CDL Week One - Thieves Steal The Show
After an exciting first week back for teams in the CDL, fans were gifted with some shocking upsets and jaw-dropping moments that, without a doubt, were the perfect way to begin season two.
Here are some of the biggest storylines of the weekend.
The Thieves steal the show
After coming into the weekend with an underwhelming preseason and a few scrims that left fans questioning the roster already, expectations were definitely low for the LA Thieves coming into the opening weekend of the regular season. However, to the surprise of many, the Thieves came out hot this weekend and managed to win both of their series, well and truly raising the eyebrows of the community and potentially throwing their name in the hat for one of the best teams in the game.
Coming in as underdogs in their first game of the weekend against Minnesota ROKKR, the LA Thieves came out hot, showing their seemingly superior respawn gameplay, winning all three maps on respawn game modes and looking good whilst doing it. Led by Donovan “Temp” Laroda, the latest acquisition on the LA Thieves roster, Temp showed why he was picked up by the team, averaging a 1.16 K/D throughout the series, followed closely behind by Kenneth “Kenny” Williams with a 1.13 K/D.
In the second series of the weekend for the Thieves, they managed to close out the New York Subliners in possibly one of the closest 3-0 games of all time, with every single match resting on a knife’s edge up until the final seconds. Although, showing their composure and championship pedigree, LA managed to clutch up on all three maps and place themselves at the top of the CDL standings after week one on the back of another excellent Kenny performance in which he dropped 16 kills in the Search and Destroy to secure them the round 11 map two victory.
Click to enlargeCracks in the Empire?
Coming into the weekend as a clear top three team with a full year of experience playing together already, people expected the Dallas Empire to start hot during season two of the CDL. This looked like something that would continue following the first matchup of the weekend for the Empire after they managed to clean sweep the Seattle Surge 3-0 in a convincing game for the team.
Although, the cracks began to show in their second match of the week against the Minnesota ROKKR. Following the first games for both teams in which the ROKKR convincingly lost, and the Empire won easily, it would seem logical to expect Dallas Empire to easily win the match and finish the weekend at the top of the standings. However, as fans should know by now in Call Of Duty, nothing is ever set in stone, and the ROKKR proved this once again, coming out hot to take the series 3-2 and bouncing back after a disappointing first series.
For now, it is unclear whether the ROKKR just came out hot or if maybe the Empire won’t be the dominant force that they were last season. One thing is for sure, that will definitely be a very interesting storyline to follow throughout the season, to see if the Empire will fall.
Click to enlargeFaZe up, OpTic down
In the final series of the weekend, possibly the biggest rivalry in the CDL was put on show with Atlanta FaZe facing OpTic Chicago. The series definitely didn’t disappoint the fans, with the series going all the way to map five with FaZe eventually coming out on top in one of the best series of the weekend. However, whilst the series was definitely close in the respawn game modes, the Search and Destroy maps were definitely a major concern for the OpTic team, only managing to win one round over two maps on the game mode, including a demoralising 6-0 loss on Miami Search and Destroy on which legendary player Seth “Scump” Abner dropped zero kills on the map.
This series will definitely prove to be sweet for FaZe main AR player Alec “Arcitys” Sanderson, managing to get a win over his former teammates and putting up a respectable 1.02 K/D in the series. However, whilst his overall K/D may have been only 0.96, the star of the series for Atlanta FaZe was entry SMG player Tyler “aBeZy” Pharris. After taking over map two with multiple impactful rounds, aBeZy managed to keep FaZe in the series with a stunning map four performance on Moscow hardpoint, a map known early on as being difficult to play well on as an SMG player. Pharris rounded off map four with a crucial three-piece which secured FaZe the final few seconds of the map and took them to game five on their most comfortable game mode of Search and Destroy, on which they comfortably won.
Click to enlargeAfter an enthralling Atlanta homestand for week one, fans will be eager to continue watching the second season of the CDL, and whilst its difficult to predict which teams will come out on top, one thing that is for sure is that there will definitely be a lot of exciting Call Of Duty action to look out for heading into week two of the CDL.
Images via Activision | 100 Thieves