A few days have passed since Grossmont Community College won the second College Call of Duty 2K, and it’s time to consider what we learned about the result. Eventual winners Grossmont Community College met previous winners Ohio State University in the final round. These teams have now met twice in the CCL, each taking one series. These results could spark a potential rivalry heading into Season One as the two battle for number one seed.
Courtesy of Treyarch
Coming into the second CCL 2K, Grossmont Community College (also known as GCC) was the second seed. They were considered one of the favorites alongside Ohio State University, and the two never looked back. Strong respawn performances all throughout the 2K carried GCC. Though two of their matches were off-stream, their finals performance gave us enough to talk about.
Having the second seed for the event, they would face the winner of the newcomers the University of South Carolina and the University of Louisiana – Lafayette in round two.
Grossmont began their tournament facing the University of South Carolina. In an off-stream match, they won the series 3-1 and moved on to the semi-finals.
Liberty University won their first match against newcomers Abilene Christian University and moved on to face Grossmont. Even with ACU’s Search and Destroy prowess in map 2, LU closed out the series 3-1. Liberty University now had a chance to work their way to the finals, but were stopped in their tracks by Grossmont.
In another off-stream match, Grossmont was able to take this semi-final with a 3-1 result. This victory secured their spot in the final against last week’s winner, Ohio State University.
In an exciting final where the top two seeds faced off, Grossmont was able to defeat Ohio State 3-1. This result meant that Grossmont closed the gap for the first seed to only 250 CCL Points.
Courtesy of Treyarch
Grossmont continues to prove that strong respawn performances can carry this team far. Strong rotation and map knowledge allowed Grossmont to take a 100 point lead halfway through the match. They then managed the time correctly to close out the map.
Ohio State’s SnD is still unmatched. Their knowledge of the game mode is still far ahead of the competition. The second map started with a worrying OSU 1:4 GCC map count, but Ohio State rallied five in a row to take the second map 6:4.
The week one winners have yet to lose a search and destroy, but their respawn was exposed by Grossmont. Many could say that Grossmont choked a 1:4 round lead, but you can’t take anything away from the comeback done by Ohio State. OSU showed mental fortitude in unfamiliar territory as they trailed in both the map and the series.
OSU DatDude ties the map at 4:4 with a 4-piece using his specialist:
Grossmont stole the map with a reverse sweep in what was probably the closest Control throughout the CCL. Ohio State should have taken the map having cruised in the first round and punished GCC mistakes in the second. The second round, in particular, showcased the resilience of Ohio State as the team rallied down seven lives (23:16) to take the round with 4 lives remaining.
The two teams failed to capitalize on winning positions which prompted the infamous “A Choke for a Choke”.
A strong defense in round three and aggressive play in round four set up the comeback for GCC. Round five came down to the wire, with OSU player “Awstun” showcasing brilliant movement on the map. He played alone at the B capture zone, and with two crucial kills gave his team an extra minute to attack the A capture zone. The match was now four lives for Ohio State and eight for Grossmont. He was gifted with the opportunity to give his team the advantage. He went on a long flank and found himself behind three Grossmont players, but was unable to convert his stellar map positioning into kills.
A statement to remember: 100 PT-club the previous winners to end the series.
Grossmont Community College went into this map with all the momentum on their side. This map would prove to be another test to Ohio State’s mental fortitude as they looked to regain from the map three loss. This time, Grossmont had other ideas in mind. GCC began the map rampaging and OSU never looked comfortable. Grossmont cracked the 150-mark while Ohio State had barely reached 50.
GCC played with confidence and hit a stride which let the CCL community know that they are a force to be reckoned with.
MrMarv, almost triple positive, helped Grossmont close the series in four maps:
In what was an exciting end to week 2 for CCL 2K tournaments, Grossmont Community College delivered a statement of intent heading into the final week. They are looking to snatch the number one seed away from Ohio State. Their Hardpoint performances are dominant as shown in the final series. If they can fix their flaws in Search and Destroy, they will definitely find more consistency at the top.
Ohio State and Grossmont have managed to separate from the rest of the teams. Two consecutive strong performances by both teams make it near impossible for other participants to take away their ranking heading into the regular season. It’s just a matter of time to decide which team enters the regular season as the number one seed.
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The third College Call of Duty preseason tournament begins on November 17, 2018, at 4:00 PM EST. All series will be best of 5 matches following COD World League rule-set. Tune in LIVE at the College COD Twitch.
CCL Season One general information, rules, brackets, participants and results can be all found on College COD Esportspedia. You may follow College Call of Duty on Discord and Twitter.
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Featured Image courtesy of College Call of Duty
Special thanks to Itzz_Aos for providing the clips used.
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