The Call of Duty League Major V tournament on Thursday in Toronto, Canada, played host to four matches. All four matches came from the winners side of the bracket and it brought excitement for fans watching at home and those watching live in the arena.
This Lan tournament is the fifth and final regular season tournament of the Modern Warfare2 season. It is also the last opportunity for teams to collect CDL points for their seeding positions at the Call of Duty League Championships in Las Vegas in June.
This is a look at how the first day of the Major V tournament played out.
(2) Atlanta Faze v. (7) Las Vegas Legion
The opening matchup of the Major V tournament ended the way many thought it would, but did not want it to. The Las Vegas Legion entered this tournament with their Champs hopes on the line. They currently sit on the outside looking in at a Champs spot, and need a deep run in this weekend’s tournament to catapult themselves into the top 8. Unfortunately, they ran into an Atlanta Faze team that is playing their best since Major 2. Legion made the first map interesting but fell off in the final few hardpoint rotations and ultimately Faze took map 1, 250-179. Throughout this year, Legion has been one of the best Search and Destroy squads. With that said, Atlanta Faze has undoubtedly been the best. Faze continued to prove that as they ran over Legion on El Asilo in map 2, winning 6-1. The two teams met again on El Asilo in the map 3, control. Legion has recently improved in the game mode, but shown massive inconsistency through the league season. Faze would win the map, 3-1 and sweep Legion 3-0 in the series. Veteran Austin “Slasher” Liddicoat, led Faze with a 1.88 overall K/D. They will meet Toronto Ultra in the second round of the winners bracket. For Legion, a losers bracket match versus Seattle Surge Friday will potentially finalize the eight CoD Champs teams. A win and their hopes stay alive, a loss and their season is over.
(3) Toronto Ultra v. (6) New York Subliners
Tournament host’s Toronto Ultra met NYSL in what was possibly the hardest first round match to predict at Major V. Major III winners, Ultra, have been one of the best teams both online and on Lan all season. After winning Major I, NYSL has shown inconsistency but also their ability to compete with the game’s top teams. The matchup lived up to all of its hype. After trading the first four maps back and forth, the two teams met on Embassy Search and Destroy for game 5 and the series. Ultra has struggled to close out series in game 5’s recently, but behind the support of their home crowd changed that narrative. SMG Charlie “Hicksy” Hicks led the squad in game 5 with his best individual map performance of the year. Ultra will move on to the second round of the winners bracket on Saturday and meet Atlanta Faze in a star-studded matchup. For NYSL, a heartbreaking game 5 loss does not end their tournament just yet. They will move to the losers bracket and face 11th seed Los Angeles Guerrillas, a match they will be heavily favored in.
(1) OpTic Texas v. (8) Florida Mutineers
After another 5-0 online qualifier record, Optic Texas yet again earned the first seed for Major V. They squared off against the 8th seed Florida Mutineers in the third match on Thursday. OpTic Texas had been one of the best teams in the game for a couple of months leading up to this tournament but did not show it in this series. This was the first major surprise and upset of the tournament. Mutineers came out hot and smoked OpTic 250-134 on Fortress. The major underdogs Mutineers straight-shooting continued in the map 2 Mercado as they won the S&D 6-2. In a map 3 control expo, Mutineers clutched up and took the map 3-2. Most of the Call of Duty League community predicted OpTic to swiftly beat Mutineers in this matchup but it went quite the opposite. For Mutineers, a team that is already mathematically eliminated from CoD Champs, this is their last chance to earn money and a high placing this league season. On the OpTic side, a loss here sets up a disastrous losers bracket round match versus Los Angeles Thieves. Thieves have beaten OpTic in the last two matches they played on Lan. Both of which were at Major III in the Winners bracket final and Grand Final, respectively. After back-to-back second place finishes for OpTic, the green wall will be increasingly worried about a good placing heading into Friday’s match against the Thieves.
(4) Boston Breach v. (5) Minnesota ROKKR
After the Florida Mutineers upset OpTic Texas the previous match, the nerves were heightened for both of these squads. The winner of this match is set to face the Mutineers and no disrespect to them but that matchup is a lot more friendly than one with OpTic Texas. To add even more storyline to this matchup, these two teams do not like each other. The dislike truly began after a surprising disagreement between the two teams to not use a specific sound setting when ROKKR hosted Breach for their online home series event a couple of weeks ago. On paper and in the game, these two teams are very similar and although neither of them are considered top 5 teams in the game, they both have the capability to upset the game’s top teams. ROKKR took the map 1 hardpoint on embassy after the game started out extremely slow from both teams. Breach hit right back, winning the game 2 S&D and the game 3 control to take control of the series 2-1. The drama between these two teams increased near the midway point of the fourth map. Breach was leading ROKKR by about 40 points when the map was ended by the league and subsequently restarted. In the map following the restart, fans saw the best hardpoint map of the season thus far. ROKKR used the restart to boost their confidence and take the map 250-230, setting up a game 5 S&D. The game 5 was hectic and exciting. After taking a 5-2 lead in the map, Boston won 3 straight rounds to tie it 5-5. In Round 11, where anything can happen, Minnesota found the first blood and eventually capitalized off of it to win the map and the series, 3-2.
After an intriguing first day of matches the rest of the weekend will almost surely bring more delirium and drama. Here is a quick look at the matches taking place Friday and my predictions.
All of the following matches are in the Loser’s Bracket.
(4) Boston Breach v. (12) London Royal Ravens, 1:30pm est.
Boston Breach take on London in a match that is almost surely Royal Ravens last of the year. London has not won a single match on Lan all season and with no possibility to make champs, their motivation will be at an all time low. For Boston, winning this series would set up a nightmare losers bracket round two match versus the winner of LA Thieves and OpTic Texas.
(6) New York Subliners v. (11) Los Angeles Guerrillas, 3:00pm est.
After a tough map 5 loss to the host, Toronto Ultra, NYSL will take on Los Angeles Guerrillas. LAG is in a very similar spot to London, their recent form has been very bad and they have no chance to make CoD Champs. If NYSL takes this series seriously, it will not go more than 4 maps.
(1) OpTic Texas v. (9) Los Angeles Thieves, 4:30pm est.
This losers bracket matchup could very well be the best of the season. This series will be a rematch of the Major IV Grand Final. In that series Los Angeles Thieves won 4-2, winning the series. After a poor online performance from Thieves and a surprise loss to Mutineer by OpTic, one of these two teams will be going home T-12, massively hurting their confidence going into CoD Champs.
(7) Las Vegas Legion v. (10) Seattle Surge, 6:00pm est.
The final match of Friday is setting-up to be potentially one of the most exciting of the tournament and it is only Round 1. Both of these teams match up against each very well and have also shown major upside and inconsistency throughout the season. For Legion, their CoD Champs hopes are on the line and for Surge, a loss would even further demoralize their confidence going into Champs.