Full Wrap #28

Yet another weekend of upsets caused shifts in seeding down to the final day. The only consistent thing throughout Stage 2 has been OpTic, and even they finally slipped up.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE WEEKEND

The K/D Watch Party

Welcome our newest addition, Kenny, as he joins Temp for The K/D Watch Party. Tune into the Breaking Point YouTube channel during matches to watch alongside the duo to get unfiltered entertainment and insights from the pros.

Remedial Education

Major 2 at DreamHack Birmingham will feature a novelty for the CDL: two play-in matches. The winners will be granted the chance to play in the eight team bracket while the two losers will have taken an expensive vacation to Great Britain on their team’s dime. Let’s look at those two series.

Paris Gentle Mates vs Carolina Royal Ravens

The Major 1 champions just barely snuck in as the 10th seed, while the Royal Ravens caught the short end of a four-way tie at 6-5 to draw into the play-ins. This is a series of hot versus not. Carolina comes in hot, ending their qualifying with a 2-0 weekend after beating Cloud9 and the Heretics, and have won five of their last seven series. Meanwhile, the Gentle Mates tumbled over the finish line with an 0-2 performance against FaZe and the Thieves and have won just one of their last eight series.

The question does remain: will LAN be a buff or a debuff for these teams? Carolina ended the Major 1 Qualifiers on a 5-0 run after picking up Exceed but were still bounced in Top 12 fashion after losing two straight series. The Gentle Mates on the other hand, were the victors at Major 1, not to mention the winners of a 3-1 series over Carolina during Major 2 Qualifying. 

The winner of this series will play the Miami Heretics.

Toronto KOI vs Vancouver Surge

The two Canadian teams will face off in the other play-in series. Both these teams have made roster changes this split, with KOI dropping ReeaL for Kips while Vancouver called up Capsidal to replace Abe.

Both teams have had moderate success with their new look rosters. Toronto is 5-4 since picking up Kips, while Vancouver is 3-3 with Capsidal. These rosters have already played each other once since forming, with KOI picking up a 3-1 win just last weekend.

The winner of this series gets the opportunity to lose to play OpTic Texas.  

Top of the Class

Only six teams locked in their spot in the Bracket for Birmingham and two of them still don’t know who their opponent will be. Some will enter the weekend poised to make a run, while others are at serious risk of a roster breaking Top 8 disaster.

OpTic Texas

The team feeling the most pressure in Birmingham will be, without a doubt, OpTic. After failing to convert their 9-0 map record start at Major 1 into a championship, all eyes will be on OpTic following their near-flawless Stage 2.

OpTic tasted defeat for the first time during Stage 2 this weekend and it was a familiar foe on the other side. Pred (96/76) led the way for the Falcons, triggering the infamous lagging tweet from Dashy after the series. Luckily for OpTic, Dashy was locked in for their next series, leading OpTic with a 1.39 K/D as they took down KOI 3-0. It’s just Toronto on Den.

Now it’s a waiting game for OpTic, who will be taking on the winner of Surge and KOI in their first series of Major 2. Another 3-0 inbound?

Miami Heretics

It hasn’t taken the Heretics very long to work themselves back into the contender conversation after a slow start to the season. Despite their reverse sweep efforts falling short against Carolina, Miami locked in the second seed with their win over an already eliminated and checked Boston to end the weekend.

It’s been the AR duo consistently leading the way for Miami, as the two topped the Stage 2 K/D leaderboard, and they’ll have to be the catalyst once again at Major 2 if they want to bring home their first championship. 

Miami could be tested very early, awaiting the winner of Gentle Mates and Ravens, a matchup with the Major 1 winners could be exactly what they need to gain the confidence to go the way.

Beware of SupeR’s sniper in SnD, he leads all players with 111 sniper kills with the next closest being Sib with 68. Does anybody have a smoke?

Los Angeles Thieves vs FaZe Vegas

In the most anticipated match of WR1, LAT will take on FaZe. One of the tiny terrors will drop to the Losers’ Bracket early in what has all the makings of an instant classic. 

Both teams have been hot and cold during Stage 2 but ended on a high note, going 2-0 this past weekend. FaZe took down Thieves 3-0 at Major 1 and most recently 3-2 online; keeping their streak over LAT alive will likely rely on dominance in the SnDs.

With the loser falling into an elimination match against the Heretics or Gentle Mates (sorry Ravens), the slope gets slippery quickly. 

Riyadh Falcons vs G2 Minnesota

Two of the hardest teams to read in the league, Falcons and G2 square off in the final matchup of WR1. What looks like a talent (and budget) mismatch on paper, G2 was the team that made Sunday at Major 1. 

Capitalizing on Riyadh’s abysmal Search play is a potential path forward for Minnesota, as they did in their 3-2 win during the Qualifiers. On the other hand, Falcons will look to ride their 20-9 Stage 2 respawn record into the next round. One thing is for sure: expect a square-up on Kremplossus.

Detention

This Major is the first time since the MW2019 Homestands that teams will not be invited to play on LAN during the CDL regular season. The two unfortunate teams that will not be attending are the Boston Breach and Cloud9 New York.

Boston Breach

The Boston Breach had a glimmer of hope coming into the weekend that they would be able to climb from the basement of Major 2 Qualifying, but Vancouver’s win over the Falcons eliminated them before they even got a chance to play. They came into their series with Miami checked out, and it was a brutal 0-3 whimper to end their split.

With an extra week to mull over next moves, it doesn’t take an expert to see that Purj is most likely the man on the chopping block. His 0.87 season K/D is 46th of 48 active players (and even lower if you include players that have been dropped this season). He doesn’t have a positive K/D in any game mode, and has gone positive just twice in the 21 series Boston has played (and even one of those was against C9, which is like an MLB player getting to hit off a tee). Even Hicksy is cringing at those numbers.

Cloud9

With two spankings at the hands of Carolina and Vegas, Cloud9 ended their split with an abysmal 2-9 record, but that was likely two more wins than anyone expected of them. Still, the issues on this roster are glaringly obvious.

If you were wondering how Purj could have only the third-worst K/D, wonder no longer. The two worst K/Ds in the league reside on Cloud9 with Hide (0.85) and Okis (0.77). Unlike Purj, both of these two players do have a strong mode: SnD. In fact, Hide boasts a top 12 K/D in Search and is the owner of multiple double-digit kill games in the mode. 

Unfortunately, their ineptitude in respawns more than cancels out their Search prowess. Cloud9 is currently on a 12 map losing streak in Hardpoint. If it were up to me I’d scrap the whole roster and give Bush a call, but Cloud9 management seems to be content to sit on their money while their players continue to crater their stocks. 

TOP PERFORMERS

SupeR: With Miami hitting stride, SupeR has been leading the charge alongside his AR duo, RenKoR. SupeR finished the weekend with a 1.21 K/D, highlighted by his performance against Boston where he led the series in kills (59) and posted the highest K/D (1.34). We all know about his SnD prowess, and that continued this weekend with a 28/20 and seven First Blood performance across three maps. Even more impressive was his 1.76 K/D to go along with five goals in Overload.

Lurqxx: For the second week in a row Lurqxx takes a spot on the Full Wrap Team of the Week. Boasting a 1.25 on the weekend, Lurqxx’s 107 kills against C9 were the most on his team by twenty as he led the lobby in kills, K/D (1.45), and damage. He followed it up with a 1.08 in an upset win against Miami, again leading his team in kills. Lurqxx was a huge factor in Carolina’s 3-1 Hardpoint record on the weekend with a 1.42 in the mode while also averaging 75.5 seconds on the hill per map.

RenKoR: The other half of the Miami AR duo also made the cut, with RenKoR having another great weekend finishing with a 1.21 K/D. RenKoR was fighting back in their loss to the Ravens, ending with the most kills (102), damage (13,003), and the highest K/D (1.21). Matching his duo, RenKoR’s Overload was also insane, ending with a 1.54 K/D and two goals on the weekend.

Neptune: Despite the Gentle Mates 0-2 weekend, Neptune seemed back to his usual self with a 1.19. He opened the weekend with a 1.21 against FaZe with the most kills and least deaths of any player in the lobby. He followed that up with a 1.17 showing against the LA Thieves, again the best in the lobby. Neptune was especially proficient in respawns, with a 1.25 in Hardpoint maps and a 1.40 in Overload.