It has been a little over a week since Major I and with the next Call of Duty qualifier starting this weekend, it is a good time to refresh who is the best in the league. The early part of the year has seen some surprises, even in the league’s top third. So, let’s start with the top three CDL squads.
After the start FaZe had to the year it may surprise some to see them at the number one spot in the Call of Duty League, but when you win Major I in an all-time series against the LA Thieves you deserve the top spot.
At Major I, FaZe started hot by sweeping both the Boston Breach and Toronto Ultra before going into an Upper Finals matchup with the LA Thieves. FaZe would start that match slow going down 0-2 before winning the Control (CTL) Hacienda and they had all the momentum after that leading to a reverse sweep of the Thieves. FaZe had to wait for a bit before their next match, but the Thieves would find their way back into the Grand Finals. The series went to game seven with FaZe winning a Skyline Search-and-Destory (SnD) leading to the series and Major victory.
FaZe was dominant in every mode by the end of the first section of the year. The squad would go 17-9 in Hardpoint and 14-7 in SnD, leading to this dominant start to the year. Their “weakest” mode is Control as the team stands at 9-7 overall, but that is sparked by them starting badly going 2-5 on Vault.
Chris “Simp” Lehr, aka “Mr. MVP”, ended up with another Major MVP to take home and McArthur “Cellium” Jovel was one of the best AR’s at the Major. Heading into the Major, FaZe had slow starts from Cellium and Zach “Drazah” Jordan, but they turned it up at the Major. With both AR’s going and the “Tiny Terrors” being active, Faze is the team to beat and all other teams should be afraid.
The “Superteam” of the Call of Duty League got off to a great start to the season, but they have a bad taste in their mouth after Major I.
They would have a similar route to FaZe in the bracket starting by beating the Carolina Royal Ravens 3-1 and sweeping the Miami Heretics in the next series. The Thieves would lose to FaZe in the Upper Finals, leading to a rematch with the Heretics. It would be another sweep of the Heretics leading to another rematch with FaZe. That series would summarize that the Thieves looked great in Hardpoint while taking one Control, but lost all three SnDs off of some bad mistakes and play calls.
This summary doesn’t do it justice, if anyone is new to the CDL or wants all the details watch the series because it is an all-time series in CDL history.
The Thieves were the best respawn mode team in the game going into the Major and they outmuscled a lot of teams in respawn going 16-8 in Hardpoint and 10-4 in Control. Their main issue is the SnD being 8-12 in the early slate of the year.
The biggest concern with that is the fact that Paco “Hydra” Rusiewiez has a 0.78 SnD K/D ratio. Hydra is a player who has had a positive K/D ratio in SnD throughout his illustrious CDL career. He is a hard player to get a read on and he will cause chaos, but early this year he hasn’t done that. It could be a growing period for him as he isn’t with his longtime teammate Matthew “KiSMET” Tinsley and hasn’t quite gelled with the other Thieves yet.
Outside of that key issue within SnD, the Thieves are still a scary team that could out-talent every other team except FaZe right now. They need to iron out the SnD to enhance their chances of a Major win, and to get confidence going for Hydra in the mode. As it stands right now, the Thieves have not moved in this writer’s power rankings.
This number three spot was a difficult one to decide on as the Call of Duty League is currently two teams, then everyone else.
The Ravens rocking the Carolina blues drew the short straw to start the Major having to face off against the LA Thieves and getting knocked down to the losers bracket losing 3-1. The Ravens would face the Vegas Falcons and sweep them before having to face OpTic Texas. The first match of the series was the only close game as the Ravens would shove OpTic out of the tournament. After beating the number one-seeded OpTic, Carolina had to face another top squad in the Toronto Ultra. Carolina would beat them in a way that the Ultra haven’t seen this year, by taking both SnDs.
While they were on a deep losers bracket run they ran into the “Hometown Heroes” in the Miami Heretics. The Ravens would have their wings clipped by the Heretics leaving Major I in fourth.
The first section of the year for the Ravens was great for them. Not many had them as a top-five squad, but they got off to a hot start. Their main issue in both the Major and late in the first qualifiers was their inconsistencies in Hardpoint. Overall, they went 13-15 in the mode. It is a weird thing to say because the main issue the squad had early was that Reece “Vivid” Drost had a slow start to the year as they dominated every mode early on. The squad is still great at SnD and Control, but “Neslo’ing” isn’t the way to win consistently.
This squad is built to dominate through their SMGs in Thomas “TjHaly” Haly and Isaiah Gwinn, so their floor is high. For deep runs in Majors, they need a little more from one of Vivid or Austin “Slasher” Liddicoat. The Ravens are still flying high and teams should still fear them in any scenario, but they showed weaknesses through the Major.
These squads are the best in the CDL right now before the next qualifiers and the gap between them and the next three isn’t that wide. Next time we will cover that next tier.
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