Call Of Duty: The Seattle Surge Roster Problem

Was a roster change the right move for The Seattle Surge?

After having a slow start in the Call of Duty League (CDL) The Seattle Surge seem to have turned it around, but was their roster change the right move? We take a closer look.

Ian ‘Enable’ Wyatt

The Seattle Surge started their CDL journey at the launch weekend, hosted by the Minnesota Rokkr; where they finished 0-2 after playing against the Florida Mutineers and the Toronto Ultra. Enable finished the weekend with a 0.89 K/D across all modes, while accounting for over 20% of his team's deaths in Hardpoint and Domination.

Moving onto CDL London, the Seattle Surge finished the weekend 1-2; after two losses to the Dallas Empire and a victory against the LA Guerrillas. (The only team they have won against so far). Full stats are not available for this weekend; however 3-0 and 3-1 wins for the Dallas Empire, and a close 3-2 win for Seattle against the LA Guerrillas suggests that they were still not performing at the standard expected with such a talented roster.

After two of the Seattle Surge players; Sam ‘Octane’ Larew and Ian ‘Enable’ Wyatt, secured back to back championships in Black Ops 4 last year, they became two of the most sought after players in the league. And after teaming up with 3x World Champion Damon ‘Karma’ Barlow, many fans expected Seattle to be a powerhouse. However, after five matches and only one win, it was clear that maybe things needed to change.

Casey ‘Pandur’ Romano

After a top six placing in London many fans suspected a change, Seattle confirmed this and Pandur made his way into the starting roster at the expense of Enable. Seattle returned to the Call of Duty League in Los Angeles where they faced off against the Minnesota Rokkr in round one, losing 3-1 before beating the LA Guerrillas 3-0 in the losers game — and knocking them out of their own Home Series.

Sadly, Seattle finished their journey in LA 1-2 as they lost to Minnesota again in the Quarter Finals. Pandur finished the event with a 0.96 K/D; the third highest on his team. But the Seattle Surge saw no improvement on their previous top 6 finish at CDL London. Moving on to CDL Dallas, the Call of Duty League moved online, this was a hot topic with many fans and analysts worried about how the Seattle Surge would perform since their players are spread out across the country.

They finished this weeked 0-2 after losses to the Paris Legion and the Minnesota Rokkr. There were visible connection issues throughout the weekend and Seattle player Josiah ‘Slacked’ Berry explained how he was lagging around the map, and couldn't move at times — in a since deleted tweet.

Finally, at the Chicago online Home Series, the Seattle Surge placed in the Top Four and reached the Semi Finals. However, they did this after beating the LA Guerillas twice — the only team they have beaten so far in the CDL. Hefty 3-1 losses to the Dallas Empire and the Atlanta FaZe saw the end of the Seattle Surge at the Chicago event. A standout statistic from Pandur at this event was his performance against Atlanta FaZe in the Semi Finals. He finished with a 0.48 K/D and got less kills than Chris ‘Simp’ Lehr did in Map One with only 48 in the whole four map series.

The Codcast

Following the switch between Enable and Pandur, Enable appeared on The Codcast; hosted by Anthony ‘Nameless’ Wheeler and Jonathan ‘Pacman’ Tucker. Enable was very careful about what information he revealed; however he did say that another Seattle player threatened to bench themselves if he was not dropped from the starting lineup, Wyatt also mentioned that he is now working harder to get better at Call of Duty: Modern Warfare so that he can compete again.

Dallas Empire’s James ‘Clayster’ Eubanks also appeared on The Codcast recently. When they got onto the topic of The Seattle Surge Clayster had this to say about the substitution. “Pandur should not be playing… If they had Enable, they’re beating us… He performs consistently at a level underneath the player they dropped… I think it was premature benching” You can see the full Twitch clip here.

So, was it the right move?

Well, The Seattle Surge had a 20% series win rate with Enable in the squad (1-4), with pandur they now have a 28.5% series win rate (4-10). However, they have still only managed to defeat the LA Guerrillas — meaning that if they want to qualify for CoD Champs later in the year, they're going to have to step up their game, or possibly get Enable back in the starting roster.