Call Of Duty League: Proto Joins The Seattle Surge Starting Roster

As Karma retires, it’s time for Proto to step up to the starting roster

Shortly after it was announced that Damon “Karma” Barlow would be retiring from professional Call of Duty, it was made public that it would be Nicholas “Proto” Maldonado to replace him on the Seattle Surge starting roster. Proto is a player who has previously sported the jersey of multiple teams, including Enigma6, UYU, Elevate and Sicario.

Tournament Success

Proto has been playing since the 2015 Advanced Warfare season. He has qualified for Call of Duty World Championships three times in Infinite Warfare, World War 2 and Black Ops 4. His highest finish being 7-8th in World War 2. This was under an elevate roster of Spacely, MajorManiak and Maux. His tournament results have been mediocre at best. Although he has never won a big tournament, he has some minor wins and finishes around the middle of the pack in major competitions. Winning over $50,000 in prize money shows that he is a talented player, even if he hasn't reached the top yet.

Replacing the Best in the Game

Coming in for Karma will be no easy feat for Proto. Karma is one of if not the best Call of Duty players ever. And the only player to have won three world championships. However, Seattle has struggled this season, and so has Karma. While Proto may not be able to compete at the standard of a Karma at his peak. He can definitely outperform him this season. Karma’s overall K/D this season is 0.91. In the core of Octane, Apathy, Karma, Slacked and Pandur, that is the second-lowest, just 0.01 above Pandur at 0.90. Along with this, Karma has lost 53% of his engagements this season, which is the worst in that core five.

Proto should play as a fast SMG for the Seattle Surge. This allows him to get high engagements and create valuable space for his squad on the map. Especially with a player like Octane, he needs the players at the front to get kills before he can move up from the back. The Seattle Surge takes on the best team in the league, Atlanta FaZe, in game one this weekend. It will be a difficult game, but one where Proto can really make a statement.

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Featured image via Proto's Twitter.