Toronto Ultra dominates in Major 3 week 2 qualifiers with new signing, while LAG announce they are quitting the Call Of Duty League

Tom Starkey

After a controversial rookie pickup in Hicksey, Toronto Ultra have silenced the doubters registering back-to-back 3-0 victories against two of the best teams in the game, namely OpTic Texas and the New York Sublines (NYSL), in week 2 of the Major 3 qualifiers.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles Guerillas (LAG) have let go of their entire backroom staff of the organization – leaving only the rosters for their current eSports teams – which they have announced will only play until the end of the season before disbanding completely, whether a buyer is found or not.

The move by LAG owners – Kroenke Sports & Entertainment – is a worry as the wider economic downturn puts into question the profitability of the CDL going forward.

Friday’s fiery action

London continues their struggle in Call of Duty League (CDL) matches, despite players Asim and Nasty putting in solid performances for the roster since the start of the season. They were swept aside by FaZe 3-0 ON Friday, epitomized by losing a 3 versus 1 on map 2 in Search & Destroy.

The following series saw Toronto face off against OpTic, following some back-and-forth drama between OpTic star Shotzzy and Ultra’s Scrappy. The latter proved the better on the day though, not allowing OpTic a single game win across the series, although questions still remain over whether this Ultra team are just ‘on-liners’ as has been suggested by multiple CDL pros.

The final game of the day saw Boston Breach put salt in the wounds of a LAG team which have just had their futures put into question following the withdrawal of funding from their ownership group, meaning the organization will cease to exist after the end of the MW2 season. The new pick-up for Boston, Beanz, stole the limelight on the night, proving why he has been a great replacement for now-retired Methodz.

Saturday surrender?

NYSL was the next to suffer the same fate as OpTic against an on-fire Ultra, not winning a single map against the new Toronto Ultra.

COD commentator TacticalRab said, “I did wonder when they first picked up Hicksey, where the slaying power would come from in this roster. It’s clear now, the slaying is coming from SMG CleanX now Hicksey is there, and that’s what is winning them the series at the moment. Hicksey hasn’t done anything amazing but he’s clearly enabling CleanX.”

Rab also highlighted a key moment where outspoken Ultra player Scrappy took on NYSL golden boy – and arguably one of the best players in the league – Hydra, in a 1 vs 1 which he took with a smart play to win the round.

“Scrappy puts himself in a great position and gets put down to 35 HP, but then he reads the play quite nicely from Hydra to win. It seems this Ultra team is really clutching up when it matters at the moment.”

Later games in the day saw Thieves take the still struggling Seattle Surge 3-1, which will continue to ignite the fire under rumors of a move for Surge Star Pred, who made it clear he wanted to move to OpTic gaming early in the season.

Florida Mutineers then beat Boston Breach 3-1, before Atlanta FaZe took out London Royal Ravens convincingly 3-1 to end Saturday’s game.

Sunday sizzlers

The new OpTic roster did redeem themselves on Sunday with a convincing win over Minnesota Rokker, taking them in just 3 maps. There was also redemption for Surge, who beat struggling Florida Mutineers 3-1 in what needs to be a pivotal moment in their so far lackluster Major 3.

The weekend’s games were rounded up by the down and outs, as London faced off against soon-to-be-leaving LAG in a match which both teams seemed like they were trying to lose. However, London edged the out-going LAG to pick up some points, moving them to 9^th in the overall standings.