Call of Duty: 3 Things We Learned From CDL Florida

A week on from CDL Florida, we take a look at three things we learned from the past weekend.

Toronto could be a dark horse

Toronto Ultra made it to the Semi-Finals of CDL Florida — defeating both The New York Subliners and The Minnesota Rokkr 3-1 to make it out of the group stages 2-0. Anthony ‘Methodz’ Zinni topped the charts with a 1.28 overall K/D throughout the weekend. The Toronto Ultra sat bottom of the CDL Standings on only 20 CDL points before this weekend. Many people, including us ranked them as one of the lowest teams in the League, coming 11th in our power rankings. But they proved in Florida that they have the talent to beat some of the best teams and compete with the rest of the league.

In a surprise Semi-Final matchup, Toronto fell short to the new roster of OpTic Gaming. They don’t play at CDL Seattle, but they’ll be back in Minnesota. Looking to prove that this past weekend wasn’t a one off occurrence, and they can be a consistently good team.

New York Subliners aren't a one weekend wonder

After the New York Subliners defeated the hosts; and took Atlanta FaZe to a game five at the Chicago Home Series, many placed them as a top six team straight away. However, we needed to see more. It was completely plausible that New York could come out this weekend, not perform and go straight back down the rankings. But that wasn't the case. After a rocky start losing 3-1 to Toronto Ultra, NYSL bounced back defeating the hosts (yes we know, they must have a thing for this) Florida Mutineers in a 3-0 sweep. Before taking down Minnesota Rokkr 3-0 later on to qualify for the Semi-Finals.

In the Semis they faced off against Atlanta FaZe, taking them to a game five once again. Unfortunately for NYSL, they fell short in the SnD and lost the series 3-2. There are some positives though. Yes, New York haven't found their way to a Final yet. But next week their group consists of London, LAG and Seattle. Meaning that if they can make it out of the group, they'll face off against either Chicago, Minnesota, OpTic or Paris in the semis, giving them a very good chance to make the final.

The Mutineers are in deep waters

The Florida Mutineers found themselves flooded out of their own Home Series 0-2 after 3-0 sweeps from the Minnesota Rokkr and New York Subliners. With Frosty and Maux finishing the weekend with the 2nd and 3rd worst K/D’s at 0.73 and 0.76 respectively, things didn't look good for the Mutineers. After an exceptional showing at the Dallas Home Series where they won the event, it was a drastic change to their performances at their own Home Series. In the series against New York, Florida found themselves 5-2 up in SnD, about to tie the series 1-1.

But they couldn't close the game out, and lost it 6-5 resulting in another 3-0 sweep. Florida Mutineers are a good team, maybe something was just off this weekend and it's a one time thing. But it needs to be fixed soon — with teams like OpTic and Toronto now stepping up, the league is becoming closer than ever. If they don't return to their Dallas Home Series form, they could find themselves falling down the CDL standings.

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Images: Astro Gaming