Predicting How The Call of Duty League Playoffs Bracket Will Play Out

With each passing day the Call of Duty League Playoffs inch nearer and nearer. The biggest event in Call of Duty history has lost some lustre due to the online format, but nevertheless, it’s an exciting time to be a COD esports fan. The Playoffs event is perhaps the most competitive in the esports’ history, as the bracket is chock-full of enticing matchups and potential upsets. As such, we thought it would be a fun idea to predict how the bracket would play out. We’ll be predicting how every match will go from the winners bracket to the losers bracket. Let’s get into it and see who could be left standing at the end of Call of Duty Champs. 

The CDL Playoffs bracket 

The bracket for this year’s postseason event works a little differently than previous years. For the first time, there are no pools, only a winners and losers bracket. The seeding for each team is based upon their points accumulated from regular season play. The top four squads earn a bye, or two, and the bottom four teams are immediately thrust into the losers bracket and lose the double-elimination perk. 

For our bracket, we laid out who will win each matchup and then decided a winner. You can view the bracket in the image below.

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As you can see, we have the Atlanta FaZe and Chicago Huntsmen in the grand finals with no major upset in the final four teams remaining. However, that doesn’t mean that certain underdogs pull off some significant upsets earlier in the bracket. Allow us to explain further why particular predictions were made. 

To start, there are no major surprises in the first half of the bracket. The higher seeded team wins almost every matchup in the first half, with the Rokkr and Royal Ravens dropping to the losers bracket while the L.A. Guerrillas and Paris Legion bow out after one series. Moving on to the next section, the only major upset is that OpTic Gaming L.A. defeats the Minnesota Rokkr. This is fairly predictable, however, as O.G. has been hot recently and the Rokkr have struggled mightily. 

Moving on, the next section is where things get spicy. First off, the top four seeds battle it out in the winners bracket, with Atlanta and Dallas besting Chicago and Florida. In the losers bracket, we have OpTic continuing its string of upsets by defeating the New York Subliners. OpTic simply would have too much momentum for New York by then, and the roster has been playing much better as of late. 

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Nearing the end of the bracket, FaZe defeats the Empire in a close series. Atlanta has proven it has what it takes to defeat Dallas and we feel as though they have the better roster overall. Down in the losers bracket, we have the most exciting series of the tournament in OpTic vs Chicago. Of course, there’s the obvious history between the two rosters and the Huntsmen are looking for revenge. While we think it will be close, Chicago has too much firepower and hunger for O.G. to handle. 

The last part of the bracket leaves us with the top four teams in the tournament. First up, there’s the Florida and Chicago match. Again, this should be an extremely close match, but the experience on the Huntsmen is enough to allow them to prevail. This sets up another blood match between Dallas and Chicago. Truthfully, this series could go either way. However, the Huntsmen’s momentum would be at an all-time high after making a crazy losers bracket run, and Dallas would have only played two series up to this point. It seems more likely momentum will prevail over talent, which the Empire arguably has more of.

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At last, we have our final with Atlanta vs Chicago. The two most recognized names in Call of Duty esports go head-to-head in the inaugural CDL Championships. The two squads are closely matched with Atlanta having a bit more talent. However, the Huntsmen did trounce them at CDL New York, so talent might not mean a whole lot in this series. As previously stated, Chicago would possess all the momentum, and that could hurt FaZe. After all, Atlanta would be a little cold after not playing as much throughout the weekend. 

Although, we feel like FaZe has too much skill for Chicago to overcome. In a close 3-2 victory, we predict that Atlanta will defeat Chicago in the grand finals of Call of Duty Champs. It’s a fitting end for the inaugural CDL season and sets up some great storylines heading into 2021.

Images via CODLeague