Full Wrap #18

After just getting the season started, another break is upon us. Some teams enter the break riding a high, while others are left to question what their ceiling truly is.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE WEEKEND

Ghost of Thieves Past

Ghosty and Envoy have shown that LAT made the blunder of the offseason by dropping them after a year where they won two Majors and topped the standings. Since the pair joined the Gentle Mates, they have taken down their ex-team three straight times. First they beat them 3-0 during the $75K Launch Invitational, then 3-1 at the Kaysan Showdown, and added the most lopsided win yet with another 3-0 during CDL qualifiers this weekend. There was nothing Gentle about this slamming.

Ghosty came out on a mission during Map 1; with the revenge game ratings boost in full effect, he went 38/13 (2.92 K/D) and led in hill time with 116 seconds. He made LAT look like a bunch of plats, and Gentle Mates coasted to a 250-116 win. The Exposure Search and Destroy followed a similar pattern. Sib opened up the map with a Round 1 ace and finished 12/3 with four First Bloods. The AR duo may not carry bomb, but they still have plants.

Not much changed in the Overload; Ghosty and Sib led the way for Paris, and the team finished +34 as they won the map 8-1 before time could even expire. Gentle Mates were running them so badly that Scrap decided to stop playing before the final point was captured. The Control reapers are lost.

What’s better than 3-0’ing your old team? 3-0’ing them and setting the season record for series K/D at the same time. Ghosty ended the match with a 2.14 K/D (75/35), a mark that could be safe for the rest of the year. Sib joined in on the fun with a 1.45 K/D (68/47) as the entire Paris team finished positive. Thieves, on the other hand, all ended negative, with Kenny’s 0.56 being the lowest mark, as he only managed 36 kills in the series. The bigger concern for LAT could be their SMG duo combining to go 89/128 (0.70 K/D), a fit that still needs work. The LA Peasants rebrand is coming soon.

DavPadie Curse Cleansed

OpTic’s only match this weekend came against the Heretics, a matchup that had been going the way of Miami recently and has caused OpTic problems dating back to the Florida Mutineers days. Miami held a four-series win streak over OpTic in the CDL entering the match, but something was different this time. A difference Team Heretics felt at EWC last season. Mercules.

Heretics flipped the script and came out hot, specifically RenKoR and SupeR, who ended Map 1 with a 1.89 and 1.58 K/D, respectively. Miami took a 79-77 lead following the first P4 and never looked back, winning the map 250-188. Shotzzy and Huke were flying, but they definitely weren’t frying; combining for 0.67 K/D (39/58), they led the map in deaths and only finished behind Traixx for fewest kills (15). OpTic answered back with a 6-4 Map 2 victory that got scary after jumping out to a quick 4-0 lead. Mercules (10/6) and Shotzzy (9/7) led the way for OpTic.

This series was a battle of AR duos; every SMG player finished the series negative and took turns dropping 0.5’s and 0.6’s. Yes, multiple. During the swing map, it was the OpTic AR duo that stole the show. Mercules finished the map with a 1.43 K/D and Dashy with a 1.35 K/D to go along with a hat trick of Overloads. Make it rain, word to Temp.

Then in Map 4 we witnessed a breakdown, although not quite as bad as Gentle Mates on Blackheart. It was once again 1am in Texas during the Den Hardpoint. Shotzzy finished 17/33, and despite his stinker, OpTic led 249-193 with hill control. After tasting victory, a last-second break on the P2 came in, followed by a clean P3 hold that sent them to a Map 5. Luckily for OpTic, time must have gone back because Shotzzy was awake. Once again he led the way (8/5) in the Search, alongside Mercules (12/5), and OpTic closed out the series with a 6-4 win. The curse has been broken; down goes Miami.

New FaZe, Same Search

The newly relocated FaZe Vegas squad took a gamble this offseason by picking up 04 instead of Neptune, and the roster has been tested with the toughest schedule of any team in the opening two weekends. After a 1-1 showing last weekend against Thieves and Gentle Mates, their lone matchup this week was with another top 5 team in Toronto KOI. And it won’t get any easier with OpTic looming after the winter break.

KOI drew first blood in the last match of the weekend, with a 250-231 win on Exposure. Insight and Abuzah matched up as hill kittens, soaking 119 and 120 seconds, respectively. FaZe was able to equalize the series in a Map 2 Round 11, despite KOI racking up first blood in eight rounds. Maybe they should have focused more on last bloods.

The Map 3 Overload was yet another nail-biter. KOI raced out to a 3-0 lead in the first minute and a half, but FaZe clawed back to tie it at 3-3 and again at 4-4. With just a minute left on the game clock, ReeaL scored to give Toronto a 5-4 lead, and KOI were able to turtle to defend the lead and take Map 3. Going into a crucial Map 4 down 2-1, FaZe would need to win a Hardpoint for the first time this season. They don’t call it Easypoint for a reason.

FaZe didn’t just win to force Map 5; they held KOI to the lowest point total of any team in Hardpoint this year in a dominant 250-72 drubbing. Abuzah racked up 120 seconds for the second time this series, while Simp and Drazah combined for a 55-36 K/D as FaZe headed to Map 5 for the second straight series. 

In the crucial Map 5, the teams traded early rounds before FaZe pulled out to a 4-2 lead. The newest additions to the Vegas squad, 04 and Abuzah, proved to be the difference makers. 04 clutched a crucial 1v1 against Insight and chipped in two first bloods while Abuzah went 9/5 (1.80 K/D) as FaZe improved to 4-1 in SnD to take their second straight series 3-2. 

Falcons Breach GA’s

After a brutal opening weekend that saw them start 0-2, the Riyadh Falcons were back in action this week for another two matches. This time instead of match-ups with top teams, they had far more manageable opponents in the Carolina Royal Ravens and the Boston Breach, and they were playing to win. Asp-ecially Cellium.

In their first series of the weekend, the Falcons struck like vipers. They dominated the Ravens 250-166, 6-2, 4-2 in a 3-0 sweep. The Royal Ravens didn’t remotely put up a fight as they rolled out the red carpet with three of their members dropping below a 0.80 K/D (SlasheR, Craze, and Lurqxx). Maybe moving out of the team house was a bad idea. 

The real controversy of the weekend came in Map 4 of the Falcons-Breach series. With the Falcons up 2-1, Boston’s backs were against the wall. Needing a win, they came out hot, and after extending their lead to 229-147, looked on the verge of forcing Map 5. Following a crucial Falcons break and hold on P2 coordinated by Cellium and Kismet, the hill rotated to the boat as the lead approached only 50 points. Coming off spawn, Cellium found himself on a headglitch and began a familiar dance. He switched between two head glitches on the hill, snaking for nearly 45 seconds to deny Boston’s push and cut the lead to just 20 points. The Falcons would complete the comeback and the series on the next hill, winning 250-233. You can do it too, #FalconUp.

It seems every year Cellium breaks the snaking GA, and every year he gets off with just a slap on the wrist. Perhaps this time the GA commissioner ZooMaa will be willing to take a stand, now that Cellium no longer plays for FaZe.

FULL WRAP TEAM OF THE WEEK

Ghosty: The most impressive performance from week 2 of qualifiers came from none other than Dan Ghosty. Finishing more than double positive with a 2.14 K/D (75/35) and going +40 against a highly touted Thieves team is quite the feat. He led the series in total kills, hill time, and overloads, all while having the least deaths. All-Star season inbound?

Snoopy: Even though Boston had a 1-1 weekend, Snoopy showed up to play. He dropped 204 kills in nine maps, ending the weekend with a 1.19 K/D. He was dominant in the reverse sweep win against G2, leading the lobby in kills at 105 while also having the least deaths (79) for a 1.33 K/D. His 37/16 performance in Map 3 kicked off the Boston comeback. Up against the Falcons, Snoopy was the lone positive player at 99/93 and put up the most damage on his team with 11,592.

Cellium: Despite a… controversial end to the weekend, the King Cobra did it all. Cellium posted an overall K/D of 1.45 (162/112) across two series wins and didn’t have a weak mode, posting a 1.38 in HP, 2.67 in SnD, and a 1.40 in Overload. He also racked up secondary stats, with 302 seconds in three Hardpoints and five first bloods in fifteen rounds of Search. His(s) ability to perform without cheap, game-breaking mechanics begs the question: why can't he help himself?

RenKoR: The Rookie of the Year was back in form this weekend. Starting out with a tough matchup against OpTic, RenKoR led the way for Miami with a 1.30 K/D and the series with 105 kills, including a 36/19 Map 1 performance. Despite the Neslo loss, RenKoR still finished positive every map. Capping off the year, the Heretics matched up with Cloud9, and RenKoR set the tone early. During the Map 1 Exposure Hardpoint, he went 32/17, the same map they beat OpTic on to start the series. He finished the series with a 1.07 K/D (79/74) and helped Miami earn their first win of the Black Ops 7 season. Overall, RenKoR ended the weekend with a 1.19 K/D (184/155) and will once again be a force in 2026. Expect teams to veto RenKosure in the future.