Full Wrap #4

Welcome to LAN. Again. The Tiny Terrors on Treyarch games continue to be a scary sight for the rest of the league. The face-to-face setups that have now become a staple at OpTic-hosted events brought trash talk out of even the quietest players.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE WEEKEND

FaZe Are The Final Boss

Unstoppable is an understatement. FaZe haven’t lost a series on LAN since MW3 Champs, extending their streak to 13 straight wins this weekend. LAN was exactly what FaZe’s Search needed. Having looked shaky during the online split, winning only 4 of their 10 Search maps, they cleaned it up for a flawless 5-0 at Major 2.

Similar to Major 1, FaZe made quick work of their first two opponents, only dropping a single map. Not a bad warmup. A matchup with the Surge in the Winners’ Finals gave FaZe an opportunity to avenge their only two losses of Stage 2, but Vancouver didn’t go down without a fight, forcing a map 5 round 11. To nobody’s surprise, aBeZy found first blood in the biggest round of the tournament, leading to a FaZe series win. It seemed that the Surge let their opportunity slip.

FaZe wasn’t looking to go the distance again in the Grand Finals, speedrunning the Surge in a swift 4-0 fashion. Cellium popped takeover in the Grand Finals, posting a CDL record 1.72 K/D, while also leading the series in kills and damage. His AR duo, Drazah, capped off his phenomenal Stage 2 with a 1.28 K/D in Grand Finals and let the SMG duo kick their feet up. FaZe up, you can’t do it too.

The Major 2 victory locked in the first three-peat for FaZe and the first three-peat since the OpTic Dynasty in Black Ops 3. FaZe will have the chance to match OpTic’s four straight event wins at Major 3. If it’s still in question, will the dynasty be cemented?

Surge Caught In The Deep End

For all of Surge’s success since picking up Neptune, one question still remained: Could they do it on LAN? The answer was a resounding “yes.” Their form from qualifiers carried over in the form of a second-place finish as they dispatched of Carolina, Boston, and Toronto. Their Grand Finals appearance marked the first LAN final for Abuzah, 04, and Neptune. Unfortunately, that would be the only first for them, as they found the Grand Finals lights too bright. 04 was just supposed to be a name, not a suggestion.

If you had asked anyone at the beginning of the year what they thought Surge’s strongest mode would be, most would have likely answered Search with 04 leading the charge. However, the Winners' Finals Search would prove to be their undoing in a Neslo loss. They dropped maps 2, 3, and 5 with 04 mustering only eleven kills across twenty-one rounds. Has their dominance over FaZe ended?  

Aside from their 2-7 map count against the champs from FaZe, Vancouver handled their business. They were 9-2 in map count against the rest of the field, drowning everyone with their stifling pace and pressure in respawns. Neptune made sure his presence was felt on the map, but his trash talk left much to be desired. Polite trash talk was not on my bingo board.

Ultra Instinct

For a team from the Great White North, Toronto opened the Major with a distinct lack of ice. They were swept by C9NY in nearly the closest possible 3-0 as they lost 248-250, 5-6, and 2-3. Whatever regain they hit on Thursday night was much needed as they reeled off four straight 3-0 victories against LAGM8, OpTic, Breach, and Thieves to secure a top 3 placing. Their Control was on point, with a 12-1 round count across the four series.

Ultra’s Losers’ Bracket run had Beans roaring against every opponent. Claiming he doesn’t start the trash talk, he certainly doesn’t hold back once he gets going. Aura farming on Sunday, Beans brought out the Shrek Crocs, which weren’t enough to beat Surge and reach their first finals of the post-Scrap era. The new Ultra duo of Joe and Beans might make their CEO’s promise of being better than Thieves in 2025 come true if they keep this level of play up.

Missing: Super Team

After a 10-0 Stage 2, the Thieves were a no-show on day one of the Major. Snoopy came out hot, leading the series in kills with 101 and K/D with a 1.19 to secure the first Major victory of his career. Not the type of history the Thieves were looking to be a part of.

A Losers’ Bracket run seemed inevitable for a team of this caliber, and after losing map 1 against the Heretics, LAT was able to stabilize and win nine straight maps to reach Sunday. The wins finally had Scrap back to his regular ways, trash talking across the stage and even calling out the Ravens players’ haircuts. Unfortunately for Scrap, Thieves would be the ones with the not-so-nice haircuts on Sunday.

All of their momentum was quickly shut down in the JoeDeceives revenge match. Joe’s 1.47 helped hand Thieves an embarrassing 3-0 loss and gave Nadeshot another opportunity to crash out. Sticking to Marvel Rivals might be the better choice for the future.

Ring Buff Not Enough

Major 2 opened with a novelty: a Call of Duty ring ceremony. Last year’s championship roster was presented with their rings in front of their home crowd and presumably their new teammate Skyz, whom they beat in the Grand Finals of Champs. Despite his recent woes and decision to step down from the starting roster, the crowd chanted “Thank you Kenny” in a touching moment.

The Green Wall was given some hope on Friday that the Skyz pickup would lead to some success as they dispatched Rokkr easily, with Pred returning to his LAN form in his LAN debut for BO6. If you’re going to talk trash to Pred online, you better show up on LAN. Rokkr, more specifically Nero, did not, and Pred made sure to let him know. I’m sure he said something along the lines of “GG’s, you guys played great!”

That hope was short-lived as OpTic were easily handled by Toronto, failing to reach the Grand Finals in their home Major for the first time in CDL history. OpTic’s investment in Skyz mirrored the recent performance of the NASDAQ-100, with less return than hoped for. He ended the event with a lowly 0.72. Turns out you need to be able to shoot against teams that don’t include PaulEhx too.

Not So Ultra Champs

The announcement we were all waiting for, and the crowd goes mild. Champs will take place from June 26th to the 29th in Kitchener, Ontario.

What teams will be at Champs has never been less clear. Teams 6th to 10th are separated by only 20 CDL points, and with 10 qualifier matches and two Major’s remaining, the time to earn points is now.

After winning Champs in Infinite Warfare, OpTic failed to make bracket play at Champs the following year. Could OpTic face the same fate this season?

TOP PERFORMERS

Cellium: McVP was dominant at Major 2. He turned in a 1.30 overall performance, a stat line that might be unusual for another player, but just another day at the office for him. What was unusual was his pace. He has shed the anchor he has carried with him the past three years and is pushing engagements. He led all of FaZe in kills with 324.

Neptune: The player with the biggest question mark entering the weekend showed out and then some. Posting a 1.1 overall K/D while making the Grand Finals, Neptune was the steady slayer Vancouver was looking for. The most impressive part might be just how many kills he’s getting, finishing the weekend with two 100+ kill series that both came in just four maps. Next, just work on the trash talk.

JoeDeceives: Joe thrust himself into the superstar discussion this weekend with a 1.17 event K/D across six series. He put an exclamation point on his performance with a 1.47 against supposed super team LAT. This begs the question, “I got dropped for that?”

Dashy: One bright spot in an otherwise forgettable event for OpTic was how Dashy played alongside Skyz. His 1.13 doesn’t jump off the page, but it was the damage he was putting down, leading all players in Hardpoint damage per ten minutes across the weekend. Maybe a sign of things to come for Big Bruce.

Gio: Despite a T12 exit, Gio proved that he can slay with top teams. He was the lone positive Rokkr player in both of their series in an 0-6 weekend with a 1.10 against FaZe and a whopping 1.37 against OpTic. Hardpoint was where Gio did most of his damage, putting up a 1.5 K/D in the mode while leading in kills per ten minutes by three kills over second place.

ON THE HOT SEAT

Vegas Falcons: Whose seat isn’t hot on this team? This roster has still yet to find a win in Hardpoint, let alone a series, and their players have been playing musical chairs with their starting spots. It has already been confirmed that D7oomx will be stepping down due to personal reasons, but will that be the only roster change made? Could we see the return of Khhx, who has been playing with Team Falcons in European Challengers?

Minnesota Rokkr: PaulEhx. Rokkr finished the split with a middling 3-4 record, good enough for the 7 seed. Despite this, they exited both Major and Minor 2 with T12 finishes. Paul currently has the worst K/D in the league of any active non-Falcons player with a 0.86. Worse than that, he dropped a 0.58 on the weekend. Has Paul played his last CDL match?

Los Angeles Guerrillas M8: Priestahh. LAGM8 had the worst K/D of any team at this event, and that includes the Vegas Falcons. With the season halfway over, they find themselves 70 points out of a Champs spot with no turnaround in sight. The most obvious change is Priestahh, who has already been dropped once this year. Since winning MWII Champs with the Subliners, Priestahh has not won a single LAN series and turned in an abysmal 0.63 at Major 2.

Miami Heretics:  Lucky. Miami currently holds the 8th and final Champs spot, but their grasp is tenuous. This weekend was a disaster for them as Boston’s upset of LAT meant they needed to beat the all-star roster to score any points. They failed to do so. Despite the loss, most of the roster showed they can slay with the big guns. ReeaL dropped a 1.31, and RenKoR solidified his bid for Rookie of the Year with a 1.14. Even MettalZ finished the 3-1 loss positive. Lucky was the lone slaying anchor on the team, posting a pitiful 0.74. Could his luck have turned?