CDL 2023 Major 1 Qualifiers – Week 1; Day 2 Recap

Here’s everything that went down on the second day of the 2023 CDL season.

The Call of Duty League continued with four more matches to continue the start of the 2023 Call of Duty League season. The high viewership continued, with over 100k viewers for the majority of the night watching some intense competition, and yet again a number of upsets. Here’s a recap of every match from the second day of the 2023 Call of Duty League Season.

Minnesota ROKKR 3-1 Toronto Ultra

Minnesota ROKKR returned for their second qualifier match in the 2023 season following their controversial win by forfeit over OpTic Texas yesterday. However, they come with confidence against a Toronto Ultra looking to improve on a disappointing 2022 season. This match comes with a little added extra spice, with Standy moving from ROKKR to Ultra, and Cammy and Bance going the other way.

In map one of this series, it was Toronto Ultra who came out hot, taking a 250-167 victory on Embassy. As expected, Scrappy was unbelievable, dropping 31 kills and a 1.48 K/D as Ultra took a 1-0 lead in the series. However, following on from a 6-0 Search and Destroy victory yesterday, Minnesota ROKKR took map two 6-4, with Afro being the main slayer. Here, Afro’s 2.20 K/D saw him put up 11 kills and tie the series for ROKKR. 

ROKKR went on to dominate the series, although it was an extremely close map three Control. The rounds went back and forth, with Minnesota ROKKR eventually coming out on top with a 3-2 victory thanks to a massive 32 kills from Afro. Map four however was dominated by Attach. The veteran dropped a 1.80 K/D with 27 kills as Minnesota ROKKR took a 250-190 Fortress Hardpoint victory, winning the series 3-1.

London Royal Ravens 3-0 New York Subliners

The London Royal Ravens came into this match as big underdogs. After being ranked bottom in the Breaking Point coaches poll, Nastie told ESTNN to not listen to the coaches poll, and perhaps he was right. The Ravens began the series with a closely fought Fortress Hardpoint victory where they came out with a 250-244 victory. He talked before the series, but Nastie lived up to his words, dropping 30 kills and a 1.30 K/D in map one.

Map two was more dominant, with the London Royal Ravens taking a 6-2 victory yet again, thanks to Nastie. While it was a very well rounded performance from the Ravens, Nastie topped the leaderboard with 9 kills and a 2.25 K/D as London went 2-0 up in the series and appeared to be firmly in control. The Ravens closed out the series 3-0 with a 3-0 Hotel Control victory. Once again, Nastie was dominant, putting up a 1.69 K/D with 27 kills as the London Royal Ravens upset the New York Subliners, and possibly made the coaches rethink their pre-season rankings.

Boston Breach 3-1 Seattle Surge

Boston Breach defeated Atlanta FaZe on the first day of the season, while Seattle Surge suffered a 3-2 defeat to the Los Angeles Guerrillas. However, many fans still favoured Seattle Surge to win this matchup. They were sadly disappointed, as Boston Breach came into the series with fire, taking a 250-233 Hotel Hardpoint to kick off the match with a 1-0 lead. Owakening was dominant in Hardpoint exactly as he was yesterday, dropping 32 kills and a 1.39 K/D. Boston Breach then took a 2-0 lead in the series following an incredible display in Search and Destroy. The Fortress SnD went the way of Boston 6-4, with Owaking and Nero topping the leaderboard with 12 and 10 kills respectively. However, Pred was incredible on the side of Seattle Surge, putting up 11 kills of his own, but it wasn't enough for the Surge to stop Boston’s flow.

Map three saw Seattle Surge have a chance at making it back into the series, with a 3-1 Hotel Control victory. The main difference in this map was how Owakening suffered. Following two incredible maps, Owakening was disappointing in map three, earning just 11 kills and ending the map with a 0.44 K/D. If Owakening had continued his performances from map one and two, Boston could’ve seen this series end in three. However, they did manage to close out the series in the fourth map, taking a 250-175 Embassy Hardpoint victory to take the series 3-1. Owakening was back to his best with an unbelievable 1.76 K/D to go alongside his 30 kills to finish the series.

Florida Mutineers 3-2 Las Vegas Legion

The Florida Mutineers came into this series with confidence. As their first of the year with a brand new starting roster, the Mutineers were looking for a win. However, they didn't get off to the ideal start as Las Vegas Legion took map one with a 250-216 Embassy Hardpoint win. This was a map that could’ve gone either way, with Florida outslaying Vegas by 5 kills. The winner of this map was the breaks from Vegas, something we see repeated in map four of this series.

Map two went the way of Florida, as they dominated with a 6-2 win on Mercado. MajorManiak and Havok both put up 2.00 K/D’s in this map, levelling the series and moving onto the Control. This was much closer, however it was the Mutineers who took the 2-1 lead in the series. Clayster and Temp were dominant, with 29 and 30 kills respectively, however it was solid teamwork from Florida that won the map. In map four, we saw a repeat of map one. This was possibly the scrappiest game of the year so far, with the lead constantly changing. Florida outslayed by 4 kills, and looked in the perfect position to win following a break on p2, and perfect rotation to p3. However, Vegas came back and broke p3 and the following p4, taking the map 250-237 and forcing a game five.

This game five appeared to be heading the way of Vegas as they took a 4-1 lead in this Hotel Search and Destroy. Temp began the map 5-1, before the Mutineers made an excellent comeback to 5-4 mainly thanks to Vikul and Havok. Las Vegas Legion forced a round 11, however following a full B rush, Temp panicked and stunned himself, resulting in the Mutineers breaking through and taking the map, and the series.

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