Week 1 of the Call of Duty League Stage 3 Major qualifiers concluded on Sunday, with one team winning its first match to be one of only three unbeaten teams in the standings and two more teams getting their first win of the event.
The Minnesota ROKKR kicked off the day with a tight 3-2 win over the Boston Breach, with Minnesota dominating a pair of hardpoint rounds, to key its victory.
The ROKKR opened the day with a 250-151 win on Skyline Hardpoint but Boston responded with a 6-2 win on Rewind Search and Destroy and a 3-1 victory on Hacienda Control. Minnesota evened it up with another Hardpoint map — winning 250-112 in Red Card. In the deciding map, the ROKKR edged the Breach by the slimmest of margins, 6-5 on Dealership Search and Destroy.
The Stage 3 Major qualifying round has the league’s 12 teams playing five qualifying matches apiece through April 20 to determine seeding for the Stage 3 Major playoffs, slated for April 24-27 in Boca Raton, Fla.
In Sunday’s next match, the Carolina Royal Ravens won 250-202 on Skyline Hardpoint to open its match against the Atlanta FaZe, but then lost the next three to drop the match. The FaZe dominated Protocol Search and Destroy 6-0 to even the match, then kept the Royal Ravens off the board again with a 3-0 win on Protocol Control. A 250-242 win on Protocol Hardpoint clinched the match for Atlanta, the winner of the Stage 2 Major last month.
In the final game of the day, the Los Angeles Thieves dominated from the start, sweeping the Vancouver Surge 250-183 on Skyline Hardpoint, 6-3 on Dealership Search and Destroy, and 3-1 on Protocol Control.
The win made the Thieves 1-0 and put them a half-game behind OpTic Texas for first place.
Call of Duty League Stage 3 Major Qualifiers standings (with match record and map differential):
1. OpTic Texas, 2-0, plus-4
2. Los Angeles Thieves, 1-0, plus-3
3. Miami Heretics, 1-0, plus-1
4. Boston Breach, 1-1, plus-2
5. Atlanta FaZe, 1-1, plus-1
T6. Carolina Royal Ravens, 1-1, 0
T6. Minnesota ROKKR, 1-1, 0
T6. Vancouver Surge, 1-1, 0
9. Toronto Ultra, 1-1, minus-2
10. Los Angeles Guerrillas M8, 0-1, minus-2
11. Cloud 9 New York, 0-1, minus-3
12. Vegas Falcons, 0-2, minus-4
–Field Level Media