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

Here’s everything that went down in the first day of the CDL 2023 season.

The Call of Duty League returned with four matches to kick off the 2023 Call of Duty League season. With nobody knowing what to expect in these games, viewership was high and hype was through the roof. Here’s everything that happened on the first day of the 2023 CDL season.

Boston Breach 3-1 Atlanta FaZe

Atlanta FaZe took the first map of the series 250-207. The squad of Slasher, Cellium, Simp and aBeZy dominated the second half of the map, running up a massive, almost 80 point lead. The new addition to the squad in Slasher put up numbers in his first map with the squad, dropping 28 kills as he earned streaks. While the streaks were not needed, Slasher’s streak of kills allowed FaZe to hold down a full 60, and gain a lead that Boston Breach was unable to come back from. However, the main difference in the map was the SMG players. While Simp and aBeZy did pull out M4’s at the time, they completely dominated the Breach subs of Vivid and Nero, both going positive, while Boston’s SMG players both ended heavily negative.

Boston Breach bounced back with a 6-3 Search and Destroy win on Fortress. Owakening joined Methodz, Nero and Vivid on Boston Breach for the 2023 season, and he pulled off the first 1v2 of the season as he dropped 10 kills and put up a 2.50 K/D as Boston levelled the series. Nero has been known as one of the best Search and Destroy players in this game so far due to his excellent performances in the kickoff events, and he showed up again by going 9/5 in this map two. 

The series took an interesting turn as Boston Breach went 2-1 up following a 3-1 victory on Fortress Control. Fortress Control has been a heavily defensive-sided map in scrims so far, but Boston did not care in this map. Boston took two offensive side wins to take the map 3-1, with Owakening continuing his excellent performance from map two in map three. However, the main slayer on the Breach was Methodz, as he dropped 21 kills and a 1.75K/D to give Boston the 2-1 lead in the series.

Boston Breach closed out the series with a 250-203 on a Hydro Hardpoint to win 3-1. Yet again, it was Owakening who dominated with 27 kills and a 1.42 K/D. Atlanta FaZe looked like they could be in control of the game, and when they pushed forward up the map to try and close it out, they forgot to hold the back spawns. This allowed Boston Breach to spawn up behind FaZe and cut them down. This gifting of points to Breach put them in the lead and allowed them to close out the map and the series.

Minnesota ROKKR 3-1 OpTic Texas

OpTic Texas came into this series hot as they kicked off Scump’s final season as a professional player. Following a long delay due to some lobby issues, OpTic took map one Hydro 250-203, with Scump dropping 27 kills and a 1.59 K/D. While the map was close throughout, Minnesota ROKKR were consistently broken by OpTic Texas, allowing them to get in and build up those scrap points which ultimately resulted in the victory.

Minnesota ROKKR brought almost an entirely new squad to the 2023 season, keeping just Attach on the roster, while bringing over a duo of Bance and Cammy from Toronto Ultra, and Afro from the London Royal Ravens. While they went 1-0 down in the series, they looked unstoppable in Search and Destroy, taking the Embassy map two 6-0 to tie the series. Cammy was dominant with his Sniper, while iLLeY was completely removed from the map every single round, with his Sniper having little to no effect.

The series went in favor of OpTic Texas as they took El Asilo Control 3-2. This saw them win the final offensive round through an incredible two-piece from Scump, who was the only OpTic player to go positive with a 1.40 K/D. While Minnesota ROKKR had multiple streaks in their back pocket, OpTic forced them to spawn out far away from the B Control point, leaving them unable to streak the hill. ROKKR were also ahead in round one, but a three-piece from Dashy denied them the round. OpTic’s clutch won them map three.

However, that’s where this series ends. And OpTic, in fact, did not win map three. A bug caused a replay, which OpTic denied playing. This granted Minnesota ROKKR the map three win, however, OpTic then elected to not continue the series. You can read more on the forfeit here.

LA Thieves 3-1 Las Vegas Legion

Las Vegas Legion brings an entirely new roster into the 2023 Call of Duty League season. However, the LA Thieves remain completely unchanged. The Thieves started their season just as they left 2022, with a win. A 250-204 Hotel victory saw them take a 1-0 lead in the series, with an impressive all-round performance from the entire squad. Las Vegas Legion tied the series 1-1 following a 6-2 victory on Fortress. Vegas looked incredible with TJHaly dominating, going 8/3 in this map. While first bloods were tied, Vegas made them count and held down the bomb sites with ease to level the series.

The LA Thieves bounced back with a dominant 3-0 on Hotel Control to take a 2-1 lead in the series. This was a blazingly quick map, with the Thieves taking full control and winning almost every gunfight as they pushed forward in the series. Kenny was on form as he put up 21 kills and a 2.10 K/D on this map three. LA Thieves closed out the series with a 250-198 Mercado Hardpoint victory. The Thieves were consistently the first in the Hardpoint, and while Las Vegas Legion managed to break in a few times, the scrap time they earned was not enough to break down the Thieves over the course of the map.

Los Angeles Guerrillas 3-2 Seattle Surge

Seattle Surge came into the 2023 Call of Duty League season with an unchanged roster following an impressive 2022 season which included a Major victory. They started map one in this series down by 70 points, however, they came back strong and took a 250-126 victory. Sib was the dominant force in this map, putting up 24 kills and a 2.40 K/D as Seattle Surge took a 1-0 lead in the series.

The Los Angeles Guerrillas tied the series 1-1 with the first round 11 of the year. This was a map full of offensive round victories, however, it should’ve gone the way of Seattle, as Sib dropped 16 kills and suffered a loss for the Surge. The Los Angeles Guerrillas took a 2-1 lead in this series following a 3-2 Hotel Control victory. Huke showed up, dropping 32 kills and a 1.32 K/D to put LAG ahead in the series, however, it was again a great performance from Sib at 35/21 with a 1.67 K/D that saw his team lose the map.

The following map was dominant, with the Los Angeles Guerrillas being the first team to join the 100-point club this season. Seattle Surge were victorious on Hotel Hardpoint 250-91, with incredible performances out of Sib and Pred as they put up 30 and 22 kills, respectively. This also took us to our first game five of the year. Here, the Los Angeles Guerrillas pulled off a shock upset, defeating Seattle Surge 6-2 in the map, and 3-2 in the series. Neptune and Huke ran the show with 8 kills each as LAG got off to a strong start in 2023.