Full Wrap #12

The online season has come to an end, and only Major 4 remains until Champs. Who’s the favorite, and who’s looking at this event as a last chance qualifier? Don’t miss out on all the latest news before the Major kicks off on Friday.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE WEEKEND

New Features on Breaking Point

Get your Bread up by completing daily games daily. Earn +10 🍞 per day each for playing Guessr and Gridlock. There’s never been a better time to brush up on your CDL knowledge.

We’re also pleased to introduce BP Pro. Start browsing ad-free, get the BP Pro flair, verification, and early access to new features we’re launching over the next few months. And oh yeah, more Bread. Lots of Bread.

We appreciate every BP Pro subscription, as it helps us improve and add more features to the Breaking Point platform. We’ve grown to the point where we need software developers on staff at all times, and it’s not cheap 🤑. Since day 1, we’ve been founder owned and haven’t taken any outside funding. You can subscribe by logging in and clicking “go ad free” on browser or in the app.

Your support lets us build features like games, cards, bread, fantasy, and create content like our documentaries and live event watch parties. 💜 

The next big project is a performance update with improvements to the user experience and the BP app.

OpTic-al Illusion

Another rollercoaster weekend for OpTic resulted in the expected 1-1 record, but not in the way fans predicted. Only 2% of voters chose LAG M8s over OpTic. I guess KiSMET wanted to keep Bread rations low this week.

Going into their easiest match of Stage 4, OpTic positioned themselves to secure a top seed for Major 4 with a win. Unfortunately for OpTic, the ice was nonexistent, blowing a 194-149 lead Map 1 and a 214-112 lead Map 4. We thought Shotzzy had learned his lesson already but shooting KiSMET’s body proved to be the catalyst for M8’s. After the body shots, the Bulldog ended the map 17/6 to help M8s force the Map 5, where mistakes were made by OpTic. More than just the ones in the killfeed.

In need of a regain, Huke and Shotzzy provided exactly what OpTic needed. Huke set the tone with a takeover 41/27 (1.52) performance to open the series and Shotzzy slammed the door shut, going 30/20 (1.50) to close out the sweep against Ultra. Finally, OpTic showed some ice. They won the Hardpoint 220-216 and clutched up in the SnD, winning three straight rounds to take the map 6-4. OpTic takes round one of the Mercules Bowl.

OpTic has found their footing in Control. They have only dropped two rounds in four maps since the addition of Merc. Keeping up this level of play will be a must with a rematch against Ultra coming up in Winners’ round one. A win would secure OpTic their best placing of the year.

Tour-on-to L’s

Ultra entered the weekend with an undefeated 3-0 record this Stage, aiming for the top seed at Major 4. Unfortunately, this week it looked like someone cut the Bell Fibre as they dropped both their series with a 1-6 map count.   

In their first series versus Vancouver, Toronto came out cold. Vancouver shot out to a 231-128 lead, but Toronto was able to string together four straight nearly perfect hills to go on a 122-17 run and pull out a remarkable 250-248 map 1 win on Red Card. After that, it was all downhill for Ultra. They went up 5-4 in Map 2 and fumbled the last two rounds away harder than they fumbled the Mercules pickup, with Beans giving away a crucial first blood in Round 11. The momentum carried against them into the Control, where they lost 3-1 to a Vancouver squad that struggles in the mode. They bombed out of the series with a whimper, a 250-116 loss on Hacienda Hardpoint where no member of the team managed more than 18 kills. 

The woes continued in their final online match of the season versus OpTic. With the series winner getting the third seed for Major 4, the Squirrels laid an acorn in a 3-0 loss. They rolled out the red carpet as every member of the team went negative, with Insight mustering only 45 kills in three maps. He wasn’t able to keep any of the Green Wall members in his sights.

BRACKET PREVIEW

Heretics vs Rokkr

After a perfect 5-0 Stage the Heretics find themselves with the top seed at Major 4. They will match up with 2-3 Minnesota in Winners’ Round 1. Rokkr’s season is on the line as they remain on the wrong side of the cut for Champs.

Thieves vs Surge

The Major 3 Grand Final rematch comes to us at an unexpected time. Both the Thieves and Surge started 0-2 on the split, but clawed back three straight wins to salvage their place in Winners’ Bracket. The season series has been incredibly lopsided, with Thieves winning all five series with a combined 17-5 map count. Can Thieves continue their dominance?

FaZe vs Cloud9

The third series of Winners’ will give us a rematch from earlier this Stage, where Cloud9 and Spart pulled off the upset against FaZe. Spart has been a thorn in FaZe’s side, dating back to Major 2 of Vanguard, where he and his Volk beat them in the Grand Final for the most improbable Major run in CDL history. Will history repeat itself?

OpTic vs Ultra

OpTic fresh off a 3-0 victory, Ultra will be given the immediate rematch. A chance to get revenge and show that the online loss was a fluke. Ultra knows first hand how Mercules performs on LAN. Will they be able to slow him down to avoid dropping to Losers’ round one for the third time this year?

Losers’ Bracket

When you think about the Falcons and LAGM8s this season they can be described in a word: consistent. Both teams have been consistently terrible. Across the first three Majors both teams failed to qualify for the Winners’ Bracket, and nothing changed this split. Boston and Ravens will round out the bottom four, both starting in Losers’ Round 1 for the first time this season. Way to end on a high note.

Major 4 Format

With Major 4 joining Dreamhack, the format has been altered. There will be no Thursday games, with Winners’ Round 1, Losers’ Round 1, and one match of Losers’ Round 2 being played on Friday. To make up for the condensed schedule there will be an Alpha and Bravo stream running concurrently. Matches will start at 10:30 Pacific / 1:30 Eastern.

Champs Race

The race for the 8th seed has become all but a formality, as OpTic has all but locked it up; they sit 40 points ahead of Minnesota and 50 points ahead of C9, holding the Head-to-Head tiebreaker over both as well. While there are a few extremely unlikely scenarios that would put them outside top 8 it boils down to this: OpTic will automatically clinch if Minnesota fail to make top 4 AND C9 fail to make top 3. Something neither team has managed this season.  

TOP PERFORMERS

Huke: Despite the loss to M8s, Huke was still shooting. He dropped 83/77 (1.08) in the loss, highlighted by a 14/7 in the 3-0 Control stomp. He turned the dial all the way up against Toronto, with a massive 77/59 (1.31), leading the lobby in kills, K/D, and damage. While the AR duo struggled mightily to start the first map, Huke’s strong start kept the game from snowballing out of control, allowing the comeback. He finished the map 41/27 (1.51) with over a minute in the hill. With his Sunday performance he pushed his season K/D to 1.13, the fourth best in the league. Has he been a superstar all along?

Scrap: What’s better than a takeover series? Two takeover series. Scrap was shooting this weekend, going 55/37 (1.49) in Thieves 3-0 victory over Breach and 65/46 (1.41) in the 3-0 win over Cloud9. He was lights out in SnD, finishing a combined 17/8 with 4 first bloods across the two maps. Just another day at the office for the MVP.

RenKoR: The Ravens were taking more than RenKoR’s vamos. The Spaniard finished the series 65/32 (2.03), recording the most damage by over 2000. He capped the series sweep off with a 26/9 (2.89) effort in the Control. Give him the Rookie of the Year trophy already.

Cellium: Another week and another ridiculous statline from Cellium. FaZe only had one series this week vs the Falcons and it ended with Cell putting up 62/41 (1.51) in the series, to go along with the most damage and a ridiculous 9/3 (3.0) in the Search. He's still waiting for somebody to shoot back.

BONUS

Undefeated Curse

The Heretics became the 6th different team to go undefeated in a Qualifier Stage this season, also marking the 13th time it has been done. No team has gone on to win the event after going undefeated since Cold War when FaZe did it twice. Can Miami break the curse?

Undefined

Kenny became the first player in BO6 to finish a map of Search with zero deaths, going 11/0 (∞) en route to a 6-0 win. In classic Rokkr fashion, that was the only map they were able to win in the series.