CDL Paris is over and there are just three events left until the Call of Duty Championship. The narrative is starting to shift down the home stretch with online play here to stay. Teams are coming into their final molds; some scary, some less impressive than others. Chicago did not play in this last event, however, there were many takeaways for the Huntsmen to benefit from.
Courtesy of the Call of Duty League
The Florida Mutineers set a new milestone at CDL Paris: first team to win three home series. Florida is emerging as the favorite for Champs down the stretch. The Mutineers dominated the competition this past weekend. In four matches Florida dropped just three maps including none in the Grand Finals against the Atlanta FaZe. Trading Prestinni and adding Owakening is emerging as the roster move of the season. The Mutineers are looking unstoppable with their new roster. They crushed all teams in the league during their back-to-back championship crusade.
Early in the season, the Empire, FaZe and Huntsmen were labeled as the top teams. Yet, after the last two events, Florida launched into second place in the current standings. The Mutineers’ unique pace of play and map positioning are paying huge dividends late in the season. Florida’s Search and Destroy play has been so great, if they manage to win a respawn their chances of winning skyrocket. Additionally, Florida is winning most of their Domination maps which is what creates huge problems for opponents. The Mutineers are showing few weaknesses on their ride to the top and have overtaken FaZe as the top team for the time being.
Despite holding the top spot in the standings, the Atlanta FaZe had a shaky CDL Minnesota and Paris. Every match FaZe played went the distance aside from getting crushed in the finals by Florida. Atlanta were unstoppable early in the season as they routinely blew teams off the map ultimately sweeping them. FaZe looks much more human recently and are far less dominant as teams across the league have caught up.
Atlanta has certainly fallen off their peak, yet they continue to be very clutch. There is no denying that their 8-1 map five record indicates FaZe win when it matters most. Despite this, FaZe’s biggest flaw right now is their Domination gameplay. Atlanta went 1-3 last weekend including a 235-70 loss in the finals which could be confused for a Hardpoint score. In the last four events, it is unlikely that FaZe will win every map five which leaves a huge opportunity for challengers.
Courtesy of the Call of Duty League
The Ultra swapped Classic out in place of CleanX for CDL Paris. While Toronto fell just short of Championship Sunday, their roster showed great promise. The weekend almost started with Toronto upsetting Atlanta as FaZe eked out a map five round 11 win. After crushing a battering OpTic Gaming squad the Ultra moved onto New York. While Toronto dropped the series 3-1 to New York, the promise is there. Map three and four were extremely close. Domination was decided by seven points and the second Hardpoint by 21 points. While it was just one event, CleanX could potentially provide the Ultra with the final push to get them to another Championship Sunday and make a deep run at Champs.
OpTic Gaming have had a very volatile season. With a roster full of seasoned champions and world champs and runner ups, the roster had immense amounts of potential. Just last month OGLA lost in the finals of CDL Florida. At CDL Paris, they only managed to win one map. Furthermore, OpTic did not put up much a fight aside from Domination. Hardpoint was not even close as the Ultra cruised to a 250-49 victory. In a since-deleted tweet, Kenny pinpointed OpTic’s issue: “our practice is what needs to change, actual joke. We’ve had the same problems since day one and we can’t improve at all because of it.” Despite the momentum they conjured up it appears if OpTic cannot straighten out their practice routine the future does not look too bright.
Featured image courtesy of the Call of Duty League
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