Call of Duty: CWL Championship Day Four Recap

The competition has reached new heights at the CWL Championship. Thus far, we have seen early exits from unexpected teams and some other surprises along the way. Chief among the surprises so far is the early exit of FaZe at the hands of 100T. The intense set between these two prestigious organizations set the stage for what we were to expect heading deeper into bracket play. With heavy-hitters such as OpTic Gaming, Evil Geniuses, Reciprocity and Luminosity Gaming still involved, it was difficult to predict how day four would play out.

Winners Round Two

As the Knockout Stage has progressed, teams of similar skill sets squared off against one another. In somewhat of a rivalry series, JKap and Evil Geniuses opposed Clayster and eUnited. This was one of the higher intensity matches of the day. Both EG and eU went back-and-forth, which eventually culminated in a game five Search and Destroy. The game was extremely close all the way through, but eUnited did just enough, ultimately winning game five with a score of 6-3. Clayster promptly taunted former teammate JKap as the two settled a longstanding rivalry since their roster dispute earlier this season.

In another closely contested match, Reciprocity narrowly defeated Luminosity Gaming in a 3-2 series victory. Luminosity Gaming and Team Reciprocity battled to a series-deciding round eleven in Search and Destroy. LG collapsed when it mattered most falling to Reciprocity after having bomb planted and only down one player. Reciprocity effectively sent FormaL and his squad packing to the losers bracket where some excellent teams awaited.

OpTic Gaming continued their winner’s bracket win by defeating Enigma6 with a series score of 3-1. OpTic has played outstanding since the start of the CWL Championship. The fourth and final series of winners round two pitted amateurs, Sicario Gaming, against Units. Units quickly ousted Sicario Gaming on the winner’s side. The series' final score was 3-1, but Sicario Gaming showed some promise while making the final Hardpoint match extremely competitive. Overall, we had the next batch of teams to advance in the winner's bracket. Team Reciprocity, eUnited, OpTic Gaming and Units made it to winners round four, guaranteeing them no worse than sixth-place finish.

Losers Round Two

With high-level teams such as 100T and Evil Geniuses in the loser's bracket, the amateur teams hand their hands full. Round two of the losers bracket saw the exit of all three of the Knockout Stage amateur qualifiers. Team Singularity and Sicario Gaming lost 3-1 series to Luminosity Gaming and 100 Thieves respectively. Team WaR made their bracket run somewhat interesting, but Enigma6 defeated the Europeans with a score of 3-2. With all of the amateurs teams out of the competition, the only remaining losers round two series matched Evil Geniuses against Elevate Gaming. EG made quick and simple work of Elevate, sweeping them 3-0. Evil Geniuses, 100 Thieves, Enigma6 and Luminosity Gaming rounded out the remaining teams in the losers bracket.

Winners Round Four

The two winners round four matches provided OpTic Gaming against Team Reciprocity and eUnited against Units. It did not take much for eUnited to quickly dispatch of Units. The final score of the series was 3-0 in favor of Clayster’s squad. After coming in with all of the hype in the world, eUnited was delivering on all expectations. With the demolishing of Units, eUnited secured a spot in winners finals against the winner of OpTic and Reciprocity.

The team of Scump, Karma, Crimsix, TJHaly and Dashy would have little trouble with Reciprocity. OpTic went up 2-0 in the series and proceeded the lose the game three Control. This proved not too much of an issue as OpTic bounced back nicely, taking game four over Reciprocity to secure a winner's finals position against eUnited. OpTic versus eUnited is precisely the kind of series we have been waiting for, where two of the best teams are competing to see who makes it to the Grand Finals. Both teams have decisively handled their opponents to this point of the CWL Championship.

Losers Bracket Round Three

After the exit of all amateurs teams in losers round three, the competition narrowed down to just six remaining teams. Enigma6 matched up against Luminosity Gaming to decide who would play Units in losers semi-finals. The end result saw E6 taking the series over LG in a shocking turn of events. Momentum swung in favor of E6 in game four, where they had no issue against LG in Hardpoint. This set the stage for a decisive game five, where E6’s GodRx and Mayhem played unbelievably. The two of them combined for twenty kills en route to a dominant 6-1 final score in Search and Destroy. With that result, LG finished their CWL Championship run in a tie for eighth place. This most certainly was not the result LG was looking for after barely making it out of their pool.

The other side of losers round three had 100 Thieves going up against Evil Geniuses. EG had nothing to offer 100 Thieves, and it showed. 100T took three straight games to eliminate Evil Geniuses from the CWL Championship. This is the kind of result expected when one of the best teams all season is sent to losers bracket early on. Since their first-round loss to LG, 100 Thieves has only dropped one map on their way to a losers semi-finals matchup against Reciprocity.

Only six teams remain in the final CWL Championship of the MLG era. All the action will culminate in what is sure to be a Grand Finals for the ages. At this stage of the competition, every team is capable of earning the CWL Championship rings that often elude even the best players. The action resumes on Championship Sunday at 1 pm Eastern where the remaining teams in the loser's bracket will look to continue on in the tournament. Here is the bracket as it stands, heading into the final day of the competition:

Stay tuned as ESTNN concludes coverage of the CWL Championship on Championship Sunday.

Photos via Robb McCormick and Call of Duty World League.