Call Of Duty League 2022 Stage1/Week 1/Day 3 takeaways — Bad optics

What a final day of the first week of the Call Of Duty league regular season! We were treated to some methodical Call of Duty, and witnessed a great comeback, unfortunately paired with a terrible unraveling. There’s plenty to go over, so let’s get right into it!

Paris Legion vs Florida Mutineers

• Skyz and Vivid baby. You just know this team can only go as far as they’ll take them, and the absolute show they put on in the Bocage Hardpoint was insane. Vivid actually broke Skyz Kickoff Classic record with 46 kills. Just insane.
• Continuing on, where Skyz goes, this team goes. That Control win was huge, and it was because Skyz put the team on his back to close it out. The final round featured him as a roaming slayer, and 26 of his 29 kills were non-traded. Not to mention that beautiful 7 kill streak to end it.
• If Skyz was the reason they won Control, Owakening was why they closed out the 3-1 on Tuscan. Big Wake was nasty, with some ridiculous multi-kills that swung points in Florida’s favor. Oddly his 32/22 stat line only featured 18 non-traded, but he was on a roll.

• It’s always going to be a team effort for the Paris Legion, but John absolutely won his team the Tuscan S&D. What’s funnier about the whole thing is how he ran by an opposing player three times, twice not checking his surroundings. He was too lucky in the end, and with the third time spun and even after falling down to the B bombsite kept pursuing to make what proved to be the winning kill.
• What may be most odd is that Paris came into this one terrible on S&D, yet they may have been the most competitive there. I’m not sure what exactly you point to, but FeLo hasn’t been as impactful as you’d hope. I’m curious how long it may be before Paris changes up their roster.
• If yesterday’s taking Faze to a map 5 brought optimism around this roster, today’s 3-1 loss reminds us this team may have a high floor, but a low ceiling. They’re probably going to be the whipping boys of the CDL this year (although they were last year as well), at least with the composition they have right now.

Atlanta Faze vs Los Angeles Thieves

• While we could blame that strafing run for killing Simp, it also killed Kenny, so it’s an even trade. Even then, Faze looked much more comfortable on Tuscan Hardpoint, and although it was a tough loss, seeing aBeZy go off is good for waking this team up. Also, maybe they should stop letting the opponent rack up 40+ points on the opening hill?
• Maybe it’s just me, but Simp seems to be playing a bit timid. There was a moment in the first round of Desert Siege where he saw two Thieves headed towards the B bomb from top University. He didn’t chase and instead rotated to another spot. Just a bit confusing, and he played other rounds better, but if he doesn’t get back that ferocity he’s had in the past it’ll come back to bite his squad.
• As much as Faze wants to veto Gavutu, everyone else should want to veto Bocage. The 250-136 wasn’t ever close, with Cellium dropping a ridiculous 34/21 with 25 non-traded kills. I noticed it at the Kickoff just like Chance (who brought it up on the broadcast), Faze was running 2 ARs instead of the usual 3-4 MP40s. I personally think Faze is one of the few squads that can pull it off, it fits the style they want to play.

• You’re never out of a round, and LAT got some luck on their side after the loss versus Toronto. One might have chalked it in the final seconds, Faze had the set up at P1 and could close everything out relatively quickly, but a wonderfully coordinated three man break from the A bomb site area gave the Thieves the map victory. That and the free trade from that strafing run.
• Turns out unfortunately for them, that was as close to the dub as they would get. The Control was much closer in stats than the final score would show, but it was incredible plays by Faze to stall the Los Angeles B push over and over again. You really can’t get the cleanest of A captures and have over 2 minutes to work with twice and still lose those rounds.
• One things for certain, Octane is still deadly with a sniper in his hand. Cellium was on a tear from over in the back right of Desert Siege on defense, but once Octane started focusing on him it took Cell out of the game. Suddenly LAT had map control to make calculated moves and look for kills to open up the round. And then just for kicks he jump-sniped Arcitys to close out the round. What a gamer.

Optic Texas vs Minnesota Rokkr

• That Tuscan Hardpoint looked much better than the win on Bocage. Scump started slow, but Shotzzy and Illey showed up, a combined 60/33 and 47 non-traded kills. This was more similar to what were used to seeing, Shotzzy being absolutely annoying and causing the other team to get uncomfortable. When he does that, Optic are likely to win.
• It doesn’t get much uglier than that 6-1 Search and Destroy loss. Optic got countered every time they tried anything. If not for Illey’s 1v2 clutch where Attach ran right by him it would have been a clean 6-0. It always seemed like Optic couldn’t make the call fast enough before Minnesota eviscerated them.
• How do things fall apart like this constantly for Optic? I don’t know how in the world they blew the Berlin Hardpoint, and then they managed to self destruct in the last two rounds of the Berlin S&D. You shouldn’t have Shotzzy blow everyone off the map with 111 kills and still lose. It’s only the beginning of the season, but there’s so much to work on for a squad that some assumed would light up the CDL right away.

• That may have been the absolute cleanest S&D after the first round on Tuscan, followed by easily the fastest round of Control in Minnesota’s first attack round. I don’t really know how it actually happened given it happened so fast, but Optic gave up A and didn’t expect a stack on B after Rokkr wiped them. Definitely helps when the opposing team doesn’t even kill the entire squad, as Optic only mustered 3 kills in that round.
• What followed that was a travesty of a Control finish by Minnesota. They should have won in round 4. I don’t understand how you have over a minute left, only two ticks needed at B, a two life advantage, two strafing runs, and you still lose. It took one team wipe by Optic to stall them out too, leading to an arguably worse final round where they had Standy fully streaked and still lost. Play to win, not to “not lose”.
• We already knew last season not to count Minnesota out after they came back in the most epic fashion possible versus Toronto in the Grand Finals of Major V. So it should come as no surprise that they pulled this one off. That being said, Standy made an absolute play to hold off Optic and capture spawns for P2 on the Berlin Hardpoint. There was still a lot of work Rokkr had to put in to win, but they got the kills from there. At that point it almost seemed like a formality that Minnesota would pull this one off.

Stay tuned to Gaming Trend for our takeaways as the season 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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