The biggest rivalry in the Call of Duty League came to a head at CDL Champs, with the LA Thieves and OpTic Texas facing off in the winner’s bracket.
The storylines for this matchup are numerous; Nadeshot vs. H3CZ, Envoy vs. the team that dropped him, and so on. While LA might have been the favorite coming into the match, thanks to their Major IV win, you can never count out OpTic. Although, Texas seemed to count themselves out before the match even began.
The LA Thieves rolled through Texas in this match, winning in a clean 3-0 sweep. OpTic didn’t put up much of a fight throughout the entire series, getting blown out on multiple occasions. It might have been the worst Texas has looked all season while the Thieves were still riding the momentum from Major IV into the winner’s finals at Champs.
While this was touted as being one of the most competitive matchups at Champs thus far, it was anything but. The Thieves’ dominance began on Gavutu Hardpoint, where they annihilated Texas from the very start. It seemed like no OpTic player could get a kill or even step foot into the objective at times. LA won by a score of 250-58, with Dylan “Envoy” Hannon securing over three minutes of hill time. It was the ugliest Hardpoint showing from any CDL match in quite some time.
The next map was Berlin Search and Destroy. OpTic has been the best S&D team in the game since Stage IV, but LA has been the second-best. This time around, the second-best team prevailed. Texas never held a lead after winning the first round. Even with live advantages in some rounds, OpTic looked lost on the map and got picked off by LA one by one. Zack “Drazah” Jordan had a huge map for LA, finishing with 13 kills.
ROUTE MAN @KUAVO HIT THE FLANK pic.twitter.com/8pSfSvklFg
— LA Thieves (@LAThieves) August 6, 2022
Finally, the series transitioned to Gavutu Control. Over the past couple of months, Texas has gone from being the best Control team in the CDL to the 11th best. Meanwhile, LA has become the undisputed best Control team in the game. That dominance was on full display on Gavutu. LA won in round five but only allowed OpTic to capture the A point one time when they were on defense. It was a terrifying sight for the remaining CDL teams, including Atlanta FaZe, who plays LA in the winner’s finals tomorrow.
We’ll be recapping every CDL Champs match throughout the weekend on Upcomer, so stay tuned for more action.
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