Call of Duty League Playoffs – Day 1 Recap

As Day 1 of the Call of Duty League Playoffs concludes we take a look back at both games, going through the scores, some notable stats and any major talking points.

Paris Legion 3-0 Seattle Surge (Elimination Round One)

Paris Legion started off strong taking the Hardpoint 250-110 in one of the best played Gun Runner Hardpoint’s we’ve seen all season. They rotated perfectly and outplayed the Seattle Surge with ease. A poor 0.41 K/D from Nicholas “Proto” Maldonado was the worst on the Surge, while everyone else was around even.

The Search and Destroy went the way of Paris Legion; finishing 6-4 in their favour. But Seattle Surge had many chances to win that map and did not take them. A nice 1v2 win from Conrad “Shockz” Rymarek saw Paris take the 5-4 lead and go on to win the SnD. However, there were multiple 2v1 opportunities like this one that Seattle Surge failed to close out — and that is what cost them the game. Sam “Octane” Larew put up a massive 14 kills in the Search and Destroy. He tried his hardest to pull the Seattle Surge through, but his work alone wasn't enough.

Finally Paris Legion swept the series 3-0 after a 153-150 Domination. However this was once more a case of Seattle beating themselves rather than Paris playing extremely well. There were two occasions in this series where Seattle could’ve fully capped a flag and instead just neutralized, this cost them valuable points and ended in them being swept 3-0 and eliminated from Playoffs.

Notable Stats

• Most Kills: Octane – 52
• Highest K/D: Octane – 1.29
• Most 1vX Wins: Shockz – 2
• Highest Avg Hill Time: Louqa – 110s

OpTic Gaming Los Angeles 3-2 Los Angeles Guerrillas

OpTic Gaming went 1-0 down in the series following a 250-217 Hardpoint victory for the Los Angeles Guerrillas, however this is when we saw our first glimpse at what may be to come during these online Playoffs. Kenny “Kuavo” Williams lagged out of the match, leaving OpTic to play 4vs5 for the final 3 hills of the match. According to Kenny and his teammates he was being booted offline by somebody. This is something which many fans and players have speculated would happen, and it only took until the second series.

Kenny returned for the Search and Destroy and here OpTic Gaming made a statement, winning 6-4 and securing some extremely dominant rounds. Austin “Slasher” Liddicoat went 13-5 as he and OpTic tied the series 1-1. In Domination it was another victory for OGLA, at 169-155 the match was controlled by OpTic throughout and this secured their 2-1 series lead.

New Hardpoint restart rules

Going into map 4 the Call of Duty League released new Hardpoint restart rules. The rules state that the total score must be under 150 and the disconnecting team must be losing by less than 30 points or be winning the match. During map 4, the same issue happened again and Kenny was victim to a disconnect, however because the score was over 150 a disconnect was not permitted. Even though the score difference at the time was under 30. Los Angeles Guerrillas won map 4 250 – 151 and forced a game five.

Going into game five OGLA knew they couldn't risk another disconnect, so they brought in Brandon “Dashy” Otell. Dashy had been playing Black Ops 4 until 8am the night before, and then in the afternoon had to wake up and be subbed into a game five for $100k. This was a crazy scenario, and Dashy performed extremely well pushing OGLA through and winning 6-4 to take the series 3-2. However, this is not something that we want to see often. The Los Angeles Guerrillas were eliminated and went home empty handed after a lackluster season.

Notable Stats

• Most Kills: Aqua – 101
• Highest K/D: Aqua – 1.53
• Most 1vX Wins: TJHaly & Decemate – 1
• Highest Avg Hill Time: Blazt – 87.5s

The Call of Duty League Playoffs continue tonight when the London Royal Ravens take on the Toronto Ultra. While the New York Subliners will battle the Minnesota Rokkr in round one of the Winners Bracket.