The Rivalries That Make Up the CDL

After the first week of the CDL, there is no doubt that there seems to be some animosity between different teams. The development of rivalries has already begun, and here is a breakdown of the different rivalries that have already come up.

Already Set Rivalries

Chicago Huntsmen and Dallas Empire

Image courtesy of the CDL

This will be the rivalry to watch this season. These two teams met for the first game of the CDL, and there is no doubt that them meeting will be explosive every time. This can be attributed to the long history that exists between Seth “Scump” Abner and Ian “Crimsix” Porter. Both players hail from old H3CZ’s OpTic from last season. Crimsix claimed Scump to be ridiculously immature, and Scump said that Crimsix was an awful teammate. This, in addition to the reuniting of Scump and the other half of the T2P duo Matthew “FormaL” Piper, means this matchup will be fiery for the rest of the season.

Florida Mutineers and Seattle Surge

This rivalry doesn’t have anything to do with bad blood between the teams. Rather, it has to do with the branding of the two teams, and even the Mutineers acknowledged it. Both the Surge and the Mutineers are branded with aquatic themes, and their hashtags are both water themed. The Mutineers have picked up #LetsGetKracken and #FearTheDeep. The Surge got #DrownThemOut. After the event, the Mutineers twitter acknowledged the growing rivalry.

Minnesota ROKKR and Toronto Ultra

This is the battle of the North. The Seattle Surge twitter posted a video poking fun at both Toronto and Minnesota for being farther south than Seattle, but still the Battle of the North will still hold. Not much else would really constitute the rivalry, but still a little regional rivalry never hurt anybody, and should spice up the season this year.

Paris Legion and London Royal Ravens

This rivalry doesn’t have any blood, but one might think so with what was going on during the match this past weekend. Despite their region, not much else seems to hold this rivalry together. However, it seems the Legion are taking it extremely seriously. During an Astro Gaming listen in at the very end of the match, the Legion non-stop trash talked the Royal Ravens, calling them trash and bad at the game, among many expletives. Similar to how Scump and FormaL acted at the end of the match against Dallas, the Paris Legion were run up with their 3-0 sweep against the Royal Ravens.

Rivalries That May Take Form

Chicago Huntsmen and OpTic Gaming LA

This rivalry is one that was mentioned by one of the castors. This comes from more potential bad blood, or mainly just old teammates. Scump and FormaL are both former OpTic players. Both Thomas “TJHaLy” Haly and Brandon “Dashy” Otell played for OpTic alongside Scump. However, OpTic’s performance last weekend suggests that there won’t be much of a rivalry to really exist.