Clan War Leagues Explained: How CWL Works and How to Find a CWL Clan
CWL is the most rewarding week in Clash of Clans — and the most misunderstood. Here's how leagues, medals, and promotion actually work, and how to find a clan that takes it seriously.
Clan War Leagues run once a month, every month, and they're the single biggest source of League Medals in the game. If you're not in a clan that runs CWL properly, you're leaving hero equipment, ores, and shop items on the table.
Here's how it all works.
What CWL Actually Is
At the start of each month, clans sign up during a short registration window. Your clan gets placed in a group with seven other clans of a similar league, and then you war every day for seven days straight — one war per day, each against a different clan in your group.
Unlike regular wars, you only get one attack per war day, not two. That one attack matters a lot more, and missing it hurts your clan's placement.
How Leagues and Promotion Work
Every clan sits in a league — from Bronze at the bottom up through Silver, Gold, Crystal, Master, and Champion. Where your clan finishes in its group at the end of the week decides what happens next:
- Finish near the top of your group and your clan promotes to a higher league
- Finish near the bottom and you drop down a league
- Finish mid-table and you stay put
Higher leagues mean tougher opponents but noticeably better League Medal rewards — which is why serious clans care so much about their CWL league. On ClashScout, a clan's CWL league is one of the biggest factors in its activity score, because holding a high league month after month is hard to fake.
League Medals: Why It's Worth It
Medals are awarded at the end of every CWL week based on your clan's league and how you performed. You spend them in the League Shop on things you can't easily get elsewhere — including hammers that instantly finish upgrades.
A player in an active Crystal-or-above clan earns dramatically more medals per month than someone in a clan that half-fills its CWL roster in Bronze. Over a year, that difference is enormous.
What Good CWL Clans Do Differently
If you've had bad CWL experiences, the clan was probably making one of these mistakes:
- No attack requirements — people skip attacks and the clan bleeds stars
- Rosters decided by favouritism rather than who actually attacks
- No bonus medal plan — good clans decide upfront how bonus medals are distributed
- Signing up in the wrong size — 15v15 vs 30v30 rosters change who gets war experience
Ask about all four before you join. A clan that has clear answers is a clan that takes CWL seriously.
How to Find a CWL Clan on ClashScout
- Start with the Top 100 active clans — CWL league is baked into the ranking, so everything near the top wars properly
- Browse clans and filter by war frequency — "Always" clans almost always run full CWL
- Check the clan's war log on its ClashScout page. A public war log with a healthy win rate is the best predictor of a competent CWL week
- Look for the Verified badge — it means the actual leader manages the page, and you can apply directly
If you're between Town Halls, find clans recruiting your level specifically — for example TH13 clans or TH16 clans — so you're warring against bases you can actually three-star.
The difference between a clan that "does CWL" and a clan that does CWL well is a month-on-month compounding pile of medals. Find the second kind.