CoD: Winners and Losers from CWL Rostermania

ESTNN’s Ashwin Palepu takes CoD fans through the way too early winners, losers and the questions marks after CWL’s ensuing Rostermania.

Rostermania has finally calmed down a little bit and the first half of cross-division play is over, so now seems like a good time to take a way-too-early look to see who got better, who lost terribly, and who we can’t make a judgment on just yet. Let's jump right in.

Winners: Luminosity

Luminosity Gaming is back. New additions Cesar “Skyz” Bueno and Carson “Brack” Newberry combined with the 2017 CWL Championship MVP Matthew “FormaL” Piper to form one of the top-2 Assault Rifle trios in the game. According to codstats.gg, last week all three of them “finished in the top 7 in HP [Hardpoint] Score-Per-Minute and HP K/D: Brack #1 (410, 1.68), Skyz #2 (393, 1.44), Formal #7 (360, 1.15).” Brack now owns the highest adjusted K/D ratio in the CWL Pro League. Meanwhile, Skyz has adjusted to his main-AR role beautifully.

Luminosity had a 3-1 week, only losing to back-to-back CWL Champions 100 Thieves, and that too in a map 5. Hopefully, this isn't just a honeymoon phase and we will see this team contend for championships to finish out the year.

Losers: UYU

Well frankly, I don’t know what we expected. UYU changed 4 of their 5 players and continued their poor CWL performance, winning only 2 maps from their 4 matches last week. Hopefully, this is because changing 80% of the team, SMG and AR players alike means UYU will take slightly longer to iron-out chemistry and role issues. Frankly, though, time is running out.

Winners: Splyce

Now, this might be a bit of a stretch given that Splyce went 2-2 last week. They also lost both important matches, 3-2 to FaZe and a 3-0 shellacking to Luminosity. But this team changed a lot around. Luminosity just slotted in their two new players into relatively familiar AR slaying roles. Splyce, meanwhile, had to move people around. Cuyler “Huke” Garland’s addition as a primary SMG alters the entire team’s pacing. Ulysses “Aqua” Silva has also had about a month of playing time as a main-AR player.

In their losses, especially against Luminosity, it was their new superstar Huke who struggled. Team chemistry also suffered significantly, most exemplified by this listen-in against Luminosity. With Daniel “Loony” Loza as captain and veterans like Aqua and Jordan “Jurd” Crowley, those will likely be ironed out soon. All Splyce will need then is for Huke to play to his immense potential.

Losers: Enigma 6

From a talent perspective Enigma 6 seem to have made a lateral move shipping out Bradley “Frosty” Bergstrom and Eric “JetLi” Phan for Mehran “Mayhem” Anjomshoa and Paul “Breszy” Breszynski. Now add to that the chemistry lost by losing an entry-SMG player like JetLi and the team is sure to at least start out slow. The question is what is the realistic ceiling for this team now? They have the talent to make a deep tournament run but they’ve just lost their most experienced big-match player in Frosty. A lot will have to improve and quickly if this team wants to contend for the last two championships.

We Don’t Know Yet:

The Units

The change to add Nolson and Weeman has found the team some success. Weeman had the second highest damage dealt per minute this past week. The duo lead the team to a 2-2 week, even upsetting FaZe Clan. Perhaps this team’s renewed chemistry can spur deep runs in the final two tournaments.

Evil Geniuses

So far, Evil Geniuses’ move to add a veteran AR presence in Accuracy has moderately paid off. While they beat 100 Thieves this week, they also went to map 5 against both The Units and Enigma 6 (losing against Enigma 6). If not for the unbelievable play of Dillon “Attach” Price, they might have easily lost all 4 matches last week. Only time will tell if he and the team can hold up and perhaps even improve their play.

Looking Forward:

The second set of the CWL Pro League Cross-Division Play begins on Monday to determine final CWL Playoff seeding. You can check out all the action on www.twitch.tv/callofduty beginning at 3:00 PM EST.

CWL Pro League Standings