Full Wrap #40

The script writers were working overtime this season. A new event winner every Major, OpTic silver surfing, another Thieves Champs crashout, and a last-minute rookie completely altering Champs once again. Black Ops 7 truly had it all.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE WEEKEND

im him dw about faze

After reaching the COD Champs Finals for four straight years (and winning two of them to boot), Simp seemingly faltered. He and the Atlanta FaZe trio failed to make the Champs Finals for three consecutive years, placing Top 6 the last two. With these shortcomings (no pun intended), Simp and his duo, aBeZy, finally split paths after seven seasons together. Sticking with Drazah and picking up last year’s silver surfers 04 and Abuzah, questions swirled about if he could reach the pinnacle of Call of Duty ever again. He responded very Simply: “im him dw about faze."

FaZe started their tournament against sixth-seeded G2. They dispatched them in just four maps, with Abuzah posting an absurd 1.42. Their second series was even quicker, a 3-0 against the Falcons, who looked like world beaters the previous day against the Thieves. This time Simp led the way with a 1.29, securing his first Top 3 finish in three years.

Next up was the Winners Final against OpTic Texas. Map 1 set the tone as OpTic led 245-212 on the last rotation to Grandma’s. FaZe would win the rotation and complete the comeback 250-245. Map 2 was FaZe’s turn to choke, turning a 4-2 lead into a 5-6 loss. OpTic easily won the Overload, but FaZe would strike back with two convincing map wins in a row to hand OpTic their second loss in a BO5 series on LAN this season.

The Grand Final was yet another matchup between two legendary organizations and, aptly, rife with storylines. OpTic and the duo of Shotzzy and Dashy were pining for their third consecutive World Championship, as well as two rings in the first two years of his career for Mercules. On the other side of the stage, Simp had finally returned to Grand Finals, bringing Drazah, who denied him a ring in Vanguard, as well as two runners-up from last year, Abuzah and 04, who were hungry for revenge.      

Map 1 showed us we were in for an absolute grueler. FaZe jumped out to a huge lead early, but OpTic refused to go away, slowly chipping away each hill until they took the lead late, never relinquishing it to go up 1-0. After a pause for Huke’s PC to be changed out, Map 2 delivered similar hype: a back-and-forth game culminating in a Round 11 where Huke was unable to deliver a 1v3 and FaZe tied up the series.

FaZe ripped off an incredible run the next three maps as their players took turns taking over. First Abuzah took over in Map 3, his 42 kills equalling Simp and 04’s kills combined in a 4-3 Scar Overload win. Next, it was Drazah’s turn to lead the charge with 39 kills as FaZe won the Scar Hardpoint 250-194 to go up 3-1.

After a (not so) brief delay as Dashy requested his PC was changed out, Simp dropped 14 kills in Map 5 while 04 and Abuzah closed out Round 11 with a 2v4 to take a seemingly insurmountable 4-1 lead. Championship Point.

Still, OpTic refused to go quietly into the night, striking back in the Overload with a 4-3 win. Map 7 was the third Search of the series, and ended with a third Round 11. The teams traded down to a 1v1 where Abuzah played the OpTic crowd to his advantage, faking a defuse to bait a reaction, then challing Mercules. 5-2 FaZe. GGWP.

OpTic Fan on Three Round 11s

One tournament to save a disappointing season and etch OpTic Texas into the history books with an accomplishment that would never be reached again. All of the 2nd places during the season would be forgotten with a win in Vegas. Unfortunately, another 2nd place at Champs would make the others even more memorable.

OpTic kicked off the event with a speedrun against the Miami Heretics, including a 6-0 victory in the Search. Dashy (1.30) and Huke (1.26) led the way in the K/D department, helping roll out the red carpet for Miami, and it was quickly onto the next round for the Green Wall.

Up next for OpTic, a rematch of the Major 4 Losers Finals against Gentle Mates. After cruising to a Map 1 victory, Paris fought back and evened the series 1-1, narrowly taking the SnD 6-4. 

Trailing 4-5 in the Overload with under 20 seconds to go, Mates got two kills, gained control of OpTic’s base, and had the device just a few feet from the goal. A tie seemed inevitable, but the only thing inevitable was a clutch play from Shotzzy, tucking himself in a corner, allowing Mates to run by before popping the game-winning two-piece. A near 100-point club in Map 4 would seal the victory and send OpTic to their sixth straight Winners Finals.

After falling to FaZe in the Winners Finals, OpTic found themselves matched up against an unlikely opponent in the Riyadh Falcons. After a dominant 250-153 victory from OpTic in Map 1, the Falcons replied with a 6-2 win in the Search, handing OpTic their first map loss in Losers this season. The winning for Riyadh wouldn’t last long, as OpTic dominated the respawns, taking the final two maps 7-2 and 250-155. A seventh straight Grand Finals ticket was punched.

FaZe showed us that it was their weekend and destiny to win in front of the home crowd, just like OpTic did in 2024. The only three-peat for OpTic was the three straight Round 11 losses that proved to be too much to overcome. Drazah’s CEO title has been renewed for 2027.

Alluka Doncic

The Falcons entered Champs as an afterthought, coming off a Top 12 placing at the previous event and failing to find any success on LAN all season. In addition, they signed a rookie in Alluka who had zero LAN experience and were forced to bring KiSMET back after Neptune decided he’d be better off sitting at home than he would be playing with this roster.

A matchup with Thieves in the first round was all but a death sentence, and the ambulance was called, but not for the Falcons. Riyadh dominated Map 1, taking it 250-109 thanks to ridiculous performances from Alluka (1.81) and Cellium (1.80). Map 2 was more of the same, with Cellium going 8/2 en route to a 6-1 victory. LAT briefly teased us with the potential of a reverse sweep, taking the Overload, but Exnid popped takeover in Map 4, finishing 36/23 to help send the Thieves to the Losers Bracket. Scrap, next time listen to ACHES.

FaZe halted the Falcons' momentum, making them look like potential one-hit wonders with a swift 3-0 sweep. Riyadh fell to Losers to take on the Heretics, where they found their footing once again. This time it was the Falcons doing the sweeping, outslaying Miami by a whopping 55.

Next on the Falcons' hit list, the Paris Gentle Mates. Riyadh jumped out to a 2-0 lead, but Paris had the answer, reality-checking the Falcons and threatening a reverse sweep by forcing a Map 5. Luckily for the Falcons, Search and Destroy was their bread and butter this weekend, ending the event with the highest win rate in the mode at 83.3%. Map 5 proved to be no different. Riyadh rallied off 4-straight rounds after falling behind 4-2 to take the series. Alluka led the way with a 1.10 K/D, including an 11/5 performance in Map 5.

Losers Finals proved to be the end of the run for the Falcons, as OpTic and FaZe both showed that they were far ahead of the rest of the competition this weekend. Nonetheless, Alluka is here to stay in the CDL.

M8 in 4

Don’t do a spit take: The Gentle Mates failed to place in the Top 3 during a weekend where the Thieves failed to show up. After eeking out three close maps against the Toronto Flounders in Winners’ Round 1, OpTic sent the Mates to the Losers’ Bracket 3-1, winning all three respawns. 

Paris took advantage of the gift of playing G2 instead of the Thieves with a dominant 3-0, with Estreal dropping a 1.37 with almost 9,000 damage in just three maps. 

After dropping the first two maps to the surprisingly competent Falcons, the Gentle Mates stormed back with two maps of their own before falling in Map 5 to place Top 4.

Still, the most exciting part of their weekend may have come after their tournament was over; on the walk back Sib (allegedly) spit on a fan on the way out, inciting a near fight as security had to step in to save him.

Scrap the Super Team

If I had a nickel for every time Scrap failed to win a series in the same weekend he was awarded season MVP, I’d have two nickels, which isn’t much, but I’m surprised to have any. For the second year in a row the LA Thieves exited the biggest tournament of the year without winning a single series. It gets even better; the 2x MVP Scrap posted the worst Champs K/D of any player ever (0.71) after trying and failing to get his PC swapped. But hey, on the bright side, aBeZy secured his highest-ever Champs placing without Simp, beating his Top 24 placing from WW2.

With EWC around the corner and the future of LAT up in the air, it’s possible we only get to see the Thieves duo of Scrap and HyDra once more. Then again, we’ve seen EWC save teams that shouldn’t stay together before.

CHALLENGERS RECAP

OMiT Running Circles

For the fourth consecutive year, OMiT put a team into the Challengers Champs finals. And for the third time, they won it. This year they did it without a single former pro on their team as they faced off with Project Notorious, a team composed of four former pros. Keep an eye on Aspekt, DK, Denza, and Ethan at EWC, as you’re likely to see a couple of them in the CDL next season.

TOP PERFORMERS

Abuzah: Champs MVP could have gone to Abuzah, and nobody would have batted an eye. He finished the event with the second best K/D (1.21), was the damage leader in Hardpoint while collecting the third most hill time (both per 10 minutes), and scored the third most goals (8) at the event.

Cellium: We hadn’t seen Cellium hit this level of play over an entire event all season, but finally he found his old form. Cell led Champs in K/D (1.22), BP Rating (1.18), and SnD K/D (1.57). If this version of MC shows up at EWC, we could see the Falcons in their first ever Grand Final.

Simp: Mr. MVP is back on top and deservedly so. Simp finished the weekend with the second best BP Rating (1.14), fourth best K/D (1.14), and the third best SnD K/D (1.43) while posting the second most kills per round (0.86). His impact was felt on each and every map, and he now has FaZe positioned as favorites heading into EWC.

Alluka: Alluka Doncic, Alluka Nacua, whatever you want to call him, Alluka has arrived. He finished his first ever event with the second best BP Rating (1.14), sixth best K/D (1.13), and fourth best SnD K/D (1.32) to go along with the third most kills per round (0.85). The Champs lights were far from being too bright for this rookie sensation. Sorry, ZooMaa.