It wasn’t as easy this time around, but for the second straight night, OpTic Texas beat a team from Los Angeles to again advance in the Call of Duty League’s Championship Weekend on Friday in Allen, Texas.
A day after knocking the LA Guerrillas into the losers’ bracket with a sweep in the first round of the playoffs, OpTic handed the LA Thieves their first loss with a 3-2 win in Round 2.
Championship Weekend is the culmination of the CDL season, with the championship match played Sunday. With teams collecting championship points based on their finish in each of the four regular-season majors, the top eight point-getters qualified for the championship tournament.
The championship tournament is a double-elimination format, with all matches leading up to the final best of five. The championship watch will be best of nine. The total prize pool is $2 million with the winner taking home $800,000.
OpTic’s match was anything but easy on Friday, as the Thieves took the first two maps — 250-177 on Karachi Hardpoint and 6-5 on Highrise Search & Destroy — to move with one win of a sweep. Instead, the team playing in its home state pulled off the reverse-sweep with a 3-0 win on Karachi Control, a 250-169 win on 6 Star Hardpoint and finally a 6-3 victory on Karachi Search & Destroy in the do-or-die fifth map.
Awaiting OpTic in the winner’s bracket final on Saturday will be the New York Subliners. Like OpTic, the Subliners had their hands full, taking Rio Hardpoint 250-206 against the Atlanta FaZe before dropping 6 Star Search & Destroy 6-3 and Invasion Control 3-1 to go down 2-1. But New York rallied with a 250-224 win on Karachi Hardpoint and a 6-3 victory on Invasion Search & Destroy to close it out.
In the losers’ bracket, the playoffs saw their first two eliminations.
The Miami Heretics narrowly beat the Seattle Surge in another match that went the distance, dropping 6 Star Hardpoint 250-112 before taking Karachi Search & Destroy 6-3 and Invasion Control 3-2. The Surge avoided elimination with a 250-150 win on Rio Hardpoint but couldn’t complete the comeback as Miami edged Seattle 6-5 on Invasion Search & Destroy.
The other elimination match was a much more one-sided contest, as the Guerrillas were swept again, leaving the playoffs without winning a single map. This time it was the Toronto Ultra making quick work of LA, winning 250-85 on Karachi Hardpoint, 6-5 on 6 Star Search & Destroy, and 3-1 on Highrise Control.
Saturday’s winners’ bracket final:
–New York Subliners vs. OpTic Texas
Saturday’s elimination matches:
Round 2
–LA Thieves vs. Miami Heretics
–Atlanta FaZe vs. Toronto Ultra
Round 3
— LA Thieves/Miami Heretics winner vs. Atlanta FaZe/Toronto Ultra winner
Round 4
–Round 3 winner vs. New York Subliners/OpTic Texas loser
Call of Duty League Championship results and prize money
1. $800,000 — TBD
2. $480,000 — TBD
3. $320,000 — TBD
4. $160,000 — TBD
5-6. $80,000 — TBD
7-8. $40,000 — Los Angeles Guerrillas, Seattle Surge
–Field Level Media