CWL Pro League Qualifier: Day Three Recap

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CWL Pro League Qualifier: Day Three Recap

During Day Three, some popular teams showed signs of life, but only one Pro League spot was earned.

Day Three of the Call of Duty Pro League Qualifier is in the books, and even though both young and veteran rosters took solid steps toward qualifying for the Pro League, only Midnight Esports were able to punch their ticket. The final day of pool play will surely be riveting for Call of Duty fans. In the meantime, you can check out our Day Three recap below, and our Day Two recap here.

Here are the updated standings after three days of action.


Pool A:

CWL Pool A

Team Sween once again took care of business, this time against Project 18 in a 3-0 sweep. Enigma6 followed suit, defeating Team Divine 3-0. Both of these teams are 3-1 and sit atop Pool A. After these two, it gets complicated.

Reciprocity continued their inconsistent tournament with a 3-1 defeat to FaZe Clan Black followed by a 3-0 victory over FaZe Clan's “main” roster. Several strong performances from Zach ‘Zed’ Denyer and Thomas ‘Tommey’ Trewren helped Reciprocity turn things around.

In perhaps one of the biggest stories of the tournament thus far, FaZe Clan, last year’s CWL Season 1 Champions, are staring at elimination. The team that features two former world champions lacked their famous clutch factor today, and their loss to Reciprocity featured a 5-1 Search and Destroy collapse. While their changes, including moving James ‘Crowder’ Crowder to the main AR role and Preston ‘Priestahh’ Greiner to an SMG role seemed to offer the team some improvement, it was certainly not enough. Tomorrow, they will likely have to beat both Team Sween, the group leaders, and bottom dwellers Team Divine, or they will face elimination before Sunday Bracket Play even begins.

Team Divine will require a miracle to crawl out of the bottom of Pool A, as their 1-4 record and poor map count will be tough to overcome if they want to give themselves a chance on Sunday.


Pool B:

CWL Pool B

There are no surprises at the top of Pool B; Team Envy defeated Lightning Pandas 3-0 behind a vintage performance from Bryan ‘Apathy’ Zhelyazkov. Meanwhile, Team Heretics were able to defeat both Tainted Minds and Fact Revolution in a 3-0 manner. G2 Esports rounds out the top three after their 3-0 victory against the Vodafone Giants. This sets up a Day Four matchup between G2 and Heretics, with the winner likely clinching a Pro League spot.

Despite Fact Revolution's swift defeat to Team Heretics, their 3-2 victory over Lightning Pandas was enough to put them at 4th place in the pool, guaranteeing them a bracket play berth.

After another tough day, the Lightning Pandas remain at the bottom of the pool, having won only four maps all tournament. The Pandas have no shortage of talent or leadership, and they most recently placed 5th-6th at CWL Las Vegas. It is a cruel turn of fate that they were only one placement away from qualifying for the Pro League at Las Vegas, and they now require an almost flawless final Day Four against Tainted Minds and a very talented G2 roster to even have a shot at their Pro League dreams.


Pool C:

CWL Pool C

Raise your hand if you had Midnight Esports at 5-0 and 1st place in this pool after three days. No? Nobody? Yeah, me neither. Under Devin ‘LlamaGod’ Tran’s leadership, they have slain all in their path through Day Three. Today, behind the flashy plays of Eric ‘JetLi’ Phan and Saul ‘Parzelion’ Masse Siguenza, they outplayed Team Space on their way to a 3-1 victory, including a clutch and backbreaking 250-249 map 4 Hardpoint victory. They are the only team that has secured their spot in the Pro League thus far.

On the other side of that result lies the talented but befuddling Team Space. Following strong 2k finishes and a 7-8th placing at CWL Las Vegas, it seemed that making it to the Pro League would be fait accompli for this team. Instead they find themselves at 1-3 with a 40% map-win record, likely needing to win both their matches against Mazer Gaming and the Pittsburgh Knights to even make it to Sunday’s bracket play.

The Pittsburgh Knights lost a tough match against Excelerate Gaming 3-1, putting Excelerate at 2nd place in the pool, but Excelerate will have tough match against 100 Thieves tomorrow. Meanwhile, the Knights have two matches tomorrow, one against a desperate Team Space and the other against Overtime eSport.

100 Thieves took advantage of their weaker competition today, winning both their matches behind the strong play of Sam ‘Octane’ Larew. In their first match, 100 Thieves reverse swept Mazer Gaming while the second match against Overtime finally showed some positive growth for the team, especially in the Hardpoint game mode that has troubled them in the tournament thus far.

Sitting at the bottom of Pool C, Mazer Gaming have been unable to recover from their slow start to the tournament and sit on the verge of elimination from the Pro League Qualifier.


Pool D:

CWL Pool D

The early action in Pool D saw Evil Geniuses and UYU take care of business against Nation of Power and Movistar Riders, 3-1 and 3-0, respectively. UYU had an especially impressive day with Mehran ‘Mayhem’ Anjomshoa and Cesar ‘Skyz’ Bueno dropping the highest damage per map in the entire tournament. UYU have yet to play the two other top teams in their pool (Evil Geniuses and Mindfreak), and their match against Evil Geniuses tomorrow is likely to determine which of the two organizations will receive a bid to the Pro League.

Meanwhile, after starting the tournament 2-0, Movistar Riders have lost three consecutive matches, and it will not get any easier for them, as they face Red Reserve in their final match of pool play.

Red Reserve bounced back from their early-tournament struggles in a big way with a 3-1 victory over Pool D leaders Mindfreak. Red Reserve slayer Matthew ‘Skrapz’ Marshall continued his strong tournament performance by going 15-0 in game 3 control and 34-14 in the final hardpoint to put his team on top.

Sadly, Nation of Power fell to Imperial 3-2 to become the first team eliminated from the Pro League Qualifier.


What to watch for tomorrow:

100 Thieves and Excelerate Gaming can each likely secure their spot in the Pro League with a victory against the other in the first streamed match of the day. Meanwhile, UYU and Mindfreak will contend for the top spot in Pool D. Later, Team Sween and Enigma6 will square off for the top spot in Pool A.

Later in the afternoon, a couple of veteran rosters will have to face tough opposition if they are to have any chance of making Sunday’s bracket play; FaZe Clan will face the Pool A leaders, Team Sween, while Team Space will battle the talented Pittsburgh Knights.

You can check out all of the action on www.twitch.tv/callofdutywww.twitch.tv/callofdutybravo, or on ESTNN TV, beginning at 12 PM EST and 5 PM GMT. Happy watching!


Images Via: CWL Twitter

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Alex Mcalpine
Alex graduated from UWO with a degree in journalism. He is a Battle Royale and FPS guru. He often reads 'Winner Winner Chicken Dinner' as he is ranked in the top 100 on the PUBG leaderboards. Alex is also an Overwatch and CoD expert. You can learn more about Alex via our About page.