Call Of Duty League 2022 Major I/Day 1 takeaways — The roar of the crowd

It’s time to talk about the first day of Major I! We didn’t necessarily have many upsets, but we certainly had plenty of great matches across the board. I’ll take two 3-0s and two 3-2s any day. I’ll let you guess who those were, now jump into our takeaways!

London Royal Ravens vs Los Angeles Guerrillas

• That opening Hardpoint couldn’t have been any closer. The 249 point break could have been devastating to any young team, and I’ve seen teams (Optic on Gavutu versus Boston) panic and just throw bodies at the point. London realized their situation, knew they had time to reset and set up, and made the right decisions. Good veteran plays by a young team.
• Man, for all the poise of the delayed hit on the Hardpoint they abandoned it in the Search and Destroy. Sure, they took it to the wire, 5-6, but they lost two 4v2s that shouldn’t have been choked. This should have been a 6-3 or 6-4, but they kept ending up with unfortunate timing and lost 1v1 gunfights.
• You’d have never thought the Ravens were down 2-1 going into Berlin with the way they destroyed LAG in the Hardpoint. I was concerned on if they wouldn’t go out 3-1 because of the two Berlins (which they lost in the previous match), and it was looking like it may play out similarly. But they shook off the Control and put Los Angeles in the 100 point club behind Gismo’s 26/16 stat line.

We go to a map 5

London map 4: pic.twitter.com/7Xa6dYt7a3

— Breaking Point (@GGBreakingPoint) March 3, 2022

• The Berlin S&D was won by some great awareness and plays by Huke, Asim, and Gunless. Huke had several multi-kills that turned rounds, Asim’s ace was just fun to watch, and Gunless shooting one and snapping around to kill the other was just a showcase of what these guys have ingrained into them.
• What in the crap was that Control? Down 2-0 and taking a punch in the mouth with one of the cleanest and fastest offenses on Gavutu this season, the Guerrillas looked to be dead in the water. Then they suddenly roared back to life, winning the defense, barely winning an offense they had no right in winning via SlasheR and Huke’s incredible B positioning, and we were in round 5. No clue how they did it, but they had defense, and it’s a tough ask on this map to win an offense, even though London did it so well in the opening round. It was close, but Huke again made some great plays and they were up 2-1.
• For all of the fight we saw out of them, the Guerrillas just couldn’t match the Ravens ferocity on Berlin Hardpoint with a 250-98 shellacking, and then were knocked down to losers via a Desert Siege 6-3. On the Berlin in particular it really seemed like it shouldn’t have been so lopsided, but the Ravens are too strong at breaking hills, making the early rotations by LAG feel like they didn’t matter. You can’t just get there first, you have to hold it, and unfortunately Los Angeles wasn’t able to deal with how mixy London made it.

Boston Breach vs Atlanta Faze

• Bocage is ridiculous for Faze. Yeah, the score was way closer than you want, but clean up the hill time a bit and it was a dominant showing. Simp went on a 7 spree right at the start, and his 46/30 was the MVP performance we were looking for from him. Not to be outdone, Cellium had 33 and aBeZy had 39. Bocage be crazy.
• Speaking of ridiculous, Simp was on fire the entire time. He dropped the 40 bomb in the Hardpoint, he made the big plays in the S&D, and then he had 42 kills in only 4 rounds of Control. If this is the gear we’ll see all major long, give them the trophy.
• When you have a dominant performance like this there’s not a lot to be able to say given we only say three maps, and one of those was a repeat. But this was the showing you wanted to see if you’re a fan. It was a reminder that they’re still the reigning champions.

The 1v2 DISRESPECT ☠️@SimpXO | #EZAF | #CDL2022 pic.twitter.com/oI0iqRh6C0

— Call of Duty League (@CODLeague) March 3, 2022

• For Boston, at least you kept it close. They aren’t in their league, they’re the eighth seed for a reason, but it never seemed like they were just getting destroyed. I’d liken it more to being out punched.
• Cap is a big boi and he kept making big plays. If not for the rest of his squad losing engagements every time he’d get a multi-kill they might have made it a 3-1 or 3-2.
• I do question the thought behind Breach’s map vetoes. Yes, Boston is an aggressive team and can get under your skin, which you could tell they did versus Atlanta. But Bocage and Tuscan across the board? Those are some of Faze’s strongest maps and you have to think they were salivating.

Toronto Ultra vs Los Angeles Thieves

• The Ultra turned around the previous Tuscan S&D loss with a tense 6-2. The scoreline might read like it was easy, but it was far from that. We had an exciting moment where CleanX nearly clutched a 1v1, but the real swing round was the 2-2 tie that Insight broke with a 1v3. His awareness to check almost every corner gave them the momentum to roll from there.
• We probably buried Toronto too quickly. Cammy wasn’t feeling well during their two game slump, and he was also playing a role he wasn’t comfortable in, and that affected them in S&D. Switching him back to flex and letting Insight pick up the sniper not only paid dividends, you can say very easily it won them the map.
• We’re going to spend this entire section talking about Toronto’s side of the S&D’s, and for good reason. Insight was insane with the sniper, going on a spree and picking up streaks along with taking Octane out of the equation. While that was the winning formula, the winning play was Bance’s veteran move. He saw the bomb get planted, but instead of shooting at Envoy as he ran away and only catching him with a few bullets, he ran up to immediately start defusing. His teammates ran interference, and before you knew it the game was Ultras.

.@ZooMaa @GstaAsim @DylanEnvoy & @Enable pic.twitter.com/QSR83nsoAM

— ????????Kenny (@Kuavo) February 23, 2022

• Kenny said it, don’t play them on Gavutu. In all fairness, Toronto doesn’t have any tape on the map, and they played it tougher than Paris, but the Thieves backed up their claims.
• The Hardpoints were definitely the best we saw out of LAT. What was really insane was watching them beat up Toronto on Berlin, a map we largely assumed Ultra was fantastic on. Envoy certainly gave it his all in the mode, with 59 kills and a positive +19 stat line.
• That Desert Siege is a heartbreaker, but in the S&Ds we saw an incredibly poor effort from LAT. In the end, Envoy was +1, Octane was -4, Kenny was -4, and Drazah was -6. The biggest issue was pace, once Toronto started dictating the flow it slowed the Thieves down, which didn’t work for them.

Seattle Surge vs Optic Texas

• Seattle gave it their all in the Bocage Hardpoint, but after the halfway mark they lost steam. You could see that happening even in the first go around before the replay. Seattle has to figure out how to get Sib (-19 kills) and Pred (a quiet +5 kills) rocking again or their toast at this Major.
• The tough breaks kept coming with a despondent S&D. Accuracy did his best, +4 kills and another icy clutch, to keep his guys in it, but the rest of the squad went -10 kills. You just can’t win with those numbers.
• They really tried their best to make it to another Hardpoint by win the Control, and even grabbed a 2-1 advantage. But you’ve got to win an offense or grab the defense in the last round, and they just couldn’t make it happen.

Inder is INSIDE his monitor. #OpTicTexas #CDL2022

— Sean Collins (@seanzcollins) March 4, 2022

• Optic Texas definitely took the home field advantage and ran with it. The crowd was screaming their praise the entire time, and it’s a huge edge to hold, especially with Faze on the docket.
• Having a Shotzzy also helps. The phenom went 41/30 on Bocage, keeping his signature pace rolling through the replay. If you want to beat Optic, you’re going to have to slow down Shotzzy, and that’s not an easy task.
• You almost thought Optic might drop a round once Mack’s big 3 piece took the wind out of their sails on the Tuscan Control round 3. But they stayed the course and forced the round 5, and as soon as they got defense you knew it was over. Dashy’s 40/20, 2.00 KD also helped, just a bit.

Stay tuned to Gaming Trend for our takeaways as Major I continues, and we’ll do our best to bring you content here and on our YouTube channel! You can follow the league both live and after hours on the official Call Of Duty League YouTube channel right here. If you want to jump into the game, check out CallOfDuty.com, and if you want to know more about it first, check out our review right here.

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