Call of Duty Pro League Qualifier: Day One Recap

*Update:  Call of Duty Pro League Qualifier Day Two Recap

Day one of the Call of Duty Pro League Qualifier is in the books, and it did not disappoint.

What’s Happening

While the top four teams from the CWL Las Vegas tournament have clinched their spots in the Pro League, The 5th – 32nd place teams from the tournament are all fighting for twelve remaining spots in the CWL Pro League for the Black Ops 4 season. These 28 teams are in Major League Gaming’s Columbus studio to take part in a five-day tournament for a chance at the CWL Pro League which will take place from February to July in Columbus, Ohio where teams will have an opportunity to compete for their share of a $700,000 prize pool.

The 28 teams were split into four pools of seven teams, with each team playing all the others in their pool in a round-robin format. The top two of each pool will advance to the Pro League and the 3rd – 5th placed teams in each pool will fight it out in a bracket with only the top four moving on.
After one day of action, the pools stand thus:

Now let’s get to the major storylines from day one.

Upset City

Whether some teams came out of the gate slowly or some teams were just underestimated, several established teams and organizations have met some early defeats at the hands of young and hungry rosters looking to make a splash.

The vaunted but struggling 100 Thieves roster were hit with a quick 3-0 defeat at the hands of Midnight Esports which features only one veteran of a previous Pro League roster (Devin ‘LlamaGod’ Tran), but after strong showings from Dylan ‘Envoy’ Hannon and Eric ‘JetLi’ Phan, they are one of five teams that are 2-0 through day one. A similar fate met Team Space whose strong roster of proven veterans placed 7-8th at CWL Las Vegas when they fell to Overtime Esports another relatively inexperienced team, 3-0, and after a game, five collapse against the aforementioned 100 Thieves, are in a very tough spot going forward with a 0-2 record. FaZe Clan, after a strong opening match against their sister squad, FaZe (FC) Black, lost to Enigma6 3-1, and while Enigma6 is not at all short of raw talent, their win over FaZe shows perhaps that their team play had mainly been underestimated coming into this event.

Also, Lightning Pandas, a strong UK-based roster lost to the Spanish roster Heretics, 3-1, behind the strong play of Endika ‘Sukry’ Andres. Fellow UK powerhouse Red Reserve also lost their only match of the day to a very inexperienced UYU team 3-1.

All in all, of the five 2-0 teams after day one, only 1 of them (Mindfreak) boasts a roster filled with a majority of Pro League veterans from seasons past.

EU and APAC come out strong

While some established EU and APAC teams are struggling, many of the younger ones are finding early success. In fact, among those five 2-0 teams, four of them are non-NA rosters, a day one factoid that does not match with the history of professional Call of Duty. However, a lot will have to hold up if this data point is to become a trend. Firstly, many of them will face much tougher competition on day two. Undefeated Fact Revolution will have to go up against a very talented G2 roster who are hungry coming off of a game five loss to reigning world champions Envy; Heretics will have to go up against Envy themselves. Movistar Riders will have to play against a strong Evil Geniuses team before facing off against their fellow 2-0 roster Mindfreak.

Moreover, while popular North American and European rosters are filled with veterans with tons of exposure and known playstyles, many of these younger and inexperienced teams have little to no information about themselves available to existing players, and as they play more and more matches, their tendencies and faults will be exposed to the rest of the field.

What to watch for tomorrow

Team Space will have to recover very quickly from their late night collapse against 100 Thieves as they feature in the first match of the day against Excelerate Gaming who are 1-1 after day one. Enigma6 will also get a shot against another strong roster in their match against Reciprocity to show that their win over FaZe Clan on day one was not a fluke.

To wrap up the day, Evil Geniuses and Red Reserve, two squads each with a healthy share of established players who did not have an ideal start to their tournament will face off against each other. At the same time, a struggling 100 Thieves roster will face the talented Pittsburgh Knights squad who handily won their match 3-0 on day one and sit in second place in Pool C.

All of this points to an exhilarating day two for the Pro League Qualifier. You can watch all the action at https://www.twitch.tv/callofduty and https://www.twitch.tv/callofdutybravo beginning at 12 PM EST or 5 PM GMT.

See also: Cellium Shines in First LAN Match with FaZe Clan

Image Via: Call of Duty World League Twitter