Call Of Duty League 2022 Major III/Day 3 takeaways — Faze flexes, Thieves steal Optic’s Major hopes

The Call Of Duty League 2022 Major III powered by Bell is here and it looks incredible, hosted by Toronto Ultra at the magnificent looking Mattamy Athletic Centre. Well, some matches were more competitive than others, but I honestly expected more of today’s matches to go the distance. With most of the “chaff” sifted during yesterday’s elimination matches, the cream of the crop should rise to the top. We may have not gotten a single game 5, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t see any incredible Call Of Duty. Check out our thoughts on what we saw below.

Minnesota Rokkr vs Toronto Ultra

Actual: 3-0 Toronto Ultra

• This wasn’t a normal 3-0 in the slightest. Every hill was heavily contested, every round of Search and Destroy a battle, and a down to the wire Control. The issue Minnesota ran into was they just couldn’t find that next year and finish off Ultra. That led to a 3-0 score, but not necessarily a 3-0 game. I can’t even imagine how insane this series would have been if it made it the full 5.
• If they just could’ve had lightning strike twice on the Bocage Hardpoint. We had another one go to time, and with Minnesota waking up and taking the last P2 hill the teams were within seconds of each other with less than 20 on the game clock. But Toronto wisely were set up at P3, erasing the possibility of a second Minnesota miracle.
• Attach did well, but the rest of the crew had a tough day. What might be even tougher? Getting three glide bombs on Control and not landing one. It’s not just the bombs themselves, and I get they came back from being down 2-0, but how are you slaying at that clip and not winning? The easy answer? Whoever has the streaks is the only one not dying. If the rest of your team is going down you’re not getting the map presence and control you need.

• Toronto got a bit of redemption, because they won a Bocage and stamped out the fires of a second reverse sweep on a Control. It was always close, and not a clean 3-0, but winning versus the number one seed and staving off elimination for a second match is exactly what the home team wanted.
• Bance’s struggles were still occuring, with nary a map with a positive KD in sight. What’s worse, and what you hope improves versus higher competition, is CleanX’s struggles. He finished 65/81, -16 kills, and a .80 KD. That’s not going to cut it if they want to stick around on Sunday.
• What is working is whatever Insight and Cammy are on right now. Which is a tear. The two couldn’t be stopped, combining for +35 kills and making everyone running three MP-40s on Bocage look silly. They were frying, and superstar Cammy combined with rookie of the year Insight is a scary thought for whoever is next in the bracket.

Florida Mutineers vs Seattle Surge

Actual: 3-1 Seattle Surge

• In a series where Florida looked like they were rounding into form in the opening Hardpoint, they seemed to lose full. Something unraveled with them up 4-2 in the Search and Destroy, and it followed into a Control they choked away up 2-0. If you’re dropping two defenses, it really is chalked.
• For Florida they really are a slay heavy team. They’re built for it, and with the players they’ve accrued they’ll largely do that. But if they aren’t hitting everything that moves they’ll drop maps. That happened in this one, with +12 in the Tuscan HP, but in the negative every map after. Worst thing, it was close in the middle two maps, they just kept ending up low on lives.
• Vivid needs to step up and post a positive in his next match. They all do, but Vivid has so many engagements that he can lose a rotation or hold on his own. He was 89/108 with -19 kills and a .82 KD. I love his and this teams aggression, but that mentality cost them in the Tuscan Control as I watched them throw away lives trying too hard to push past the 50 yard line.

• This Surge is clicking at the right time, and Mack is on one of his runs again. Maybe it’s a LAN thing, but when they can get him involved along with the rookies this team is tough to beat.
• The whole squad may have only posted +23 kills, but not a single member was negative, which is important versus the slaying of Florida. Mack and Sib were +10 each, and Pred dropped +3 kills. In the Control Mack kept getting multi-kill after multi-kill, and that helped spark the comeback for Seattle.
• What helped make the S&D comeback possible was Accuracy beaming and Sib making fantastic reads. After the match was at 4-2 it seemed like Florida couldn’t do anything right, and that was because  they couldn’t buy a man advantage, and kept being in 1v4s in seconds.

Los Angeles Thieves vs Atlanta Faze

Actual: 3-0 Atlanta Faze

• The Thieves have this thing of having a bad match then a great one, so they have to hope that continues when they face Optic Texas. They were rolled by Atlanta in a similar fashion to how they rolled over Boston during the qualifiers. Losing a Hardpoint by 100 points, then a 0-6 in the S&D, and finally the 0-3 in the Control. They’ve got to shake this one off fast, because they’ve got a tough matchup later.
• You won’t win many series if you’re negative in the kill feed. With that in mind, you definitely won’t win a match if you get outslayed by 46 kills. What’s really insane is looking at the totals for the Thieves, with 3 players under 40 kills total for the entire match. Envoy placed lowest with 31/48, a score I’ve probably seen Vivid match on one Bocage Hardpoint.
• This was a blink and you miss it series, so it’s hard to pinpoint much for LAT. Be better I guess? Faze did this to them in the respawns on two AR heavy maps, so you have to walk this one off quickly. I know I said that in the first paragraph, but it’s the best advice I can give. You got beat, but you’re still in the tournament. Keep moving forward.

• You expected Atlanta would most likely beat Los Angeles, but admittedly Thieves clutched up versus Minnesota yesterday. What you may not have expected, especially with Faze needing some heroics to knock out Toronto, was an absolute beatdown. Faze got the 3-0, and it really wasn’t ever close beyond LATs early P1 time on the opening Hardpoint.
• The stats are really low given how fast a series it was along with two Gavutu respawns, but Simp still posted 60 kills. He was frying with the Automaton, and he might be finding his role in Vanguard. He finished with a 1.54 KD, and had a ridiculous 8k in damage. The nearest person to him there? Drazah with 6k.
• Arguably the biggest play in the S&D was Cellium killing 3 and clutching up in a 1v2 situation. He found first with a move that you expect Cellium to do, hopping up on a wall and catching someone through a crack in a destructible wall, and then making a cracked 180 turn around to burn the guy who read him. It was the Thieves only chance to get back into that one, as Faze dominated the rest of them in a 6-0.

Florida Mutineers vs Toronto Ultra

Actual: 3-0 Toronto Ultra

• This was a really sad exit for a team with championship hopes, but after a 3-1 against the Surge and this 3-0 against Toronto, the inconsistencies showed up again. If they were at least competitive in the earlier match, they were outclassed in this one.
• The stats show it all; you wouldn’t be wrong in assuming Florida probably got in their own heads after the loss to Seattle. They were handily beat in every map and mode, and considering they are a slay heavy team, Toronto made them pay to the tune of -43 kills. Kills aren’t everything, we’ve talked about it plenty of times, but you can’t continue to take gut punches and stay up.
• Davpadie is usually pretty reliable and good for a 70/70 statline one way or another. This time however he was getting roasted by the ARs of Cammy and Insight. He was 44/67, -23 kills, and a .66 KD along with a paltry 6374 damage.

• Toronto definitely has to feel better after that one. The match versus Minnesota felt like the ball would bounce Ultra’s way at the last moments, but in this one Toronto stole the ball and dunked it. You can’t be mad about what you got out of your squad, with every member posting a positive KD and looked like the Toronto that made it to the Champs Grand Finals last year. They may have a few chinks in the armor, but they’re looking good.
• Insight and Cammy have their groove back. They both alternated having takeover maps, with Cammy looking unstoppable on Bocage and Insight running out of chewing gum during the S&D. The two combined for +32 kills and handed Toronto a trip to Sunday.
• While maybe not as impactful after it, CleanX was a menace on Bocage. He was 47/38, with literally more engagements in a map than Davpadie had all game. What was insane was watching him fly around the map like a tasmanian devil, shredding whatever got in his path. He collected a ton of that before the halfway mark, giving Toronto the lead they needed before the final set of hills where they closed it out.

Los Angeles Thieves vs Optic Texas

Actual: 3-1 Los Angeles Thieves

• Always bet on red. Well, not really, I wouldn’t bet on these Thieves, but talk about perseverance. Optic thrashed them on Berlin in all three modes during the qualifiers, so much so people thought LAT threw their tiebreaker match versus Florida to avoid them. After a near comeback on the Gavutu Hardpoint, Berlin came into the rotation for three straight, which was questionable at best. Los Angeles kept the fire from the end of the match going and before you knew it, they made it to Sunday.
• The confidence started with a completed comeback in the Search and Destroy. Blame “The Fall” all you want, but after a 1-4 start LAT roared back with four straight rounds, winning the round 11 and making up for their previous faltering on Berlin and tying the match up 1-1.
• Kenny stepped up massively, and nearly took Gavutu by himself. The guy was streaking, earning glide bombs all over the place. He left the sticks smoking, with a 90/65, 10k damage, and a 1.38 KD to boot. He deserves a ton of credit after an abysmal effort earlier versus Faze.

• Every fan is going to try and use Prolute as a scapegoat for this one, asserting the sub was the reason they couldn’t achieve the heights of Major I. That would be completely ignoring Major II, where Optic literally did this exact thing with iLLeY in the lineup. They lost in winners, won two matches versus lesser teams, and then lost when a decent team dropped down. This team is still top two, but they certainly will want to take a closer look at the tape to figure why they’re dropping out so quickly when they aren’t at home.
• The other thing they don’t need to blame is Dashy falling off the map which to a degree handed LAT a free round with Optic up 4-1. It didn’t help (and the desk for some reason pointed it out), but the guy didn’t suddenly forget how to play Call Of Duty afterwards. He was technically the only player anywhere close to even, only off by a kill.
• You do wonder if Scump didn’t try too hard in the final two maps, because his score was one of the worst we’ve seen out of him in a while. He was 30/51 for a .59 KD in those final two Berlin maps, not a scoreline you expect from a champion. I assume the credit goes to Kenny for stepping up and shutting him down, but in the end that underperformance affected the rest of the team, who all finished negative in the last two maps.

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