The Chicago Huntsmen had a successful CDL New York. Chicago emerged with a second-place finish after falling to New York in the finals. The Huntsmen earned more CDL points than the Atlanta FaZe, a crucial move to secure a top-two seed. Chicago still have some work to do after getting swept in the finals last weekend.
Courtesy of Cynopsis
Domination is arguably the Huntsmen’s biggest area with room to grow. Consistently scrimming Domination ahead of CDL Toronto is paramount to the Huntsmen winning a title. Their gameplay has been extremely volatile and shaky over the past few tournaments. Chicago are often giving up map control early which contributes to them trailing at the half. Chicago either spread themselves too thin or lose all of the gun fights and quickly find themselves in a hole. Losing positioning on the map also makes it harder for the Huntsmen to spread out on the map. It cuts off various lanes on the map and causes the Huntsmen to funnel through choke points.
Similar to their Search and Destroy early in the season, the slow starts in Domination have lasting impacts throughout the map. Recently, Chicago often heads into the half with a deficit. Combining this with little map control early creates quite the uphill battle for Chicago. To win the map of Domination the Huntsmen often have to play nearly perfect Call of Duty, which is quite difficult for any team to accomplish. The Huntsmen need to get going in the first half to successfully ride the strong momentum they build up.
The Huntsmen’s communication could be marginally improved in addition to scrimming Domination more. There are times where Chicago are disorganized on the map over the past few events. Sometimes a hero play will bail them out, but when this fails, the team starts to struggle. It has been an issue in Hardpoint and Domination primarily.
The lack of communication is driving Chicago’s volatile maps in Hardpoint. It is most evident in the Huntsmen’s sluggish rotations at times. A fair bit of the time Chicago are still getting out-rotated but rely on superior gun skill to get into the hill. The Huntsmen need to communicate more to orchestrate team pushes. The Huntsmen are still the best Hardpoint team in the game right now, but even cleaner communication could lead to Chicago winning even more of their Hardpoint games.
Domination is where the Huntsmen really need better communication. The best example was against the New York Subliners in last week’s Knockout Round. The Huntsmen were down 12 points in the second half and held both A&B flags. Chicago decided to spread themselves thin and go for a triple cap rather than hold A&B. This move ultimately cost Chicago the map due to overextending. If the communication was slightly better, situations like this will be avoided moving forward.
Courtesy of the Call of Duty League
While the aforementioned points are important, it is more important to remember how well the Huntsmen are playing. It is imperative Chicago use the momentum they built up from CDL New York and carry that into CDL Toronto. Between the meta and roster change, Chicago appear to have hit their stride. They put on a show at CDL New York aside from the finals. Chicago cannot lose sight of how well they are performing
Chicago are arguably in the best form they have been in all season. The question asked all season was “can Chicago beat the Atlanta FaZe?” The Huntsmen absolutely crushed FaZe showing they have exactly what it takes to be the best team in the CDL. This win also gave the Huntsmen more CDL points than Atlanta which edged them closer to the first seed at Champs.
Last weekend Chicago proved how much they have improved. Posting a Search and Destroy record of 4-1 is a feat they would have never accomplished early in the season. Additionally, they absolutely crushed the Atlanta FaZe 6-1 in the Search and Destroy. The best Search and Destroy team stood no match against Chicago last weekend. It is imperative the Huntsmen use this momentum and come in calm, cool and collected at CDL Toronto.
Featured image courtesy of MLG
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