too long.

Image via eUnited

Before most knew it, 2019 rolled around and iLLeY could finally compete professionally. The timing was perfect as well, as the Call of Duty League just formed and teams were looking for young stars to mold. Luckily for the Indian origin star, the Dallas Empire were extremely interested in signing him.

Of course, we all know that iLLeY signed with the Empire and eventually went on to win three Home Series events and the Call of Duty League Championship in 2020. However, all of that was the result of years of hard work and sheer patience. iLLeY took the amateur approach and flourished, winning a myriad of online tournaments and even some amateur LAN events during 2018-2019.

The future looks bright for the Indian origin star and his career has only just begun.