After a nearly six-month off-season, the Call of Duty League made its return on Friday with a stacked lineup taking the stage. The likes of OpTic Texas, Los Angeles Thieves, and Atlanta FaZe debuted their new rosters for the Modern Warfare 3 season alongside defending CDL champions New York Subliners.
The Major One qualifying opening weekend, which runs through to Sunday, Dec. 10, will see each team get their hands dirty in our first look at the CDL since New York Subliners took out Champs in a 5-0 sweep back in June.
FaZe has started strong at CDL 2024. Photo via Call of Duty League
Simp stars as Atlanta FaZe open season with a bang
After a disappointing third-place finish at CoD Champs to end their 2023 campaign, Atlanta made a splash during the off-season. The team signed one of the most coveted free agents Drazah to fill the flex role alongside their core three of aBeZy, Simp, and Cellium.
FaZe came into the season as one of the favorites and got off to a fast start, taking the first two maps of the series. Both games were extremely tight, with FaZe taking the Karachi Hardpoint by a score of 250-238 and clutching a round 11 on Karachi Search and Destroy despite 13 kills from Boston’s Capsidal.
Sitting in a 2-0 hole, the Breach found some momentum thanks to a massive performance from their rookie Snoopy on Invasion Control. The lone remaining member of Boston’s team from last season, Snoopy dealt more than 5,300 damage and posted 30 kills to help lead the Breach to a 3-1 victory and bring the series to a 2-1 count.
Boston continued their run on the ensuing map Terminal taking the Hardpoint map 250-209 to bring themselves within one map of a reverse sweep. But unfortunately for Boston, FaZe has the almighty Simp. The 2021 CDL regular season MVP looked to be in championship form already, dropping a 12-5 stat line in the series finale to lead Atlanta to a 6-3 win in Search and Destroy to start their season with a win.
iLLeY shows out as Seattle Surge begin strong
Both Seattle and Los Angeles have brand-new four-man rosters for the new season as both teams were ravaged by free agency. A year after running it back with the CDL championship roster from Vanguard during the 2023 season, the Thieves lost Kenny, Drazah, and Envoy to free agency while Octane decided to retire and focus on content creation. Los Angeles turned to Ghosty, Cammy, Afro, and JoeDeceives for the 2024 season to fill out their roster.
Seattle lost their two superstars Sib and Pred in free agency and made a complete reset with their roster. The Surge added 2020 CDL champions iLLeY and Huke, 2021 CDL champ Arcitys, and rookie Abuzah to round out their starting four. Seattle has a team full of players who have performed on the biggest stage of CoD and early returns are looking good for the Surge.
Seattle got off to a great start on the back of iLLeY, who looks like he’s back to 100 percent after an injury-riddled two years. He led the lobby with a 27-16 stat line in the Surge’s 250-238 victory on Karachi Hardpoint. Seattle continued to ride the momentum and another massive performance from iLLeY to a 6-2 win on Terminal Search and Destroy.
iLLeY proved the key to Seattle’s success, this time dropping nine kills and a 3.0 kill-death ratio to give his team a commanding 2-0 lead in the best of five. Los Angeles came out firing in the third map, taking the Invasion Control with a clean 3-0 sweep. But once again, it was all Seattle in the series’ fourth map, as the Surge clinched the series with a 250-221 Terminal Hardpoint victory.
Reigning champs Subliners get right back to work
The reigning champions haven’t missed a beat. Photo via Call of Duty League
Both Texas and New York debuted new rosters, though the two teams finished the season with wildly different results in 2023. OpTic ended their season with a disappointing top-six finish at CDL champs after finishing second and multiple majors during the regular season. After dropping Ghosty and Huke, Texas signed the most-coveted free agent during the offseason in Pred and added Kenny to the team with the established duo of Dashy and Shotzzy.
New York claimed the season’s championship in 2023 after knocking off the Toronto Ultra. Instead of staying put with their championship roster, the Subliners decided to drop Priestahh and add one of the most talented players in the league, Sib, to their roster in an attempt to keep up with the firepower of the rest of the CDL.
The two teams came into the season as favorites to compete for championships all year long and their match did not disappoint. New York came out swinging in the series’ first map, Karachi Hardpoint. Behind a massive 29-kill performance from HyDra, the Subliners took a 1-0 series lead with a 250-153 victory.
In the Highrise Search and Destroy, the teams traded rounds for the first six rounds before New York raced out to a 5-3 lead. OpTic won the following two rounds, pushing it to a round 11. It was New York finding important picks on the map before it was eventually Shotzzy left in a three-vs-one before ultimately falling as New York took a 2-0 lead.
As the series went back to Karachi for the lone Control of the match, OpTic started to find their groove. OpTic’s newest superstar Pred started to flex his muscle for the Green Wall, posting a 29-22 stat line to help lead Texas to a 3-1 victory and get on the board. After an impressive comeback by Texas on Terminal Hardpoint, the series headed to map five with the series remaining on Terminal for the finale.
Just like the first SnD, it was a back-and-forth affair with the OpTic up 5-4 with a chance to end the series. After Dashy fell at the hands of Sib, Kenny picked up two kills to give Texas a one-man advantage. Pred looked to put the dagger in New York as he turned the corner with his sights set on Skyz. He nearly gave his team the three-vs-one advantage, but Sib made the heady play to protect his teammate and bring it to an even two-vs-two.
Shotzzy lost a massive gunfight to Sib, and from there, there was nothing Kenny could do as Skyz picked up the kill to win the round and send it to another round 11, this time for the series win.
New York played the last round extremely slowly, sitting in the plane for nearly a minute before finally planting the bomb. After Skyz had picked off Pred to give his team the advantage, it was all Subliners. All four members of Texas fell as New York took their second round 11 win in the series to take the match 3-2.
CDL’s opening weekend continues tomorrow with the Miami Heretics and Carolina Ravens making their debut at 1pm CT.
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