All The Key Moments You May Have Missed During CDL Stage 1
The first major of the Call of Duty League 2021 season kicked off on Wednesday, March 3, and runs through to Sunday, March 7, where the first champion of the year will be crowned. There is $500,000 up for grabs at each of the five majors that take place this year, with first-place taking home $200,000.
With the league being split into five stages, and each stage features two unique groups of six franchise teams, it creates the possibility for many storylines to develop throughout the course of the season and heading into Champs at the end of the season. There are three weeks of regular league matches, with each team playing five matches, before heading into each major.
The first three weeks of the 2021 CDL Season were action-packed, and it ended with the Call of Duty League Super Week following the severe weather issues that Texas experienced. During this time, there were some notable moments that could create long-lasting stories and rivalries that run further than just this season.
The Dallas Empire And LA Thieves Rivalry Is Cemented
The potential of this rivalry between the new franchise entry, LA Thieves, and the current world champions, Dallas Empire, sparking was incredibly high. It didn’t take long for it to materialise, as the two were placed into Group A together for Stage 1. The league organisers obviously knew this was a massive talking point, and it was the final game to take place before the major.
Click to enlargeHeading into the match, LA Thieves were top of Group A, and were expected to put up a great fight against Dallas, but the Dallas Empire managed to complete a 3-0 sweep and lock themselves in as first seed for the Major.
Although it was a 3-0 sweep, the series was much closer than the scoreline suggests.
- Hardpoint: Dallas won 250-212
- Search & Destroy: Dallas won 6-5
- Control: Dallas won 3-1
The rivalry hit a new level when the owner of Team Envy, who are the parent company of the Dallas Empire franchise, Mike "Hastr0" Rufail, decided to throw some jabs about on Twitter, which resulted in several 100 Thieves members getting involved.
This initially sparked a heated debate with Jordan "JKap" Kaplan, the LA Thieves coach who previously played under the Team Envy banner. This later resulted in JKap pushing out a Twitlonger, airing the issues he had with Hastr0 during his time as a player at Team Envy, which created another avenue of heated debate.
100 Thieves content creator Jack "Courage" Dunlop even got involved, having a back and forth discussion over the different business models both 100 Thieves and Team Envy are implementing.
Later in the day, the 100 Thieves founder, Matthew "Nadeshot" Haag, hopped on to gently stir the pot a bit more. So far, Hastr0 has been pushing the premise that 100 Thieves focus more on content and apparel sales than competing, and that he’d rather win championships for his Team Envy fans. Nadeshot played into this narrative when he put out the last say on the matter.
So, it’s evident that this will be an ongoing rivalry both in and out of the game over the course of this season. We had anticipated there would be ongoing battles between the LA Thieves, Dallas Empire, OpTic Chicago, and Atlanta FaZe as they’d be battling for top spots, but it seems the LA Thieves and Dallas Empire have decided to identify a clear rivalry and storyline early on for the 2021 CDL season.
Stage 1 Key Moments To Remember
We highlighted the biggest talking point from Stage 1 both in and out of the game above, but there were some still noteworthy matches and results that unfolded, paving an early path for how we can expect the Call of Duty League 2021 Season to play out.
Atlanta FaZe Silently Dominate Group B
With everything else that has been going on, it seems that the 1st place 5-0 record for Atlanta FaZe has somewhat gone under the radar. Maybe it’s because they were expected to do well, or other storylines have stolen the thunder; regardless, it’s worth highlighting.
The entire FaZe roster, including Tyler "aBeZy" Pharris, have been performing incredibly well. They clutched up a 3-2 victory against OpTic Chicago in Week 1, which was expected to be the biggest battle in the group, and continued with dominant performances against Florida Mutineers, Los Angeles Guerillas, Toronto Ultra, and they squeezed out another 3-2 win against the Paris Legion.
It feels like outside of the OpTic Chicago match, it’s been smooth sailing overall for Atlanta. There were hopes Florida would pose a threat, but they finished last in the group with just one win. This major will hopefully offer the opportunity for Atlanta FaZe to steal the spotlight.
Stage 1 Flops
With all competition taking place online, in a COVID affected industry, there are many reasons as to why teams could suffer slow starts this season. Despite this understanding, there were a couple of teams that just didn’t hit anywhere near their expectations.
The London Royal Ravens completely disappointed their fans with a tragic 0-5 record in Group A. Yes, they had LA Thieves, Dallas Empire and the upcoming New York Subliners in their group, but they were still expected to put up a fight and get a couple of wins. They came close in 3-2 defeats against Seattle Surge and Dallas Empire, which provided glimmers of hope, but outside of those matches, they had a map count of 1-9 in their three other series.
Click to enlargeThe Seattle Surge didn’t hit the mark, but certainly have the potential to get things back on track. We had featured them as a game to watch against LA Thieves, as they have a stacked roster that has won Championships in the past and has the quality and potential to win more. The major will act as a true test to see if they can clutch up when needed most.
Are the Florida Mutineers dead in the water after Stage 1? Not quite yet, but the season could quickly become doom and gloom for the franchise that were hoping to kick start their hopes this season. Last year they were inconsistent but picked up some Home Series wins. Coming into this year, this rejuvenated the roster, but started 1-4 in Stage 1. There’s time for them to make improvements, and everyone is expecting them to do just that.
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Franchises With A Breath Of Fresh Air
Really quickly, it’s worth including both the Minnesota ROKKR and the New York Subliners as honourable mentions for franchises that have managed to turn things around in a positive manner. They both found themselves in Group A, and both finished with 3-2 records. New York beat Minnesota 3-0, but on the flip side, Minnesota managed to defeat the current World Champions 3-2.
Both of these franchises were expected to be mid-table teams pushing to try and break into that top four stronghold by the Dallas Empire, LA Thieves, Atlanta FaZe and OpTic Chicago. They’ve made a good start to this, and former Dallas Empire player James "Clayster" Eubanks being on the New York Subliners roster, creates even more potential for storylines and drama as the season progresses.
Images via Call of Duty League