Call Of Duty League 2022 Major II/Day 2 takeaways — The best purple emerges

After a freakish day of 3-0s, we finally got a few additional maps in. Sure, we did end on a 3-0, but the second day of the Call Of Duty League Major II presented by Mountain Dew was filled with stellar matches. There’s a lot to cover, so let’s get right to it.

Paris Legion vs London Royal Ravens

• What’s somewhat surprising in this 3-1 loss is how well Paris outslayed London. Sure, plenty of it came in the Control, but this team was frying, and they only missed the Game 5 by two points. Imagine if the Legion played in the same facility!
• Speaking of the Control, what a great performance by them. Paris was +32 in kills, with Jimbo going off to the tune of a 1.79 KD. Him and GRVTY both earned glide bombs, and though GRVTY’s wasn’t able to help them cap the round 4 offense, Jimbo’s helped them clean off the point in the round 5 defense and set up the win.
• Another last place finish, but you have to feel like this team isn’t just punching above their weight like in the last Major. Jimbo and GRVTY are both rolling, Temp has been lights out, and John goes on stretches where he can tip the scales of a game. Don’t kick the tires on anyone else, keep this squad together and improvement will continue.

• Nice rebound by London, although Paris certainly made them work for it. In the Hardpoints, the break potential this team has straight up won them both of these ones, along with a defining two piece at Fountain by Gismo to give them the clearance to grab the 250-248 on Tuscan.
• Things did get a little scary on the Bocage Search and Destroy, with London going up 4-1 before Paris clawing back to make it 4-3. GRVTY tried his best to make it mixy, taking a 1v3 down to a 1v1, but Zero made the veteran plays to stop the comeback, with an 11/4 scoreline that gave them the 6-4 victory.
• I’m really unsure how London got absolutely handled on the Control. Gavutu is one of their better maps, they’re 7-4 on it. Even though this one made it to the round 5, it felt like Paris bullied them. Besides Afro being even at 27/27, the rest of the squad couldn’t do better than a .73 KD. It was worse than it looked.

Toronto Ultra vs Los Angeles Guerrillas

• Insight just keeps clutching. In all fairness, there is no reason he should have grabbed the victory in the 1v3, but he played patient and LAG made a bunch of bad reads and got too antsy for their own good. It’s never chalked when he’s still alive on the map.
• The Hardpoint woes just keep on going. I don’t know what’s not working for Toronto, they should be a great team, but they can’t buy a HP win right now. (get into year numbers)
• We’ve said it for a few weeks now, but the Ultra are going to have to go home and think about how to fix things. They’ve been awful, and I’m not sure if you can just blame COVID for everything. Vanguard just might not be their game, and it’s up to them to do some serious soul searching to figure out how to rebound in the second half.

• I kept screaming at LAG to get on the point, and it’s only because they were handling Toronto that they came away with the W on the opening Tuscan. It was somewhat infuriating to watch them need 2 points for the win and give up the Command hill with 20 seconds left. They then set up for P1 at Fields, and immediately got broke. After that, they lost spawns, had to regain them for P2 at Tower, and finally grabbed the then 1 point to pull it off. Just no bueno.
• For all the screaming at them on the Tuscan Hardpoint, they played the crap out of the Berlin. Asim was the hero of the map, with an incredible 32/22, including an amazing 5 piece next to P2 that had the crowd roaring.
• The sensational substitute in Spart has set the world on fire with his meta-shifting Volk, but he also had a good series today to help secure the win. Spart finished with the highest KD, a 1.12, and led the lobby with 12,453 in damage. If he keeps this up, at least one pro CDL team will be calling LAG about buying that contract.

Los Angeles Thieves vs New York Subliners

• Holy reverse sweep Batman! After the first two maps I’m pretty sure we all wrote off the Thieves, but credit to them, they never stopped fighting. Here’s the thing, New York was slaying them, but Los Angeles made the more impactful plays that changed the tone.
• I don’t know that anything was more impactful than Drazahs spree to clutch the round 5 offense in the Tuscan Control. He got on the B point and got 3 kills to give them the toughest capture first, then sprinted towards A. He caught Neptune crossing mid, then backtracked through Church to catch Crimsix in the door. By that point New York was too little too late getting to the point, and the map was the beginning of the comeback.
• They move on to play Optic tomorrow in what should be a good match. This one went to a Game 5 in the online matchup, but both teams had separate trajectories from that moment, Optic 5-0, and Thieves 0-5. You have to think some of this roster is playing for a spot, because if they manage the upset it’s harder to cut anyone going into Major III.

• You feel bad because New York played this so well at the start. They were hitting the rotations, breaking the hills, getting the kills, and winning in man down spots. But too many mistakes will cost you, and in the end the Subliners just made too many of them. I can’t fault them too much though, this roster has only been together 5 matches and they’ve largely played well considering the circumstances.
• One spot they have to be better is being at a disadvantage. In that last S&D they were constantly being picked off and put in 3v4 situations and having to clutch. Neptune had an incredible 1v3 that showed some real patience and maturity, but he shouldn’t have to be in that scenario. Playing smarter, not harder, is something this team can grow into as they continue to compete together.
• It’s frustrating, because this really should have been a 3-0. Sure, Drazah made a monster play and LAT made some great decisions in hitting B, but New York got out positioned pretty badly in that final Tuscan round. It’s not impossible on these maps to grab offensive wins, but it’s not easy. Getting the defense shouldn’t have felt so unfavorable for New York.

Minnesota Rokkr vs Optic Texas

• In the end the home crowd wasn’t enough to keep them in this one. It was a tough ask, going against the best team in the game who had to be angry to get knocked out in the first round, but for the most part Minnesota had the favorable conditions. This team has some talent, but you have to think some roster changes will have to happen for them to be competitive.
• I wouldn’t take Standy off the team, but him and his running mate Priestahh got slaughtered in this one. They combined for a 146/180 statline, – 34 kills, and a .81 KD. As obvious as it is, the Priestahh SMG experiment hasn’t really worked.
• Right on queue, the Hardpoints were abysmal for this squad. They only put up 144 and 163 points in the losses, and they got their butts handed to them in the slaying department. Both of these maps were long range too, and they let Shotzzy off all people slap them around with an MP-40. Not good, and a point of emphasis for them heading into Major III.

• This is closer to what we figured we’d see from Optic in the first match. Sure, it’s a weaker squad in Minnesota, but beating them down in the Hardpoints was a needed thing for Optic. Shotzzy getting back to form on Gavutu and Berlin should be even scarier for teams having to face them.
• iLLeY has been oddly silent at Major II, but maybe he doesn’t have to slay out. His call outs and presence steady this team, and he tends to set them up for success with his rotations. That being said, it wouldn’t hurt for his KD to be a bit better. It was only a .86 versus the Rokkr while none of his teammates had less than a 1.08.
• Optic had either the Subliners or the Thieves to face heading into the next match, and while I doubt they pose a serious threat, I’d have to say you’d prefer the Subliners. Los Angeles has some beef right now after going 0-5 in the qualifiers, they just reverse swept New York, and of course, Envoy might be a good counter to Scump. If I’m Optic, I know I have to tread carefully in this game, because any mistakes might be fatal.

London Royal Ravens vs Los Angeles Guerrillas

• I think I speak for everyone in saying we didn’t expect London to get bounced this easily. They finished 4-1 even with a substitute, and the only loss was to Faze. The inconsistencies on LAN are infuriating, but even worse is that they only beat Paris where they at least made the losers final last Major. Can they figure out their shortcomings? Or have they already peaked?
• The Berlin Hardpoint was especially disappointing, because they largely had the lead by 30/40 points into the second rotation of hills. But they allowed the Guerrillas to break them and hold long stretches in P3 and P4, leading to them taking a lead they wouldn’t relinquish. It’s worse when you see London outslayed them by 11 kills, and the best breaking team in the league quite literally couldn’t get a break in the final rotations.
• The absolute worst section of this match for the Royal Ravens was falling apart on the Tuscan S&D. They couldn’t do anything right, losing 6-0. For all he did versus Florida, Zero wasn’t as impactful, with only 5 kills for an even scoreline. In fact, his was the best, with his whole team only mustering 12 kills… TOTAL.

• I don’t envy the loser of Seattle vs Atlanta. They have to face the Guerrillas, and even if LAG did drop versus Boston, they’ve been a powerhouse in this lower bracket. They’re playing hard, playing well, and they want to keep winning for Gunless (a starter out due to sickness). We’ll see if they were riding the high yesterday, but they are peaking at the right time.
• Spart just came to play and show off his skill this tournament. The 64/61 score doesn’t accurately display his impact; I watched his clutch multi-kills give them the final points they needed to win the Berlin HP, and then he went insane on the Tuscan S&D. Him and SlasheR were in a 2v4, and his killing the bomb planter, then rotating to somehow grab a second kill gave SlasheR the chance to kill the last player. Not only that, he earned the glide bomb with that last one. That 6-0 was all Spart.
• Speaking of SlasheR, he again had a great game with some great reads. You can see him finally getting comfortable on the map, making veteran plays in the savvy way a veteran can. He’ll need to keep it up, because either Accuracy or Arcitys are heading his way next.

Don’t forget that there are loser’s bracket matches not set yet, and since we don’t know what they will be we can’t predict then. Because of that, we’ll be only doing takeaways as we progress through days 3 & 4. Stay tuned to Gaming Trend for our takeaways as Major II 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.

See below for our list of partners and affiliates: