CDL 2021 - The Winners And Losers Of Each Game Mode So Far

The opening week of the 2021 Call of Duty League (CDL) is over, and there is plenty to look at and dive into now that we have seen all of this season’s competitors in action; we have a grasp of the team’s preferred game modes.

Just like the inaugural season of the CDL, teams must battle it out over three game modes; Hardpoint, Search and Destroy, and this year’s new addition, Control. The new mode has replaced Capture the Flag and has so far divided opinion amongst the community, with the pros allegedly not happy with the new mode either.

Control Winners - LA Thieves

Despite the misgivings about Control, it has proved to be a winner for a few teams, with LA Thieves having some success across their two matches of the opening weekend.

The Thieves successful start to the season has surprised a few, but in their impressive victory over the Minnesota ROKKR, the Thieves pulled off an impressive Control victory that helped them cruise to a 3-1 overall victory.

Their ability to spawn trap the ROKKR and defend the zones was crucial to the team picking up the Control victory as they headed for a potential match-winner in the next round of the matchup.

Control Losers - LA Guerrillas

From one LA team to another. It wasn’t easy watching if you’re a LA Guerrillas fan. The Guerrillas were easily swept aside in their opening matchup by Atlanta FaZe and had to squeeze out a game five victory over the low ranked Paris Legion, and the Guerrillas really struggled with the new game mode.

Despite taking a round of Control off FaZe, the Guerrillas struggled to get any time in the zones and had to rely on defence to steal the round from Atlanta, and they just couldn’t get it done over the Legion either and lost their game of Control in that matchup as well.

• Related - CDL 2021 - Week 2 Game to Watch

Moving away from Control, some of the more interesting games from the opening weekend came from Hardpoint.

Hardpoint Winners - Toronto Ultra

Undoubtedly the team that look the best on Hardpoint so far is the Toronto Ultra. They will cause some of this season’s top teams’ big problems with their Hardpoint games, and they certainly don’t look like they’ll be dropping their flawless record on their favoured game mode any time soon.

Their success on this mode came from their ability to control the spawns well. They kept the Florida Mutineers far away from the capture point and came away with two dominant Hardpoint wins in their four-game matchup against the Mutineers.

Tobias "CleanX" Juul Jønsson was the MVP for the Ultra, coming up with two 4000 damage games finishing the latter with a very tasty 36 kills and 21 deaths.

Hardpoint Losers - Paris Legion

The Paris Legion took a beating in their opening weekend matchups. An unfavourable clash with OpTic Chicago was first on the cards before they took on LA Guerrillas in their second match of the weekend. Losing both matches puts the Legion right at the bottom of the rankings and heading into the Super Week with their tails between their legs.

The European side really struggled with their Hardpoint games. They were on the receiving end of an OpTic smackdown in their very first game and lost it by almost 150 points. This, combined with the fact that every member of the OpTic roster managed to finish the game with a positive kill/death ratio, shows that Paris have some work to do.

The small saving grace for the Legion came with a Hardpoint win over Guerrillas in the fourth game of their head-to-head, but even then, they could not rack up a large point lead in the game.

Fan favourite Search and Destroy rounds off this year’s game modes, and it brought out some competitive and entertaining games over the course of the opening weekend.

Search and Destroy Winners - Minnesota ROKKR

Without a doubt, the Search and Destroy champions of the weekend were the Minnesota ROKKR. They blew out both the Thieves and the Dallas Empire in their favoured game mode, and despite losing to the Thieves, overall, Minnesota wiped the floor with them on Miami.

Lamar “Accuracy” Abedi and Preston “Priestahh” Greiner pulling out some lovely moves as the ROKKR’s revamped roster proved that they are going to be the team to beat on Search and Destroy.

The highlight of the weekend for Minnesota fans was their victory over the Empire. They dealt with Dallas comfortably on Moscow, winning the game six rounds to three in the first Search and Destroy game before improving again to beat the defending champions six rounds to two, and if you've not seen it yet, it's worthwhile watching them do it.

Search and Destroy Losers - OpTic Chicago

It really wasn’t a good weekend for OpTic Chicago when it came to Search and Destroy. Their marquee matchup with Atlanta FaZe was the mouth-watering clash that many fans were looking forward to, and the games were evenly matched until it came to Search and Destroy.

FaZe absolutely smashed OpTic in both matches of Search, beating them by a combined round count of 12-1. That doesn’t make for good reading, especially when considering how dominant Tyler "aBeZy" Pharris was throughout both games.

OpTic will be looking to go to the finals this year, but they could fall short again if they don’t improve on their search game.

With the opening weekend done and dusted, the competition will now move onto Super Week, which will see matches slated for weeks two and three combined into one enormous week of CDL matchups.

 

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