The Toronto Major 3 got underway today, here’s everything that went down.
The Call of Duty League headed to Canada for the first time today as the Toronto Ultra Major 3 got underway. Today, four matches were played with some big stakes on the line as the LA Thieves took on Minnesota ROKKR after throwing a match to play them, and the hometown team took on Atlanta FaZe.
Seattle Surge 3-2 New York Subliners
Seattle Surge headed into a Bocage Hardpoint for map one, NYSL’s favorite. While the New York Subliners have been excellent in Hardpoint recently, the Seattle Surge came out on top in this one. Surge found themselves down by around 20 points in the midpoint of the map, however, they completely turned it around and strung together multiple hills through many multi-kills by Mack and Sib. “We run Bocage bro,” said Accuracy in the post-match press conference, while Pred referred to it as his “bread and butter”. Mack and Pred both put up 39 kills, and Seattle took a 1-0 lead in the series.
In the Search and Destroy it was a completely different story, with Seattle Surge being in control of the whole map as they took the Berlin SnD 6-2. In rounds three, four and five Seattle Surge clutched 1 or 2vX situations to pick up the rounds, and take a 2-0 lead in this series heading to a Berlin Control.
Seattle Surge then went on to lose their first Berlin Control ever, as the New York Subliners were excellent in holding the point and getting multiple 2 and 3 downs to push forward as they won their offense. HyDra was dominant, dropping 40 kills with a 1.74 K/D as the Subliners moved towards a map four. Here, NYSL performed excellently again, with Crimsix putting up 30 kills with a 1.43 K/D as the Subliners won Gavutu 250-171 and forced a game five.
Map five was one of the most incredible maps we’ve seen so far, with NYSL taking a 5-3 lead before Seattle Surge started a comeback, and even a team kill from Sib didn’t stop them as they went on to take the map in a round 11 and win the series. When asked about the teamkill, Pred said “I blacked out. I saw the bullet fly past my head and didn’t even register that he killed a teammate, I just kept running.”
Atlanta FaZe 3-1 Toronto Ultra
Atlanta FaZe head into this series following a slight dip in form, albeit still finished the Major 3 Qualifiers with a 3-2 record. Throughout the qualifiers, it’s been the AR players of Cellium and Arcitys who have suffered the most, however, in this series they kicked off the Bocage Hardpoint win dominance, winning 250-213. Cellium and Arcitys were the top players in this map, dropping 34 and 40 kills respectively, while both putting up a 1.21 K/D.
Toronto Ultra responded with a dominant 6-1 Desert Siege Search and Destroy victory, with Insight completely taking over the map. Insight put up 10 kills and a 5.00 K/D as they tied the series 1-1 and moved on to a Tuscan Control. The Control then went the way of Atlanta FaZe 3-2, before heading to a Tuscan Hardpoint where FaZe took a 250-168 victory.
In the post-match press conference, aBeZy was asked about the team being booed when walking on stage. He told ESTNN, “We’re used to it. We get booed at every event we go to.” He also noted how FaZe is “getting hyped in matches again” and was ready to go all the way in this event.
Florida Mutineers 3-2 OpTic Texas
OpTic Texas kicked off this series with a 90-point lead in the Tuscan Hardpoint, with Florida Mutineers just managing 2 at this point. However, the Mutineers somehow mounted an incredible comeback, bringing it to 95-95, and then went on to win the map 250-222. The ARs of Skyz and Owakening dominated, putting up a 1.24 and 1.43 K/D respectively as Toronto took an unexpected 1-0 lead in the series.
A 6-4 Tuscan Search and Destroy victory saw OpTic Texas tie the series 1-1. In this map, it was the SMG duo of Shotzzy and Scump who dominated putting up a 1.57 and a 2.75 K/D respectively. The Florida Mutineers then handed OpTic just their third Control loss of the season with a 3-1 victory on Tuscan. Just like map one, it was Skyz and Owakening who dominated with Skyz dropping 30 kills, and Owakening putting up 32.
Map four saw OpTic respond with a 250-243 Berlin Hardpoint. Skyz continued to perform, putting up 41 kills and a 1.52 K/D, however, the rest of his team struggled while OpTic Texas perfected rotations and forced a map five. A 6-2 Berlin Search and Destroy saw the Florida Mutineers continue their streak of 3-0 against OpTic on LAN as they picked up another victory. Overall in the series, Skyz dropped a 1.49 K/D and he told ESTNN “We play so much better on LAN, we joke about it being a ‘LAN buff’. We don’t let the crowd get to us either, I think I channel it into more energy for the match.”
LA Thieves 3-2 Minnesota ROKKR
Minnesota ROKKR kicked off this series with a 250-226 Tuscan Hardpoint win where the SMG duo of Standy and Havok completely dominated the map with Standy putting up 32, and Havok dropping 38. Following the LA Thieves’ deliberate loss in order to play ROKKR, this series started off with a bit of Karma for the Thieves.
LA Thieves then tied the series with a 6-2 Bocage Search and Destroy win, with Drazah making up for his poor map one performance with a 1.80 K/D. Map three Berlin Control then saw the first-ever five straight offensive wins in a Control this year as Minnesota ROKKR came out with a 3-2 victory, and 2-1 lead in the series. Yet again, Havok impressed as he continued to have a great series dropping 35 kills in this map three.
The LA Thieves forced a map five with a 250-228 Berlin Hardpoint win. While Attach dropped 39 kills in this map for ROKKR, it was more of an all-around performance from the LA Thieves that saw them take the map and advance to the final map. LA Thieves closed out the series with a 6-2 Desert Siege SnD, dominating both Search and Destroy’s in this series. When asked about LA Thieves Search and Destroy struggles this year, Envoy told ESTNN, “Our SnD has been pretty terrible all year, but I think we’ve learned to adapt and you saw that in the map five, so we’ve definitely improved.”
The Call of Duty League Toronto Ultra Major 3 continues tomorrow with five matches, including the hometown team taking on Paris Legion.