
Call of Duty Championship Pool E Preview
| Tags: Call of Duty
| Author Matt Pryor

Pool E overall provides one of the more interesting mixtures of teams of all the pools previously covered. Check out ESTNN’s recent breakdowns of Pool A, Pool B, Pool C and Pool D as we gear up for the final CWL Championship in an illustrious history. This championship feels different as we transfer over from Black Ops 4 to Modern Warfare. Professional Call of Duty will now graduate to franchising as the infancy of CoD Esports is soon coming to an end. Pool E contains the teams of Luminosity Gaming, UYU, Team Singularity and Vanity. LG and UYU qualified as professional teams with Team Singularity and Vanity being the amateurs.
Luminosity Gaming
The number one seed of this pool is Luminosity Gaming. This organization has seen its team change multiple times over the course of this year. Luminosity’s current roster includes Matthew “FormaL” Piper, Josiah “Slacked” Berry, Johnathan “John” Perez, Carson “Brack” Newberry and Cesar “Skyz” Bueno. John and Slacked are the mainstays on this roster, joined back in 2017 and 2016 respectively. FormaL joined LG after the end of the OpTic Gaming dynasty in May of 2018. Brack and Skyz are newer additions to the roster, having joined in June of this year replacing Gunless and Ricky.
LG has not escaped the dramatic stigma we often see in Call of Duty Esports. Gunless sank the roster after allegedly failing to show any effort in scrims or to show up on time. This led to Gunless effectively being put on reserve and Ricky coming out of his coaching role to play. The results were not all that bad for LG this season.
The Journey to the CWL Championship
At the CWL Las Vegas Open, they finished in fourth place and followed that up with a win at CWL Fort Worth. The next two events were CWL London and CWL Anaheim where LG finished T8 and T12 sequentially. Ricky played only at CWL Anaheim and some CWL Pro League matches with the main roster. LG finished in a disappointing T14 at the conclusion of the Pro League. Brack and Skyz joined in June and the team went on to qualify for the CWL Playoffs via that Playoffs Play-In. The playoffs yielded a T6 finish for Luminosity heading into the CWL Championship.
Although slowly spiraling downward, LG features a mixture of players capable of competing in any tournament. With FormaL leading the way, it feels as though LG is live for making a run this weekend in Los Angeles. Slacked and John are veterans who have seen their fair share of championships. With the Gunless drama and forgettable Pro League behind them, their sights are on ending the Major League Gaming era of Call of Duty on the highest note.
UYU
Coming in at the number two seed is UYU, which is a newer organization to competitive Call of Duty. UYU comprises Anthony “Methodz” Zinni, Rasim “Blazt” Ogresevic, Nicholas “Classic” DiCostanzo, Timothy “Phantomz” Landis and Renato “Saints” Forza. The team has undergone changes since the beginning of the season. To date, Methodz has been the only constant on the roster since late February. UYU picked up Saints, Classic, Phantomz and Blazt to finish out the CWL World League regular season. In 2019 majors, UYU have finished no better than T12. The end of this season saw UYU attempting to qualify for the CWL Pro League Playoffs via the Playoffs Play-In tournament. Although the team finished T4, they would just miss the cut and would not participate in the finals.
Outside of qualifying for the CWL Pro League, UYU has not done much of note through the Black Ops 4 season. Bringing in veteran players such as Saints and Classic might be the move they needed heading into the CWL Championship. This is evident by their performance at the previously mentioned Playoffs Play-In tournament. UYU is quietly flying under the radar in a pool that they could very well advance out of. LG is most definitely the favorite, but UYU is a team of consummate professionals who are capable of giving LG a run for their money.
Team Singularity
Our first amateur team and the third seed in Pool E is Team Singularity. Hailing primarily from England is the roster of Jed “Detain” Mulcahy, Jamie “Insight” Craven, Luke “Bidz” Biddle, Kian “Keza” Bonsor and Tobias “CleanX” Juul Jønsson. This organization has seen minimal team change after the CWL Las Vegas Open. The core squad of Detain, Insight, Bidz and Keza have remained on the Team Singularity roster for the duration of this season.
At the CWL Fort Worth Open, Singularity finished T12 and followed that up with a T8 at the CWL London Open. The balance of Team Singularity’s season has been spent playing Gamebattles tournaments. Their most recent LAN performance took place at the CWL Amateur Finals. It was here that Team Singularity secured a spot at the CWL Championship. After losing early in winners, their path led them through the losers bracket. It was in losers bracket where Singularity made all of their noise. The team rattled off four straight series wins, which ultimately landed them in a tie for sixth place. Singularity finally lost to Mazer Gaming in a close 3-2 series but accomplished what they set out to do. Keep an eye on this European team as they have teamed together for quite some time and have ample LAN experience.
Vanity
Rounding out Pool E is an amateur team by the name of Vanity. This team competed at the CWL Amateur Finals under eXcaliber or eXc for short. Their qualified CWL Championship roster contains Vincent “Reaper” LiCausi, Dylan “Deelo” Lowry, Joseph “Owakening” Conley, Landon “Landxnn” Hensarling and Phillip “Willett” Willet. This roster's only event prior to the amateur finals was a T48 at the CWL Anaheim Open.
The team now known as Vanity participated in the CWL Amateur Finals to see if they could qualify for the CWL Championship. This proved to be a wise decision as Vanity went on to place T12. All the team would need was two series wins to punch their ticket to CWL Champs. It is a tall order for Vanity to square up against two of the upper echelon professional teams. UYU and LG will prove to be tough tests for any amateur team should they match up at the CWL Championship.
Keeping up with the trend over the last two breakdowns, the professional teams remain as the favorites. There are not many amateur teams that can go toe-to-toe with the professional teams. Amateur teams need to recognize this opportunity as their chance to showcase what they are capable of. Franchising is happening next year in professional Call of Duty. The window for hopeful amateurs to become professional is rapidly closing. Team Singularity and Vanity are just two among the sixteen that needs to utilize what could be their final shot at competitive Call of Duty supremacy. Needless to say, LG and UYU know exactly what they need to do to advance and play in the Knockout Stage.
Featured image via Call of Duty.