Crunch Time for the Chicago Huntsmen

For another week, the Chicago Huntsmen are champions with a target on their back. Off of just four days of practice, it appears the new roster is meshing better than before. The victory at CDL Seattle provided the Huntsmen with enough CDL points to launch them back into first. Although the team looked great, there are some areas the Huntsmen can sharpen ahead of CDL Minnesota next weekend. Making improvements will be imperative as all top five teams will be in attendance. The bottom line is it is crunch time for the Huntsmen with just three events left until the end of the season as teams are vying for the top two seeds at Champs.

Smoothing out the Chaos

The move to add Prestinni to the Huntsmen’s roster is already paying dividends. Not only does his playstyle complement Chicago very well, but he is Arcitys’ best friend twin. The new chemistry the Huntsmen possess is refreshing as Chicago are frequently seen giving 110% in scrims, but also finding time to laugh and joke with one another. Prestinni is known for his phenomenal route running, high-speed gameplay and flanks. He admittedly creates chaos on the map with some of his routes. While this can certainly be advantageous, it also creates the potential to derail a map in the final moments.

Courtesy of Call of Duty League

With a week of practice under their belt and another ahead of the event, Chicago need to work on layering in the right amount of chaos into their gameplay. Prestinni’s route running creates confusion and derails balanced setups of his opponents. At CDL Seattle it was this chaos in the final moments against Paris Legion on Hackney Yard and Azhir Cave against the Minnesota ROKKR where the map could have gone either way. Lose just one more gunfight and Chicago’s championship run drastically changes. In the coming days, it is imperative Chicago adapt more to their new fifth starter. By slowly learning to adapt to the new respawn approach, Chicago will smooth out their Domination gameplay.

Return to Dominating

While Chicago’s Hardpoints were hectic, the team did not drop a Hardpoint map for the entirety of CDL Seattle. The chaos created on the map worked in their favor. Where the Huntsmen had less luck was in Domination. At times, Chicago was simply blown off the map. They struggled to get kills and coordinated pushes and there was simply too much happening on the map. Part of Chicago’s problem in Domination is the capture points are set at the start of the map. In Hardpoint the spawns are constantly flipping which reaps benefits for Prestinni’s playstyle. Unfortunately in Domination, the spawns are set to the three flags.

Heading into CDL Minnesota and the rest of the season, map three is key to Chicago’s success. It is more than likely Chicago will not win every Hardpoint at events. Additionally, a reliable map three is what helped drive Chicago’s early-season success. Taking the chaos Prestinni creates and channeling it will be paramount in Chicago winning its Domination games. At times the team was scattered and pushing solo which made the kill feed light up for the opposing team. It is worth noting Chicago admittedly did not get to scrim much Domination before the event. Nevertheless, ironing out their kinks in this game mode is pivotal to a successful end of the season.

Fortify Search and Destroy Gameplay

Courtesy of the Chicago Huntsmen

While statistically, Hardpoint was Chicago’s best game mode last weekend, the Huntsmen looked sharpest in S&D at CDL Seattle. Chicago set up great positioning on the maps and typically got a kill and escaped with their lives. Additionally, Chicago appeared to execute their game plans well. Even when the team lost the first gunfight, they did not panic and breakdown. The team stuck with the gameplan set out for each round and managed to execute more often than not. Chicago has continued to refine its Search and Destroy gameplay and are looking more and more consistent. A game mode that the Huntsmen struggled with earlier in the season could be their saving grace down the line.

Featured image courtesy of MLG

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