Following an incredible Stage1performance, we’re dialling in for Stage 2. With a similar format and the same stakes, the competition is set to implode with new storylines and a growing knowledge of the how Cold War plays. Read on for a quick preview for CDL2021Stage 2!
CDL 2021 Stage 2 – Key Facts
Dates: Regular Season should be from 18th March to 4th April, Playoffs undetermined
Prize pool: $2,500,00 on the line at the Playoffs stage which teams are seeding for
Games will take place each weekend unless determined otherwise
WE GOT BILLBOARDS! Keep your eyes peeled, Ultra fam. You'll be finding some familiar faces around downtown Toronto😎
Current Call of Duty League pro Methodz has announced on his twitter that he’s been benched from the main lineup of the Toronto Ultra. Here is his statement:
Before it comes from anyone else, I’ve been benched by Ultra. Not really sure what to say or do, this is my best game since WW2 and obviously wasn’t expecting this. Appreciate the support in advance
In his statement he addresses that the Toronto Ultra management has not given Methodz a proper reason for him being benched. However, according to some it is because of Toronto opting to push Insight, the team’s substitute, to the main lineup. This is nothing but a rumour, so we’ll have to wait for an official announcement by Toronto themselves.
Methodz is not the best player on the team lol cammy is far better. They just want to give insight a chance as main AR probably
When Methodz released the tweet, the entire COD competitive scene was in awe. A player such as Methodz, along with his experience and recent performance, shouldn’t be in a position where he is unable to play.
Credits: Blizzard
What’s next?
With him being benched from the main roster, Methodz has opted to take part in the CoD challengers alongside Decemate, Drazah, and TMTwerk. Hopefully he’ll manage to bounce back from this, and maybe find a new home within the CDL, real soon.
Despite what I think, this is the situation I'm in and have decided to play Challengers w/ Decemate, Drazah, and TMTwerk. I'm confident I'll be back where I belong in due time & I appreciate all of your guys' support more than you know.
It’s been an incredible week of gameplay. Accordingly, we finally have our champions for the CallofDutyLeague2021MajorStage1! Indeed, Atlanta FaZe walked away with a decisive victory and the majority of the prize pool. Read on as we highlight their journey.
Call of Duty League 2021 – Major Stage 1 – A Journey
With the bracket above, it’s been a long journey for Atlanta FaZe. Yet, it started many months ago when they didn’t become champions of the inaugural season, falling short. Indeed, entering this year, losing wasn’t an option. Cruising through the weekly matches and earning a high seed they set themselves in the perfect spot.
Across the Winners’ Bracket, they kept winning series after series without anybody really coming close. This week, Atlanta FaZe simply outclassed the entire competition, including their sworn rivals of the Dallas Empire. And just like that, after an epic best-of-9 series, the young guns walk away with $200,000 of prize.
It’s such an exciting time to be a Call of Duty fan. With the first Major out of the way, we finally have a strong idea over how the competition stacks up. With changes expected to come to game modes such as Search and Destroy, it looks like we’ll be playing an entirely different game in a few weeks – the standings are likely to change.
Atlanta FaZe can enjoy this win, but they won’t rest easy for long.
In their announcement, the LRR (London Royal Ravens) revealed that the main reason for this roster move was because of Alexx being unable to play due to personal issues. He’s had to travel back to the UK and will be unable to play out the upcoming matches with the team.
Community reaction
With the announcement, lots of CDL and London Royal Ravens fans felt enraged. Knowing that a talented player such as Alexx will not be playing with the squad for the time being. Here’s a statement explaining the situation from Shane, Strategic Coach for the LRR:
Need to speak my mind on the community – Alexx has not been dropped, he’s taken a step down to deal with things at home, he is Essential to our lineup. Anyone who wants to talk down about that then you need to take your head for a wobble and we do not want you supporting us…
23-year-old Zach “Zed” Denyer is a competitive Call Of Duty player. He started his career in 2018, after joining the Team Reciprocity roster. Then after the franchising, Zed moved on to represent Paris Legion, till he was eventually dropped in the late stages of 2020. Now he’s got a golden opportunity to aid the LRR when they need him most.
In Stage 1 of the CDL, the team placed 6th, losing every single match they had. Certainly not the placement that anyone would want, but that could be a result of Alexx’s issues. Maybe now with Zed, the team can get some structure and hopefully get better results.
Following three weeks of exciting gameplay, we’re drawing near to the major. Indeed, the Call of Duty League is gearing up for the first of five Stage Majors across the season. Accordingly, the CDLStage1Major is simply days away and we’re here to divulge all the details. Read on to learn How to Watch!
Event Background
Starting all the way back on 11th February, the Atlanta Home Series kicked off everything. Three weeks later, both Groups A and B have concluded and we have our seeds for the first Major. Accordingly, the event will take place across four days, from the 3rd-7th March All of the 12 teams will be competing to figure out who stands on top right now for the $500,000. Here are the 12 franchised teams:
Dallas Empire
LA Thieves
New York Subliners
Minnesota ROKKR
Seattle Surge
London Royal Ravens
Atlanta FaZe
OpTic Chicago
LA Guerrillas
Paris Legion
Toronto Ultra
Florida Mutineers
For context, here is how the final standings of the season have concluded:
Credits: Call of Duty League
Format
The 12 teams have been placed in the bracket as follows:
Indeed, each series will be a best of 5 series within this double elimination bracket. It’s quite simple really: teams in the Lower Bracket have one chance before they pack their bags.
Schedule for CDL Stage 1 Major (CET)
With regards to the schedule, we’ve got the first three days listed below for the time zone of CET:
3rd March 2021
21:00 – Toronto Ultra vs London Royal Ravens
22:30 – Seattle Surge vs Florida Mutineers
4th March 2021
21:00 – Los Angeles Thieves vs Los Angeles Guerillas
22:30 – Chicago Huntsmen vs New York Subliners
Presenting the bracket for Major I! All 12 teams will be competing for the $500,000 prize pool.
Watch CDL Stage 1 Major stream on esportsguide.com
You can also watch the CDL Stage 1 Major live stream via our very own website. Providing an extensive list of the biggest esports together with streams for each esports match live today or upcoming matches
In terms of predictions, the competition has never been so stacked. Indeed, the community continues to support the phrase ‘the most competitive season of competitive Call of Duty ever’ and that has reigned true.
Check out the match schedule for #CDL2021 Major I. 🗓
These four teams had the best record in the group stages. However, I’ll emphasis the fact that none of them are entirely ‘dominating’ the competition – yet, showing off the consistency to close out series. Expect these four teams to brawl whenever they meet in the bracket.
Inches Away from the Top
The next tier I would consider as teams that still have a small amount of work to do, taking better teams to the distance without being able to close it out. Here they are:
New York Subliners
Minnesota ROKKR
Paris Legion
Los Angeles Guerillas
Execution unmatched: @Subliners are perfect in the 3-0 Control.
Out of these four, I’m obliged to point out that New York Subliners and Paris Legion are on the rise and are looking very deadly heading into the bracket. Both have played teams tough together with ROKKR and Guerillas. While they aren’t expected to entirely win, it won’t be a surprise if they steal a series or two.
The Underdogs
The remaining four teams simply need to work on a few thing – for the most part, finishing on the sour side of 3-2 map counts against top teams consistently:
Toronto Ultra
Florida Mutineers
Seattle Surge
London Royal Ravens
Notably, the presence of Florida Mutineers is a massive surprise – yet, they continue to struggle and struggle. Otherwise, the other three are just simply at the bottom end, yet have the ability to take a series should they captivate on the mistakes of others.
In their statement, they have addressed that they are hosting this 20-match super week due to damaging winter storms that have recently impacted the United States. These damages featured multiple power cuts, leaving CDL competitors without any power, hence, unable to participate. Due to this, the CDL matches for Week 2 and 3 will be combined together into a 7-day spree of games.
Schedule
The 20-match week kicks off on Monday the 22nd, starting with Florida Mutineers versus Los Angeles Guerrillas. Here’s a list of the first few matches:
22nd February 2021
12pm PT / 3pm ET – Florida Mutineers vs Los Angeles Guerrillas
1:30pm PT / 4:30pm ET – Atlanta FaZe vs Toronto Ultra
23rd February 2021
12pm PT / 3pm ET – Florida Mutineers vs Paris Legion
1:30pm PT / 4:30pm ET – London Royal Ravens vs New York Subliners
3pm PT / 6pm ET – Minnesota ROKKR vs Seattle Surge
The LA Thieves and Atlanta FaZe are the current top dogs in the CDL. Both having 20 points, they are definitely the team to beat during this super week. The Dallas Empire and OpTic Chicago are also top contenders, sitting in 4/5th with 10 points. We’ll just have to wait and see how it all plays out.
A massive announcement just blew up from competitive Call of Duty. Last season, the inaugural CallofDutyLeague was tough for some places. Indeed, one piece of news was veteran Damon “Karma” Barlow retiring from competing. However, a recent announcement has Karma OpTic Gaming becoming united once again!
The tweet says it all – but is this really a surprise?
No not really. Accordingly, ever since leaving Seattle Surge, the community had speculated with regards to the return of the legend. However, the veteran made it clear that he would never accept competing on an inferior roster again. With that being said, and with his experience – an analyst role seemed likely.
That’s where this announcement comes in. Officially, Damon “Karma” Barlow is returning primarily as a content creator but also as an analyst. He’ll be assisting head coach “Sender” in shaping up the OpTic Chicago as the main threat in the league right now.
Credits: OpTic Chicago
Can He Improve OpTic Chicago?
Yes, definitely. As the first competitive player to ever earn three world championship wins, he’s revered as a ‘GOAT’ in the community. His expertise as one of the best players in the history of Call of Duty will only serve his team!
Dallas Empire reveal new kits for 2021 season – Briefing
This new layout on their 2021 Core kits offers a very clean overlay of clothing. The “Dallas Empire” branded name in the middle, along with the very iconic logo in the centre of it all. Hoodies and caps were also added to the Kit clothing line.
Who are the Dallas Empire and why is this big news?
Dallas Empire, as it currently stands, are the best team in the Call of Duty League. In 2020, the squad won 2 major events, the CDL Season, as well as the playoffs, both equalling to a total of $3,000,000 in prize pool. Unfortunately, due to Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War being set in a 4 man format, the team had to undergo some minor changes, and yet this season they seem unstoppable as always.
During the Call of Duty League 2021 – Kickoff Classic, the Dallas Empire matched up against the New York Subliners. Albeit, this was technically a friendly match to celebrate the one year anniversary of the COD League. Anyhow, the squad completely annihilated the Subliners with a clean 3-0 sweep.
We can’t wait to see how the 2021 CDL season plays out, and we’re sure that this isn’t going to be the only occurrence seeing these new Dallas Empire kits.
It’s finally here. Following the Kickoff Classic, competitiveCallofDutyis now back for real. Indeed, the CDL 2021 Stage 1 will kick off the official season – every match counts from here on out within the format. Bearing that in mind, we’ve got you covered when it comes to How to Watch the second season of the Call of Duty League!
Event Background
The CDL 2021 Stage 1 will see the end of the off-season. All of the rosters have been finalized, with a temporary stand-in every now and then. Running for a couple weeks, the event will run from February 11th up to 28th. All of this builds up to the Major, one of five of the season, which will take place on March 1-7th. Here are the 12 teams fighting for those seeds:
Atlanta FaZe
Dallas Empire
Florida Mutineers
London Royal Ravens
Los Angeles Guerillas
Los Angeles Thieves
Call of Duty’s most elite players are back: The Call of Duty League 2021 season begins Thursday!
The format for the stage is entirely based around 2 round robin groups. Indeed, these groups were sorted at the Kickoff Classic. Within the 2 round robin groups, each play will play a total of 5 matches to earn CDL points and place higher in their group.
Credits: Call of Duty League
Here are the two groups which will be contesting any day now:
Group A
Dallas Empire
London Royal Ravens
Los Angeles Thieves
Minnesota ROKKR
New York Subliners
Seattle Surge
Group B
Atlanta FaZe
Florida Mutineers
Los Angeles Guerillas
OpTic Chicago
Paris Legion
Toronto Ultra
Schedule for the CDL 2021 Stage 1 (CET)
The #CDL2021 season officially begins TOMORROW with the start of Opening Weekend hosted by @ATLFaZe!
The schedule is split into three weeks, as mentioned:
Opening Weekend (ATL Home Series) – Feb 11-14
Week 2 – Feb 18-21
Week 3 – Feb 25-28
As always with this section, we have a taster of the entire schedule. Accordingly, find the opening weekend schedule below:
11th February
Los Angeles Thieves vs Minnesota Rokkr (21:00)
Dallas Empire vs Seattle Surge (22:30)
12th February
OpTic Chicago vs Paris Legion (21:00)
Atlanta FaZe vs Los Angeles Guerillas (22:30)
Credits: Call of Duty League
13th February
Los Angeles Guerillas vs Paris Legion (21:00)
Florida Mutineer vs Toronto Ultra (22:30)
14th February
Los Angeles Thieves vs New York Subliners (00:00)
London Royal Ravens vs Seattle Surge (21:00)
Dallas Empire vs Minnesota Rokkr (22:30)
15th February
Atlanta FaZe vs OpTic Chicago (00:00)
Watch the CDL 2021 Stage 1 stream on esportsguide.com
You can also watch the CDL 2021 Stage 1 live stream via our very own website. Providing an extensive list of the biggest esports together with streams for each esports match live today or upcoming matches.
The reason why everyone is so excited is possibly explained by the fact that we have no idea what to expect! Acting as showmatches, not much can be interpreted from the Kickoff Classic. Accordingly, below I’ll be presenting my predictions for the two groups – how will they end up?
Group A
Dallas Empire
Minnesota ROKKR
Los Angeles Thieves
New York Subliners
London Royal Ravens
Seattle Surge
Call of Duty League 2020 Season 2020-02-09 / Photo: Robert Paul for Activision Blizzard
Without question, Dallas Empire are your favourites heading into their group. At second place, I think that ROKKR are a strong and underrated competitor that will prove themselves shortly. They’re followed up by Los Angeles Thieves who are desperate to compensate for their thrashing at the Kickoff Classic.
Meanwhile, the New York Subliners and London Royal Ravens are both at the bottom due to roster problems. While the Subliners’ issues are more clear, Ravens just confirmed that “Zer0″ can’t make it to the US, so “Parasite” will be taking his place. Otherwise, Seattle Surge aren’t looking too hot.
Group B
OpTic Chicago
Florida Mutineers
Atlanta FaZe
Los Angeles Guerillas
Toronto Ultra
Paris Legion
Credits: Call of Duty League
This group is insanely difficult to predict. From the opening weekend, I found that all of these rosters are threats – especially the top three. OpTic, as usual, are looking like the strongest team in the beginning of the season closely followed by Florida’s youngsters. Atlanta look to get some work done while the bottom three are equally capable of stealing a series at any point.
Keep a close eye on Group B – I’m expecting upsets here!
Following the CDL Kickoff Classic, there’s a tonne to discuss. Indeed, across the community, ripples of speculations and discussions have made things interesting. That was the whole purpose behind the Kickoff – to get the ball rolling. Accordingly, we’ve got our very own CDLTierList2021for the preseason. Let’s dive right in!
CDL Tier List 2021 – Tier 4
New York Subliners
Credits: NYSL
I hate to do this, but the Subliners are in their own Tier right now. Is it because the players simply aren’t talented? Nope, but due to the situation surrounding the team. Here’s what’s going on:
Their main submachine gun player of “ZooMa” had to retire due to an injury
The promising signing of “Hydraa” cannot play right now due to being stuck in France, thanks to VISA issues
Hence, they’ve had to resort to two emergency signings – “Diamondcon” and “Asim”
Truly unfortunate stuff. I have doubts as to whether the New York Subliners will have time to catch up by the time the season starts. Bearing this in mind, the current roster seems to be temporary until further changes are sorted out.
Tier 3
Seattle Surge
Toronto Ultra
London Royal Ravens
Couldn't finish the series in SnD, 3-6. Looking forward to the start of the season, but it's back to work for now.
Moving on to Tier 3, these are teams that looked the weakest at the opening matches. Remember though, this is all speculation.
Seattle Surge kicked off the season losing to a team many underestimated – Los Angeles Guerillas while both Toronto Ultra and London also lost out in game 5s. With all three series going the distance, it seems that all three of these teams are already in form to pick a fight, but I doubt whether they’ll find regular season wins starting with the upcoming league.
Tier 2
Minnesota Rokkr
Los Angeles Guerillas
Paris Legion
Los Angeles Thieves
Moving to the subsequent tier, these are the teams that were on the other side of the game 5 series. Indeed, Rokkr, Legion and Guerillas all showed up and clutched up in the end. Notably, Legion’s “Aqua” manage to post up a stunning 100 kills in a single series. Furthermore, Guerillas stunned everyone with a very strong performance against Seattle.
The only exception is Los Angeles Thieves. Being swept by OpTic Chicago didn’t look too great. However, considering the talent on this roster, I would still consider them to be a Tier 2 team dedicated to challenging the top teams.
Tier 1 – CDL Tier List 2021
Dallas Empire
OpTic Chicago
Florida Mutineers
FaZe Atlanta
These are the top teams in the league this season – the top of our CDL Tier List 2021.
As of right now, the top three are clearly Dallas, OpTic and Florida while Atlanta comes in at fourth. However, this looks to be highly interchangeable as the season progresses.
Credits: Call of Duty League
While Dallas spanked New York and OpTic to LA Thieves, Florida and FaZe battle to a game 5 with Florida coming out on top decisively. FaZe wasn’t looking too strong, though they look to work on their difficulties.
And that’s it – our CDL Tier List 2021. I’ll remind our readers that this is strictly speculation and discussion following the Kickoff event. Many teams will probably look much stronger heading into the season – also, this looks to be one of the most competitive seasons Call of Duty has ever seen.
We’ll be providing details on how to watch the event shortly.
