Full Wrap #33

The final week of Qualifiers provided some much-needed upsets after the predictability of the early matches of Stage 3. Some teams tanked their seed, and others grabbed much-needed wins and precious CDL points heading into the LAN. We also saw a day where all seven Search maps finished 6-4; the script writers need to lock in.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE WEEKEND

Undefeated Curse is Alive

Coming into the weekend, OpTic was looking to complete an undefeated Stage 3 Qualifier with two of their toughest matches remaining against the likes of Gentle Mates and FaZe. With the Champs' curse already working against them, why not add another?

OpTic came out hot against Mates, jumping out to an 81-12 lead after just two hills. The lead carried throughout the map, eventually getting to 227-134 before Paris woke up and brought it to within just six points at 241-235. A Dashy two-piece helped OpTic avoid an early series choke to close out the opening Hardpoint.

That was as close as Gentle Mates would get all series, with OpTic slamming them 6-1 in the Search and 5-2 in the Overload, handing Mates their first loss of the Stage 3 Qualifiers.

Next up for OpTic was FaZe, a Major 2 Grand Finals rematch. The series lived up to the hype from start to finish. Map 1 was a back and forth affair that came down to one final break from OpTic to close it out 250-243 in what was a duel between Shotzzy (34/26) and Simp (39/27).

Looking to even up the series, FaZe found seven First Bloods in Map 2 but were unable to consistently convert them into round wins, losing 6-4. Mercules 10/5 led the way for OpTic, with 04 likely feeling costed after his 13/6, four First Blood performance.

Finally, FaZe found their footing in the Overload, taking it 4-2 thanks to another dominant respawn from Simp (34/24). That momentum kept rolling into Map 4, this time taking the Hardpoint 250-183, outslaying OpTic by 9. Not enough gun power, though.

Another SnD and another First Blood battle won by FaZe, this time 6-4. On a bang-out map like Plaza, you’d expect the First Blood battle to be very telling, but it was OpTic who came out victorious 6-4, in quick round after quick round.

First seed secured and onto Major 3. Anything short of an event win will be a failure for the Green Wall.

Minor Hangover

Coming into the weekend, the Thieves were sitting pretty at the top of the standings with a 3-0 series record to go along with their Minor win. But this weekend, everything seemed to go wrong.

Their weekend started strong with a 2-1 lead against the Carolina Royal Ravens, but Carolina ran away with Map 4 in the last hill, tying the series at 2 maps apiece. In Map 5 Scrap did his best to make an impact with 9 kills, five of which were First Bloods, but it wasn’t enough to overcome Craze’s 10 kills as the Ravens stunned the Thieves and snapped their six-series win streak.

LAT’s second series was with G2, and a bad weekend turned even worse. Nium, whose arrival has rejuvenated the Thieves season, posted his worst series to date. In an ode to his predecessor Kenny, the rookie put up just 64 kills in a 0.76 performance. His teammates didn’t fare much better as they rolled out the red carpet while Estreal ran wild, dropping a 1.35 on their foreheads.

From what looked like an easy path to the top seed at Major 3, the Thieves fumbled at the one-yard line and took a tumble down to the third seed.

Hot Down the Stretch

KOI came into the weekend holding onto a 2-1 record, but an excellent weekend spearheaded by MVP hopeful JoeDeceives shot them up the standings heading into Major 3. 

Toronto opened their weekend with a DoorDash 3-0 victory against the Vancouver Surge. The only notable map was the Search, where TJHaLy’s 16 kills were not enough to overcome the sub duo of KOI combining for 25 kills in a Round 11 thriller. 

Somewhat surprisingly, the glorified Challenger team Cloud9 put up a much better fight. They grabbed an early lead in the Hardpoint, but KOI was able to battle back and hold on for a 250-194 win.

Cloud9 would take the Search (surprise, surprise) as their only map win, clutching up in Round 11. The Overload was over before it started as KOI ran away with it 6-1.

Map 4 turned into an absolute barnburner. In the end, KOI managed to clutch a 250-233 win to end the series on the back of Joe’s 49 kills, but Encourage had a valiant effort in response with 45 kills of his own.

The 2-0 weekend for KOI catapulted them to 4-1, while both the Thieves and Paris failed to win a match, leaving Toronto a surprise second seed heading into Major 3.

Meet the AMs

Finally, Challenger teams will once again have the opportunity to compete against the pros this upcoming weekend. Four AM teams fought their way into pool play with the hope of upsetting a CDL team. Although beating Cloud9 wouldn’t be an upset.

Winners of the last Open in Birmingham, P7 Notorious come in as the most highly touted Challenger team from NA. They had to make a slight tweak from their championship roster, swapping Afro out for Snoopy when he got called up to Boston, but the rest of the team remained the same with Beans, Diamondcon, and EriKBooM rounding out the roster. Since adding Snoopy, P7 has won the latest NA Elite and placed 1st and 2nd in two Cups. They will play Thieves, who are coming off two losses and will definitely need to tighten things up to avoid a catastrophic upset.

ROC Esports was the other team that qualified through the Birmingham Open as runners-up to P7. An all-Saudi roster playing out of EMEA, the team has turned heads this season, winning the Dallas Open, the most recent EMEA Elite, and two Cups. They roster two former Falcons players, Khhx, the Black Ops 6 CDL K/D leader (1.19), and d7oom, with Rxld and d7om joining them. We’ll find out just how legit this team is in their opening series against FaZe.

Potentially the most popular amateur roster, Huntsmen, OpTic’s second team, qualified by finishing as runners-up in the last NA Elite to P7 after beating them in the Winners’ Finals. Huntsmen have been built around Halo Infinite MVP, Renegade, all season and currently are made up of some Challengers reapers and misfits. Brack and oJohnny have had multiple stints in the CDL, while Swooty, the former Splitgate World Champ, has played his best COD since joining the team. They will take on KOI and Huntsmen alumni Kips in their first series.

Lastly, OMiT Noir earned their way to Major 3 after also finishing as runners-up at the latest EMEA Elite. The most unknown team that qualified, with head coach Bance leading the way. Their roster is Aspekt, Denza, DK, and Ethan, with Ethan making his LAN debut this weekend. Congrats on qualifying; you get to play OpTic.

TOP PERFORMERS

JoeDeceives: Joe continued his tear through the CDL this weekend with two more outstanding performances. He finished 177/120 (1.48), including a 117-kill performance in just four maps against Cloud9. He was especially effective in Hardpoint, where he put up a 1.49 in three maps, including a 49/30 performance in Map 4 against C9. His 1.37 for the Major 3 Qualifiers was the second all-time for a qualifying stage K/D (second to only Cxtbuff Zinni), and with it, he leapfrogged RenKoR for the top K/D of any player this season. 

Estreal: G2 may have split their weekend 1-1, but Estreal was consistently their best player. He finished the weekend at 183/147 (1.24). His best mode was Hardpoint, where he was 112/79 (1.42) in four maps. He owned the top K/D of any Minnesota member in both series but was especially effective in G2’s 3-1 win over LAT with a 1.35.

Pred: It’s been quite some time since Pred made TOTW, in fact all the way back to Stage 1, but the Aussie has returned. Finishing 170/140 (1.21) and helping the Falcons secure two wins, it was hard to keep him off. His SnD was a standout this weekend, going 25/16 to go along with four First Bloods, in what has been a massive pain point for Riyadh this season.

Huke: Huke the Nuke has been phenomenal all season, and this weekend was no different. 164/143 (1.15) en route to two more wins for OpTic; it’s become routine for him at this point. His best performance was his 1.36 in the sweep against Gentle Mates, although icing up with a 10/4 Map 5 against FaZe was the most important.