Another exciting week in CWL concluded on Thursday night. (Photo Courtesy: CWL)
Dream Team wants you to know it’s for real. DT was able to add to the résumé by beating one of the top teams on the CoD scene, Rise Nation.
It was business as usual for DT as they boast one of the more strange score lines in CoD Stage Two. Currently, DT is 5-1, somehow they’ve managed to be a top team despite only winning 15 of 26 maps played. The 15-11 (57.7%) map win/loss ratio ranks low amongst the top teams. FaZe Clan, Rise, and OpTic Gaming all have better percentages, yet they’re all below DT in the standings.
One thing that it does prove, SnD success is huge. If a team wins both SnD’s and can just scrape by in one of the respawns, they can be very successful. By the same note, if you rely too much on SnD, you could see losses stack up quickly; that’s what’s been facing 100 Thieves this season. Losing too often in CTF and Uplink, they’ve hindered all chances of being successful. For now, however, it’s working for DT.
In Thursday’s match, they weren’t flawless, losing the first SnD 6-1. They pulled off a big Hardpoint victory, 250-144. It had appeared as if Rise would be able to bounce back when they took the 6-1 SnD win. However, with a back-to-back win in Uplink, they would falter in CTF. That set up the dramatic game five.
The SnD would go in favor of DT 6-4. Overall, it was consistency that allowed Dream Team to win and move into a first-place tie with H2k. DT went 229-228 in kills, slightly edging Rise. The decisive game five SnD came down to a 1.33 K/D for DT and a .75 for rise. For Rise it was Classic underperforming, going 3-9 in the final game.
In the match of the week, it pitted the seventh and eighth place teams, the final two of the eight-team playoff field, Luminosity Gaming, and Team EnVyUs.
The first three maps between the pair appeared to be even, maybe even favoring LG at times. EnVyUs. LG was dominant in SnD and maintained close matches in Hardpoint and Uplink. But at the end of the night, it would all come down to CTF.
Slasher, John, and Apathy were all able to get flag pulls to put LG behind 3-0. John was slaying effectively, including a three-piece on flag defense while the rest of the team was down. Nobody on LG could play slayer well enough to get a rush going. It was apparent the EnVy wasn’t worried about LG near the end, burning streaks to prevent a single score from LG. They held on to win 3-1 on the night and secure them a 3-3 record to keep pace with eLevate in the CWL standings. Meanwhile, LG fell out of the top eight and that allows 100T to move into the top eight for the first time since the first matches of the stage.
Standings After Week Four
Looking ahead, most of the talk is surrounding the top five teams. The top five all appear to be heavy contenders heading into the Stage Two Finals. Moving on down the list, EnVy and eLv are two teams starting to find a little momentum, as we move forward either of those teams should begin competing for some name recognition.
100T, C9, and LG have all shown signs of hope. However, they all need to show a lot of improvement to advance in the finals. Team SoloMid and compLexity are both in need of a lot of help.
