Call Of Duty League 2022 Major III/Week 3/Day 3 takeaways — Of tiebreakers and glide bombs

A lot of stuff happened on our last day of qualifiers for Major III in the Call Of Duty League today. We watched as teams were cheated out of spots, a never before in the league tiebreaker match occurred, and Optic bounced back after a rough outing the day before. The standings are set, with Minnesota Rokkr at the top, but we still had to get things settled with the final three (which became four) matches.

Seattle Surge vs London Royal Ravens

Actual: 3-0 Seattle Surge

• Good on Seattle to roll with their momentum into a match they certainly should win. These are the matches that have tripped up Seattle in the past, so maybe we’re seeing a bit of maturity setting in for this team. What certainly doesn’t hurt is every player sitting in the green, with none of the team below a 1.09 and the squad as a whole mustering +52 kills
• Pred and Sib are still turning it up, and how. Pred started the Bocage Hardpoint 11/1 between the first two hills, earning a glide bomb and finished 36-22. Sib meanwhile took to the skies in the Berlin Control, posting a double positive with 28 kills to only 14 deaths, along with the most damage in the lobby.
• Another good sign from this one is Accuracy showing off the gunny, along with an 11/6 Desert Siege S&D where the team clutched up in the round 11. Seattle iced up with three straight rounds down 5-3, and that’s exactly the kind of performance you want to see from this squad if they’re going to go on a deep run at Major III.  

• Things just aren’t getting any better for London at this point. Every time they seem to gain any ground the rug gets pulled out from under them. There’s a distinct lack of impact plays coming from this roster, and I’m not sure exactly where to point. Afro is playing his hardest out there, but he can’t do it all alone.
• Nastie is his name, and it unfortunately describes that performance. He’s definitely not all to blame, this squad is not setting anyone up for success so everyone is having to rely on pure gunskill and individual play, but today that affected him more than anyone. The scoreline was atrocious, 40/62, a .65 KD, -22 kills, and only 5179 in damage dealt.
• You’ve got to think this team is likely one and done at the Major without a superhuman effort. They draw the loser of the Seattle Surge vs New York Subliners match, and New York might be a tougher opponent than the team that just beat them into submission. There’s pride to play for, but it’s disappointing watching one of the most fun teams in the league, and one that seemed to be on an Ultra-like track given their cohesion, fade into oblivion.

Florida Mutineers vs Boston Breach

Actual: 3-2 Florida Mutineers*

• Let’s get this clear, Florida certainly earned this victory down 5-2 in the Game 5 Berlin Search and Destroy. That being said, they were gifted the round 11, due to TJHaLy losing his glide bomb because of a game crash. We can argue all day about it, and it’s completely indefensible that the league doesn’t have a procedure in place to rectify it. But at the end of the day Florida made timely plays to keep TJ from being able to use said bomb for three straight rounds, which you have to tip the hat to them for. 
• If kills were the metric however, the Mutineers deserved to go home. Yet again this squad was outslayed, by 15 kills this time, and found the cajones to win. Given we won’t get into the tiebreaker a lot, this team will have to improve in that area if they want to take out Optic. They’ll face them in the first round, and no matter the fact they’re 2-0 against them on LAN, they’ve got to be better or it’s a fast 3-0.
• Final round stolen from Boston or not, it’s surprising that Skyz and Vivid combined to be -20 in kills and the team pulled it off. I know the team has been out of the facility because of COVID, and just because they’re finally testing negative doesn’t mean they’re 100%, but usually if those two are in the red this team loses. Good on the squad to persevere.

• No buts about it, this one sucks. It’s never great to feel like one is stolen from you, and while a glide bomb isn’t the answer to everything (just ask Dashy vs NYSL), it certainly could help. The league MUST get procedures in place to fix this, whether through an in-game setting or allowing the players to play a few non-counting rounds and let TJHaLy earn his glide back to go into the round 11. There’s an integrity that’s lost when we see issues like this creep in.
• Even so, Boston should have never let it get there. TJ was 7/3 in the eighth, having just earned the glide and with Boston in a 2v2. Florida collapsed on them pretty quickly, so Methodz was kind of stuck in that one, but the team played way to passively afterwards, almost around having said glide bomb. You almost have to play the game as if you don’t have streaks, because if you start relying on them you’re going to fail.
• Nero may have been the star of the show on the Hardpoints, but Capsidal went off to help Boston win the Tuscan HP which kept the Breach in the match. It seemed like he was unkillable on P5/Command, shredding Florida and giving Boston the 250-179 win. They’ll need both of the rookies to keep this up; because of this unfortunate loss to Florida they’ll start in losers at Major III and face the loser of Los Angeles Thieves vs Minnesota Rokkr. Something tells me they aren’t excited with either prospect. 

Optic Texas vs Los Angeles Thieves

Actual: 3-0 Optic Texas

• Shotzzy must have thought he left a few kills out there in the Berlin Hardpoint versus New York, and he went out and got them. He set a new record on the map with 42 kills, and even more impressive was only 17 deaths. There was a moment where he picked up 12 straight, just being that whirling dervish we all know him to be.
• That said, even with Optic closing out the Search and Destroy easily, he kind of got his mail read. There’s a wall bang spot in fire he’s found and tried to use, only to get wall banged right back by Drazah. I’m not sure how it works or whatnot, but I guess it’s better to lose that one when you’re up big.
• As funny as it is to say, with Shotzzy going off for +31 kills in the match, no one else really had to do much. Prolute had some impact plays with a 24/17 to help Optic close out a perfect 3-0 in Control to finish the perfect 3-0 in the game, but that was about it. It’s nice to be able to rely on your superstar, as he was thrashed in the New York series and you needed to see a bounceback.

• This is just part of the cycle, at least largely. Thieves look good, they look great, and then they fall apart. Los Angeles has looked decent versus Optic, with the last two decided in Game 5s, so it was a bit surprising to see them blasted after making the other green team look silly. You can’t all go negative though, with the team finishing -41 kills.
• Envoy definitely took the brunt of Shotzzy’s wrath. He was -14 kills in the opening Hardpoint, and -25 kills as a whole, only mustering 36 kills the entire match. He has to be more impactful, or at least, more positively impactful.
• They get to stay in winners, but it’s a rough one, as Minnesota has been tough to stop in Major III with Havok and Attach leading them to a 5-0 stage. Can Envoy match Havok? Can Octane get the last laugh versus the likes of Priestahh and Attach? I’m not sure this will be any more than the latest 3-0 for LAT. More on that below.

Los Angeles Thieves vs Florida Mutineers

Actual: 3-0 Florida Mutineers

• I’m not going to bother talking about this one in depth, because there wasn’t much depth to this match. Somehow we needed a tiebreaker on seeding between the 7th and 8th seeds, so an impromptu match between LAT and the Mutineers was dropped last second on us. Was it entertaining? Yes. But considering the winner had to “play Optic”, this one was decided before the lobby was started. The Thieves obviously didn’t want a repeat of what had just occurred, and you understand they figured that even with Minnesota looking great, there’s a chance it was a honeymoon phase. But to turn in this kind of match is silly. Can the league make it so the winner “chooses” what seed they are? That way the match is legitimately competitive? We shouldn’t have the CDL desk literally promoting throwing a match.

Stay tuned to Gaming Trend for more Call Of Duty League news, info, videos, and more, 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: