Call Of Duty League Stage 1/Week 3/Day 2 takeaways — It ain’t over ’til it’s over

I’m a bit late on this one, due to a crazy day and not feeling so hot. You know who was feeling hot yesterday? The Florida Mutineers and Los Angeles Thieves. That’s only one of the four intense matches we saw yesterday, and with two going to Game 5’s and the other two upsets we didn’t see happening. Let’s take a look and see what there is to think after several teams played their final matches of the first stage of qualifiers.

Seattle Surge vs Florida Mutineers

• While the storylines are going to be about how you don’t win replays, it was the right decision by the CDL. The original Bocage Hardpoint was only won by 14 points, and Vivid was disconnected for around 13 seconds. That can swing the game, and as the replay showed, it did.
• At this point you have to wonder if anyone will let Seattle play on Gavutu again. Pred is a menace there, so if you win the Control coin flip you’re definitely vetoing it. Seattle is good on Control, but not nearly as powerful on Tuscan.
• For all of the accolades of his young career, after his 40 bomb on Bocage got recalled Sib had a really off game. He finished with -22 kills and a .68 KD. If Seattle wants to make noise at the Major, he’s going to have to pick himself back up after that one.

• It’s obvious the effect picking up Vivid has had on this team. Disconnected he was 12/14, in the whole match and he’s 34/37. He may not always finish in the positive, but his engagements on the map can’t be replaced, as well as his timely rotations.
• Owakening went on an absolute tear in this one. His multikills are just ridiculous, seemingly pulling these out of nowhere regularly. He dictated the match, going 73/54 for a 1.35 KD and +19 kills. That was a flawless Search and Destroy, over so quickly you’d have almost missed it.
• The 6-1 was a testament to how cleanly Florida can play together, and they’ll need to keep that going since they’ll start in the losers bracket.

New York Subliners vs Boston Breach 

• This almost felt like a repeat of the Kickoff Classic, with more drama and a Game 5 Round 10. New York finally pulled out a win, and with Royalty being in the lineup, with the comms sounding a bit calmer, you have to wonder if he sticks for longer than we assume. That being said, he’s got to be better, -26 kills won’t do it.
• Hydra finally had the takeover game we all want to see from him, especially his incredible 17-7 S&D on Bocage. Paco is super likeable, and he’s a premiere talent, but he’s not been the game changer he should be so far. Maybe it’s just the team chemistry and turmoil that had him stressed, and with that calming down perhaps he’s rounding into form.
• It’s really odd that New York has been so awful in Hardpoint this year after dominating it in Cold War. I feel like they were on an absurd streak of 11 last year. This season, 0-6 in four games. It’s weird man, and I’m not sure it gets any better.

• For Boston, it’s strange they didn’t clutch either Search and Destroy. Sure, they were close, but one would have assumed if they one both Hardpoints they’d close out the game. Boston hadn’t dropped an S&D before today, and they’re a team that does well in that mode. It’s weird in the same way New York’s Hardpoints are.
• I don’t get how Boston dropped the Control either. In the last round they had lives (20-13), 1:36 on the clock, and TJHaLy was on the B point with two ticks in. Somehow CrimSix got some incredible shots in from ring, turned around and picked off several other Breach players who were sprinting to the point. By the end of the final round the lives were reversed and the Subliners were walking tall from Gavutu.
• Boston really blew this one. I know kills aren’t everything, but they outslew New York by +13 kills over the entirety of the match. The only maps the Subliners pulled out were by the skin of their teeth. This is one Boston is going to want back.

Minnesota Rokkr vs Los Angeles Guerrillas

• The entire time I watched the Berlin Hardpoint all I could think about was, “How does Minnesota come back from this?” They were down 80 at one point and still managed to bring it back. If I’m Rokkr I pick Berlin every time it comes up in rotation.
• I was wondering why this game felt like a grind, and looking over the stats I think I’ve got an answer. Rokkr alone had three players with 100+ kills, and nearly had all four with 100+ deaths. Anytime your team is totalling 800 engagements a game is going to feel longer than it is.
• Sadly, this win doesn’t get Minnesota into winner’s bracket. In fact, the absolute best they can hope for is the 10th seed. Time to be a tough out and reload for Major II.

• LAG can’t be happy at how long that game went on, and they especially can’t be happy at blowing the Berlin Hardpoint. They should have had it easily, up big and only needing 84 points to finish off a 3-1 win. Instead, they only scored 37 points while Minnesota grabbed 170. Yikes.
• With the winners bracket secure, the Guerrillas seem like they’ll at least be really tough to take out. This is a long ways from looking like a bottom four team after the first couple of games this year. They’ve really stepped up their teamwork, and these veterans aren’t really ever out of a match.
• The guy who’s going to keep them in those games is very obviously Asim. The man has found another gear over the last 3 games, and even though he finished -7 this match he had nearly 250 engagements by himself. He’s influencing each map, and that’s what you want him to do.

Los Angeles Thieves vs Toronto Ultra

• After getting absolutely smoked on the opening Bocage Hardpoint, LAT didn’t look back. They shook off the 250-109 shellacking and ground out three solid maps, winning a 6-4 S&D, a 3-2 Control, and a 250-215 Hardpoint, all on Tuscan.
• All of the Thieves looked solid, but Envoy is still playing below his potential. It’s a tough ask versus the super subs of CleanX and Bance, but in a game where you soundly beat Ultra Envoy still went -11.
• LAT certainly picked the best time possible to play their best Call Of Duty. What looked like a middle of the pack bracket start is the 3 seed. Has to feel good if you’re a Thieves fan.

• Back to back losses aren’t good, but back to back bad losses are worse. I’m really curious as to what’s going on that’s causing these breakdowns. They looked sensational at the Kickoff Classic, walking away with the Grand Final win. Maybe the whole “pre-season results don’t mean anything”?
• One thing that’s really confusing is that Toronto is great on Tuscan. They were 2-1 in Search and Destroy and Control, even if they only had one rep on Tuscan for Hardpoint (a loss versus Seattle). It’s an interesting development going into Major I, especially with vetoes in play.
• At least Bance looked good? A lot of times if Bance fell apart the rest of the team paid for it (Stage I last year). Today everyone else was in the red and Bance was +11. Go figure.

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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